# In honor of the Mardi Gras season - Joshua Rifkin meets Professor Longhair



## ksargent (Feb 8, 2012)

This story has been told a number of times and I have no reason to doubt its veracity.

Pianist Joshua Rifkin once sat down with the legendary Henry Byrd a.k.a Professor Longhair and attempted to learn exactly how he got the sounds from the piano that he was famous for. Professor Longhair was not knowledgeable about music - in fact he didn't even know the names of most of the chords he used - but he had a singular style that has come to define New Orleans R&B piano playing. After several hours of trying to learn Byrd's technique, the classically-trained Rifkin simply gave up - he couldn't do it. It was the rhythm that bedeviled him; the fingerings that Fess used were not complex or difficult, but his timing and his rhythm were magic.

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Ken


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Maybe the Good Professor's singular playing style was partly down to his teaching himself on a piano that allegedly had a number of keys missing! Once thing I didn't know until recently was that Prof didn't really become a serious player until he turned 30 - he certainly seemed to make up for lost time. It's impossible for me to listen to other Crescent City legends like Dr. John, Allen Toussaint and James Booker without the Prof's omnipresence filling the speakers!


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## ksargent (Feb 8, 2012)

It's a blessing that we have the later recordings of Fess. The story goes that a writer from Rolling Stone went to New Orleans in the early 70's and found Professor Longhair sweeping the floor in a record store there. The writer was aware of Byrd's recordings from the 50's and had heard the stories from other New Orleans musicians about his influence. After this re-discovery, Fess had a decade of success - concerts, recordings, etc. - and built a new following. You can still feel his presence when you are in the clubs and on the street in NOLA. And you will never hear Dr. John or Allen Toussaint play a gig without them paying tribute to Fess.

Booker is of course another great and tragic New Orleans musician, of whom the stories abound.

Ken


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## ksargent (Feb 8, 2012)




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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Nice one - first footage I've seen for ages!


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## ksargent (Feb 8, 2012)

Since you liked that one, check this one out. May be my favorite NOLA music video on youtube, Professor Longhair with the Meters!


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