Why Does James Booker Matter?
by: David Kunian
With increasing frequency, the life, music and mystique of pianist James Booker are asserting their presence again in our consciousness. Never far from the surface, Booker's keyboard prowess and legendary character is churning the rapids and re-directing the currents in the vast river that is the culture and music of New Orleans. The 30th anniversary of his needless death in the waiting rooms of Charity Hospital comes on November 8th. Lily Keber's fantastic, in-depth documentary Bayou Maharajah: The Tragic Genius of James Booker.
For many New Orleans music fans and culture aficionados, Booker never left. You can hear his music on any given night being played in assorted clubs around town. Pianists from Harry Connic Jr. to Dr. John to C.R. Gruver had attested to Booker's ability on the keyboard.
What do so many people find interesting and intoxicating about James Booker? Why do we still think about him and obsess over him while other pianists and musicians of New Orleans have been relegated not even to the memories and stories that fade with time. What is it about Booker that makes people return to him? Why does Booker matter?
James Booker's music is dense and dark and brilliant and happy and epic and emotional…sometimes just in one song. It is unique, marked by extreme creativity. No one has ever played the piano like Booker.
Ideas and emotions are all in Booker's music. Questions of life and death, genius and madness, tragedy and comedy, one's deepest feeling all are present.
George Winston
Another well known Booker fanatic is pianist George Winston. He often elaborated on Booker's playing in several different places.
Jon Cleary
Pianist Jon Cleary met Booker when Cleary first moved to town and got a job painting the Maple Leaf Bar when Booker was living upstairs. He theorizes that, “Booker and Mac Rebennack (Dr. John) really invented a new thing in the tradition.”
Allen Toussaint
Allen Toussaint, a composer and pianist who knows more than a ting or six about the piano says, “There is a word that is thrown around so loosely for certain people who have done well in life, if they do very well in life, they call themselves geniuses, but let me say that if the word is applicable to anyone, the person who comes to mind is James Booker. Total genius. There are some instances in his playing that are very unusual and highly complex, but the groove is never sacrificed.”
Sometimes Booker sounded like he had three hands. Sometimes he would be playing so blindingly fast that his audience sat there in awe. Booker also had a great sense of ebb and flow of dynamics to ratchet up the intensity until his piano was about to explode.
Booker's spirit in his music goes as deep as the music itself. Part of it is the unfiltered emotions that emanate from his playing like a shock wave from exploding dynamite.
There was always something about Booker, especially his spirit and his music, that is the essence of New Orleans. When broken down to the basics, music is air vibrating at certain frequencies to cause sound pleasing to our ears. Somehow, maybe due to his genius, his attitude, and who knows what will arrive the next time he finds other ways to roll out some wonderful sounds.
Booker's spirit in his music goes as deep as the music itself. Part of it is the unfiltered emotions that emanate from his playing like a shock wave from exploding dynamite.
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