Professor Longhair - New Orleans, LA
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denben
N 29° 57.694 W 090° 03.462
15R E 783950 N 3318169
The bust of Professor Longhair is erected at the New Orleans Jazz Museum in the old US Mint building located at 400 Esplanade Avenue in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana.
Waymark Code: WM12EE7
Location: Louisiana, United States
Date Posted: 05/09/2020
Views: 4
The New Orleans Jazz Museum is a music museum dedicated to preserving and celebrating the history of jazz music. Through dynamic interactive exhibits, multigenerational educational programming, research facilities, and engaging musical performances, the music New Orleans made famous is explored in all its forms.
Since the centenary of his birth in 2018, an entire room in the museum has been dedicated to Professor Longhair, the most beloved and influential pianist in New Orleans history. Among the exibits are the electric piano first used by Fess and then by another great New Orleans pianist, Eddie Bo, and the upright piano from Tipitina’s used by Professor Longhair and others from 1977-1984, and also, the bust of Professor Longhair which is a three-dimensional replica of the original bust that now greets Tipitina's customers at 501 Napoleon Avenue in New Orleans.
From Wikipedia: "Henry Roeland "Roy" Byrd (December 19, 1918 – January 30, 1980), better known as Professor Longhair or "Fess" for short, was an American singer and pianist who performed New Orleans blues. He was active in two distinct periods, first in the heyday of early rhythm and blues and later in the resurgence of interest in traditional jazz after the founding of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1970. His piano style has been described as "instantly recognizable, combining rumba, mambo, and calypso".
Music journalist Tony Russell (in his book The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray) wrote that "The vivacious rhumba-rhythmed piano blues and choked singing typical of Fess were too weird to sell millions of records; he had to be content with siring musical offspring who were simple enough to manage that, like Fats Domino or Huey "Piano" Smith. But he is also acknowledged as a father figure by subtler players like Allen Toussaint and Dr. John".
Professor Longhair was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1981. In 1987, he was awarded a posthumous Grammy Award for his early recordings released as House Party New Orleans Style. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992." (
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