BOOKER T. LAURY
Booker T. Laury (2 de septiembre de 1914 – 23 de septiembre de 1995) fue un pianista y cantante de blues estadounidense.
Su estilo era el barrelhouse, que se tocaba en casas muy humildes conformadas por barriles que sostenían listones de madera. El único instrumento de esos salones era el piano, y el cantante debía esforzar mucho la voz para poder ser escuchado en medio de tanto bullicio. La calle Beale, en Memphis, sede de muchos clubs nocturnos y bares temáticos, era el escenario natural del desempeño de Booker, quien, por un accidente, perdió el dedo meñique de su mano izquierda, lo que no le impidió ser un virtuoso del piano y un símbolo del blues de dicha ciudad.
Su consagración le llegó tardíamente, en 1989, a raíz de su participación el el film Great Balls of Fire!, donde Dennis Quaid interpretaba a Jerry Lee Lewis. En ese film, Booker interpretó el blues "Big legged woman" que abre el film en su escenario natural,el barrelhouse
Booker grabó dos discos: Uno en vivo editado como Blues On The Prowl (1994), y uno de estudio llamado Nothin' But the Blues (1993).2 Intervino en varios discos de blues de autores surtidos, y también en el especialMemphis Piano Blues Today junto a otro pianista de Memphis, Mose Vinson. Booker falleció en 1995
Lawrence (Booker T.) Laury (September 2, 1914 – September 23, 1995) was an American boogie-woogie, blues, gospel and jazz pianist and singer. Over his lengthy career, Laury worked with various musicians, including Memphis Slim and Mose Vinson, but did not record his debut album until he was almost eighty years of age. He appeared in two films.
Laury was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and grew up with his lifelong friend Memphis Slim.At the age of six, after helping his mother play the family's pump organ, Laury learned to play the keyboards. His barrelhouse playing style, which he developed alongside Slim, was based on the influence of the Memphis performers Roosevelt Sykes, Sunnyland Slim, and Speckled Red. In the early 1930s, and in the company of the younger Mose Vinson, Slim and Laury began playing in local clubs.
In 1935, Sykes suggested to Laury and Slim that they relocate to Chicago, with a view to obtaining a recording contract. Slim took the advice, but Laury decided to remain in Memphis, where he played in gambling houses and clubs for decades. Laury had a large hand width, which enabled him to span ten keys. His playing dexterity was such that, after losing one finger on his left hand following an accident with a circular saw in the 1950s, he was still able to play well. Based around Beale Street, in Memphis, as that area started to degenerate, Laury traveled around Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri. Despite differing fortunes, his friendship with Slim did not diminish over the years, up to Slim's death in 1988.
Laury recorded his debut album in his late seventies. A concert with a full band was recorded in 1980. A 1980 Paris concert was released by Indigo Records in France.
The 1989 Dennis Quaid film Great Balls of Fire! portrayed the young Jerry Lee Lewis and Jimmy Swaggart looking into a juke joint to see Laury playing "Big Legged Woman". The attention helped to give Laury an opportunity to record later in his life.Laury appeared in the 1992 documentary film Deep Blues: A Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads,in which he is shown playing "Memphis Blues" in his living room.
In 1994, Bullseye Blues Records issued Nothin' but the Blues, an album of Laury's voice and piano, performing ten of his own compositions. The same year, the Austrian label Wolf Records released a live album, containing concert recordings made in 1987.
Laury died of cancer in September 1995, at the age of 81, in Memphis. He has a brass note on Beale Street's Walk of Fame.
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