As the originator of the rhum-boogie, that amalgam of rhumba and boogie-woogie peculiar to New Orleans, Henry Roeland Roy Byrd a.k.a. Professor Longhair was a seminal influence on several generations of Crescent City stars, everybody from Fats Domino to Huey Smith to Allen Toussaint to Dr. John. But, as album producer (and controversial biographer of Elvis, John Lennon and Lenny Bruce) Albert Goldman writes in his liner notes to The Last Mardi Gras, the Professor was was wasting away in comparative obscurity while the record companies either refused to cut him or sat upon the records he had already made. So Goldman, who at the time was music critic for Esquire, campaigned in the magazine s pages for proper recognition of the New Orleans legend, and, lo and behold, Atlantic Records stepped forward with a 16-track mobile recording unit to get the job done.