Champion Jack Dupree And His Blues Band

Like many black American blues and R&B artists, New Orleans singer and pianist Champion Jack Dupree found more respect and recognition in Europe than he did in his homeland, and he relocated to Europe in 1959, only rarely returning to the U.S. He cut several albums there, including the two included in this double-disc set from Beat Goes On, From New Orleans to Chicago, recorded in London in 1966, and Champion Jack Dupree and His Blues Band, tracked in the same city a year later (both were originally released on London Decca). Of the two, the latter release is the stronger (thanks in no small part to guitarist Mickey Baker), although From New Orleans is probably better known, mainly for the presence of Eric Clapton and John Mayall at the sessions…

Like many black American blues and R&B artists, New Orleans singer and pianist Champion Jack Dupree found more respect and recognition in Europe than he did in his homeland, and he relocated to Europe in 1959, only rarely returning to the U.S. He cut several albums there, including the two included in this double-disc set from Beat Goes On, From New Orleans to Chicago, recorded in London in 1966, and Champion Jack Dupree and His Blues Band, tracked in the same city a year later (both were originally released on London Decca). Of the two, the latter release is the stronger (thanks in no small part to guitarist Mickey Baker), although From New Orleans is probably better known, mainly for the presence of Eric Clapton and John Mayall at the sessions…

Like many black American blues and R&B artists, New Orleans singer and pianist Champion Jack Dupree found more respect and recognition in Europe than he did in his homeland, and he relocated to Europe in 1959, only rarely returning to the U.S. He cut several albums there, including the two included in this double-disc set from Beat Goes On, From New Orleans to Chicago, recorded in London in 1966, and Champion Jack Dupree and His Blues Band, tracked in the same city a year later (both were originally released on London Decca). Of the two, the latter release is the stronger (thanks in no small part to guitarist Mickey Baker), although From New Orleans is probably better known, mainly for the presence of Eric Clapton and John Mayall at the sessions…

"But it's Shakespeare's coffin!" Dupree exclaimed when he saw the enormous grand piano awaiting him in the studio on July 21, 1971, where on one of his numerous visits to Paris he had been asked to record. But regardless of the piano his puncher’s hands worked out on - usually it was a humble upright - Champion Jack Dupree expressed the essence of the blues.
During his prolific career Dupree often paid tribute to men he admired by improvising a blues to their memory. So he recorded The Death of Big Bill Broonzy, The Death of Luther King, President Kennedy Blues, and The Death of Louis, which gives its title to the present collection. Armstrong had died a few days earlier, on July 6, and Dupree evokes with feeling their days together as children in the Waifs’ Home…

The New Orleans barrelhouse boogie piano specialist's earliest sides for OKeh, dating from 1940-1941 and in a few cases sporting some fairly groundbreaking electric guitar runs by Jesse Ellery. Dupree rocks the house like it's a decade later on two takes of "Cabbage Greens" and "Dupree Shake Dance," while his drug-oriented "Junker Blues" was later cleaned up a bit by a chubby newcomer named Fats Domino for his debut hit 78 "The Fat Man."

Although Dupree seldom paused at any one label for very long, the piano pounder did hang around at Cincinnati-based King Records from 1951 to 1955 - long enough to wax the 20 sides comprising this set and a few more that regrettably aren't aboard. By this time, Dupree was a seasoned R&B artist, storming through "Let the Doorbell Ring" and "Mail Order Woman" and emphasizing his speech impediment on "Harelip Blues" (one of those not-for-the-politically correct numbers). Most of these tracks were done in New York; sidemen include guitarist Mickey Baker and saxist Willis Jackson.

Champion Jack Dupree’s expressive voice and natural feel for the piano made him one of the greatest of the barrelhouse blues genre, the New Orleans native making a name for himself on the Chicago music scene, his stage name acquired after a stint as a champion boxer in Detroit, encouraged by Joe Louis. Dupree spent time in Europe in the late 1950s, which resulted in collaboration with a number of noteworthy British blues men, and following the success of From New Orleans To Chicago, featuring John Mayall and Eric Clapton, Mike Vernon brought Dupree onto his Blue Horizon label for When You Feel The Feeling You Was Feelin,’ another excellent set from 1968, this time with guest contributions on the B-side from guitar god Paul Kossoff and drummer Simon Kirke of Free, Pretty Things bassist Stuart Brooks and Fleetwood Mac associate, Duster Bennett on harmonica…

New Orleans pianist who was a master of hard-driving boogie and blues. A formidable contender in the ring before he shifted his focus to pounding the piano instead, Champion Jack Dupree often injected his lyrics with a rowdy sense of down-home humor. But there was nothing lighthearted about his rock-solid way with a boogie; when he shouted "Shake Baby Shake," the entire room had no choice but to acquiesce.

The repertoire of this January 1977 Paris session consists entirely of Dupree originals. Typical of his cheeky humour and bubbling good spirits (Hamhock And Lima Beans, Let Me In I'm Drunk, Phone Call), it nevertheless reveals the natural sadness of the blues, never far from the surface in any of his work (Who Do You Love?, Let's Try Over Again). Indeed, Jack's personal life weighed more heavily in his songs than, because of the fun aspect, is generally realised. At this time, just recently divorced and separated from his young children, he was a lonely man, and destined to remain so.
We have rounded out the present CD with five titles from a 1983 session on which Champion Jack Dupree is accompanied by singer Brenda Bell and guitarist Louisiana Red.

Musician, boxer, painter, and poet, Champion Jack was the renaissance man of the blues. He spent the last 30 years of his life living in Europe, but returned to his New Orleans birthplace for some of the early '90s Jazz and Heritage Festivals. In 1991 he stayed stateside long enough to record his second Bullseye Blues album and play a few select U.S. dates before returning to Europe for an exhibition of his paintings in a Swedish art gallery. This batch of Champion Jack originals includes "Yella Pocahontas," the name of the tribe he ran with in New Orleans in the old days (Bo Dollis of the Wild Magnolias sings and plays tambourine on this one), and features backing from his longtime guitarist Kenn Lending, slide player John Mooney, New Orleans bassist Walter Payton, Jr. and others.