BLUES JUNCTION Productions
7343 El Camino Real
Suite 327
Atascadero, CA 93422-4697
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Pianist Joe Willie “Pinetop” Perkins, the oldest living bluesman passed away on March 21, 2011. Joseph William Perkins was born before the start of the first World War and before the first Model-T rolled off Henry Ford's assembly line. He was born before commecial air travel. He was a baby when Babe Ruth was still playing baseball at the Saint Mary’s Industrial School for Boys. He had quite a run. Pinetop Perkins was a larger than life figure who had such charisma he could actually hold his own with one of the most compelling figures to stride across the world stage, Muddy Waters.
His career in music was kind of a surreal dance where Pinetop was just outside the spotlight but at several major flash points in blues history. From the Mississippi Delta to Helena,
Arkansas and Memphis, Tennessee, Pinetop was there. From Chicago to Austin, Texas' fledgling blues music scene, Pinetop was there. Finally in his eighties, the spotlight swung in Pinetop's direction when he became a fixture on the modern blues festival circuit.
By now most folks his know the highlights. Pinetop switched from guitar to piano when he injured his arm. He was mentored by the great Clarence “Pinetop” Smith with whom he got a nickname and a song, Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie. He played with Sonny Boy Williamson on his legendary King Biscuit Time radio show out of Helena. He worked as a sideman for Robert Nighthawk for a time and was present at the halcyon days of Sun Records (pre-Elvis) when he cut sides along with Earl Hooker in the early fifties. He taught Ike Turner how to play piano. He moved to Illinois in the sixties where he dropped out of the music business for a spell. In 1968, at the behest of his longtime friend and colleague Robert Nighthawk, Pinetop resumed his career. A year later Muddy called. For twelve years he played with the great Muddy Waters who was about to begin a career renaissance of his own…and the rest, as they say is history. That history, as it turned out, would last another 30 years after Muddy passed. He toured and recorded with the Legendary Blues Band and began to make record albums under
his own name for the first time. He played on concert festival stages across the globe and became an inspiration for aspiring octogenarians and nonagenarians everywhere. He was honored by the National Academy of recording Arts and Sciences (the Grammys) with a lifetime achievement award in 2005. He won a Grammy, along with Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, just a couple of months ago for best traditional blues album making Pinetop Perkins the oldest Grammy recipient ever.
Everybody has their favorite Pinetop story. I have a few. Mine will remain with me. I think the best way to pay tribute to Pinetop is to hear from those closest to him. The first person I thought of was Bob Margolin. Bob is a terrific musician whose long association with Pinetop goes back to their days together with the Muddy Waters Band, he‘s a talented writer as well.
In discussing Pinetop's legacy I think Bob puts it best when he said, “Pinetop’s age and Mississippi/Chicago roots and survival in modern times are part of his appeal from the ’80s
on, but Pinetop aces the ultimate test of a musician: Pinetop has his own instantly-recognizable voice on the piano and in his singing. His piano playing didn’t have the virtuosity of the younger Otis Spann, his predecessor in Muddy’s band, or the astounding chops of so many of today’s finest players. But he played blues piano with swing, soul, sex, and fun and sounded like nobody but himself.”
Bob goes on to say, “His trademark sound as a piano player and a singer is now classic, part of the language of blues music. Beyond that is a more important achievement: He made people happy with his music for more than eighty years.”
- David Mac
Note: Special thanks to Bob Margolin for allowing us to extrapolate his quotes from an article he wrote last week for Blues Review Magazine. I encourage you to read Bob’s tribute to his friend in the article entitled “Goodnight Pinetop”. See the link to this article on the links section of this site.
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BLUES JUNCTION Productions
7343 El Camino Real
Suite 327
Atascadero, CA 93422-4697
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