ALBUMS THAT DESERVE ANOTHER LISTEN
Champion Jack Dupree - Natural & Soulful Blues (1959)
(3:15) 1. Seafood Blues
(3:52) 2. Death Of Big Bill Broonzy
(2:54) 3. Don't Leave Me Mary
(3:02) 4. Rampart Street Special
(2:50) 5. How Long Blues
(3:08) 6. Bad Life
(3:12) 7. Mother-in-Law Blues
(3:29) 8. Slow Drag
(3:32) 9. Dennis Rag
(3:15) 10. Bad Luck Bound To Change
Piano, Vocals: Champion Jack Dupree
Bass: Jack Fallon
Guitar: Alexis Korner
In 1959 Champion Jack Dupree toured England, and while in London on November 9th, recorded 13 tracks with the backing of a young Alexis Korner on guitar and Canadian Jack Fallon on bass. From this session 10 tracks were issued on an LP titled "Champion Jack's Natural And Soulful Blues". Apparently the LP was initially released in the UK on London Records in 1960, before being release in the USA on Atlantic LP 8045 in 1961.
"Champion Jack's Natural And Soulful Blues" is my 2nd favorite Jack Dupree album after the superb 1958 Atlantic LP "Blues From The Gutter", and it definitely deserves another listen.
Short Biography:
Champion Jack Dupree was born in New Orleans on July 4, 1910. He was orphaned as a child when his parents were killed in a house fire, and was raised in the city's Colored Waifs School for Boys, where he learned to play the piano. He then earned a living hustling money on the city's streets, and playing piano in bars and brothels in the city's French Quarter.
In 1930 he left New Orleans for Chicago, and played at house parties and in small clubs, but left the city after a year and moved to Detroit. He decided to became a professional boxer, based out of Indianapolis. He was actually successful in that endeavor, fighting more than 100 bouts and becoming lightweight champion of Indiana. He soon went back to music, however, and in 1940 returned to Chicago, where he recorded for noted producer Lester Melrose. Dupree was drafted into the US Navy in 1942, serving aboard ship in the Pacific as a cook. In 1943 he was captured by Japanese forces and spent the next two years in a POW camp. When he returned to the US after the war he settled in New York City and was soon recording for such labels as Savoy and King. His recording of "Walking the Blues" with Teddy McRae got to #6 on the R&B charts in 1955.
In 1959 he moved to Europe, moving around several countries before finally settling in Germany in the mid 1970s. He found a loyal and devoted following in Europe, recording for more than a dozen labels and performing in a series of successful concerts. In 1990 he returned to the US to play in the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, While there he recorded "Back Home in New Orleans" for Bullseye Blues Records. In 1991 he returned to New Orleans for the Jazz and Heritage Festival, and recorded another album for Bullseye Blues Records, "Forever and Ever", and later played at the Chicago Blues Festival. He returned to Germany where he died of cancer in Hanover on January 21, 1992.
Dupree's playing was almost all straight blues and boogie-woogie. He was not a sophisticated musician or singer, but he had a clever way with words. Many of his songs were about jail, drinking and drug addiction, although he himself was a light drinker and did not use other drugs. His "Junker's Blues" inspired Fats Domino's first hit record "The Fat Man". Some of Dupree's songs had gloomy topics, such as "TB Blues" and "Angola Blues" (about Louisiana State Penitentiary), but he also sang about cheerful subjects, as in "Dupree Shake Dance": "Come on, mama, on your hands and knees, do that shake dance as you please". He was a noted raconteur and transformed many of his stories into songs, such as "Big Leg Emma's", a rhymed tale of a police raid on a barrelhouse.
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