Biography

Over a career that spanned some sixty years, Roosevelt Sykes adjusted to changing musical tastes while staying true to his roots. He began playing in rough joints in Helena, Arkansas, and at rent parties in St. Louis and Chicago, performing solo his own musical hybrid of ragtime and country blues piano. He was one of the earliest blues pianists to record, waxing now-classic compositions for the Okeh label in 1929 when he was merely 23 years of age.

Recorded live in 1977 at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor, Michigan and released on LP soon after, this is the first reissue of "The Original Honeydripper." The sound quality has been improved by the removal of some distracting audience chatter, and two original outtakes, "St. James Infirmary" and "Don’t Talk Me to Death," have been marvelously resurrected. The selections here span the length and breadth of Roosevelt Sykes’ career and the times in which he lived. Opening with "Cow Cow Blues," Sykes gives his personal interpretation of Cow Cow Davenport’s trail-blazing 1928 boogie woogie composition, recalling his own early years. "St. James Infirmary," from the pre-blues folk tradition, is a number that may have entered Sykes’ repertoire from his many years in New Orleans where the song has long remained in circulation. "Honeysuckle Rose" and "The Viper Song," two popular numbers from the catalog of the great Fats Waller, are given brief but spirited treatment.

Sykes’ frequent exhortations of "Mercy!" and "My, my, my!" throughout the set demonstrate his own pleasure in his performance. A jaunty take of the jazz standard "Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone" suggests the influence of stride in his musical arsenal. Sykes also contributes a brief version of Ray Charles’ groundbreaking "What’d I Say" from 1959 — reciprocation perhaps, as Ray famously covered his "Night Time is the Right Time." Of the seven of Sykes’ own compositions on this recording, "Drivin' Wheel," a bona fide classic of the blues, is enthusiastically received by this young audience more than forty years after it was first recorded. The moderately tempoed "Early Morning Blues" exhibits chiming echoes of old-time music halls in his keyboard work, whereas "Running the Boogie" is a showcase piece for his elegant boogie technique, complete with clever stop time tempo changes. Sykes’ lighter side is represented by a sampling of his more humorous compositions such as, "I Like What You Did," "I’m a Nut," "Too Smart Too Soon," and "Don’t Talk Me to Death." And one of his most notorious titles, the thinly veiled, "Dirty Mother For You," finishes out the set to boisterous applause.

"The Original Honeydripper" is a classic live recording by one of our greatest and most beloved blues masters.