| February 6th, 2005 05:49 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Boogie woogie royalty
About to turn 84, Big Joe Duskin isn't slowing down, the blues are still calling him
The blues called to Big Joe Duskin when he was barely old enough to reach the keys of a piano. And nothing, not threats of hellfire and brimstone, nor the disapproval of his preacher papa, could ultimately keep the local musician from his spirited brand of boogie woogie.
The piano player and vocalist and longtime Cincinnatian, considered to be one of the last surviving boogie woogie greats, celebrates his 84th birthday on Thursday at Fat Fish Blue.
Although other octogenarians might slow down, Duskin has revved up in the past year, prompting a surge of interest in his music. In August, he released his first studio record in 16 years, "Big Joe Jumps Again!"
He hit the stage with the two King Records veterans featured on the album, Philip Paul and Ed Conley, and also played with Tracy Walker, the Stapletons and other local musicians.
Up for comeback award
"Big Joe Jumps Again!" recently received a nomination for a 2005 W.C. Handy Blues Award, the blues world's equivalent of a Grammy, for Comeback Blues Album of the Year.
Calling Duskin's return to the spotlight a comeback isn't quite accurate, however, since he has been performing around the globe for decades. He's internationally renowned for his contributions to the boogie woogie genre, and has shared stages with such notables as Muddy Waters, Ray Charles and Mahalia Jackson.
Duskin moved with his family to Cincinnati from Birmingham, Ala., when he was 6 years old, and the piano in his relatives' home immediately entranced him.
"My uncle had a big upright, and I'd go in and diddle-diddle-diddle," he says, miming racing his hands along a keyboard.
The melancholy nature of the blues lured Duskin even as a young child. He says the music, which emerged from the spirituals sung by Southern slaves, provides a deeply emotional link to his ancestry.
"Blues is the greatest because it's a sad song," he says.
When Duskin was a teenager, he often painted on a mustache to pass as old enough to play the piano halls of Over-the-Rhine and the West End in the '30s. With his booming voice and rollicking piano style, he raked in piles of coins.
"They had a piano in every house, they had a piano in every beer garden. Anywhere you'd go, there was a piano," Duskin says. Instruments were even set up on street corners.
Sneaking around the preacher
The one place Duskin was not allowed to play the blues was at home, because his father considered it the devil's music. The punishment was severe. So Duskin would switch to church standards whenever his father was within earshot, or he'd sneak over to friends' houses to pound out his favorite popular tunes.
But Duskin's father caught him playing blues again and again.
" 'Dad,' I said, 'you're going to be beating me every day,'" Duskin recalls.
"He said, 'Why don't you wait until I'm dead in the grave? Then you can play all you want and I won't know nothing about it.' "
When Duskin was about 17 and his father was in his 70s, Duskin agreed to the request. He served in World War II, then came home and took a job as a policeman and, later, as a postal worker.
The promise to his father kept Duskin away from blues music for three decades.
"When he got 101, I said, 'Oh, Lord,'" Duskin says. "When he got 102, I went to Mom. I said, 'Mom, the old man's going to live forever. I can't play a lick until he's in the ground.' "
Even after Duskin's father died in his arms in 1963, at the age of 105, the musician didn't go back to the blues right away.
"You love an old man that long, you're crazy about him, and then when he dies, it just does something to you," Duskin says.
A celebrated return
In the 1970s, local blues enthusiast and harmonica player Steve Tracy persuaded Duskin to return to the keyboard. Since then, he's performed everywhere from the now-defunct Dollar Bills Saloon in Corryville to larger halls in Germany, Denmark and France.
"They love American music, especially the black music," Duskin says of his European fans. "They want somebody who knows that African beat and really knows how to play the piano."
Duskin recorded several albums in the 1970s and 1980s, including "Cincinnati Stomp" (1977) and "Don't Mess With the Boogie Man" (1988).
Local musician James Ibold met Duskin at Dollar Bills in the 1970s, and has since traveled the world to perform with him. The guitarist says that Duskin is noted for his strongly melodic song structures and his skilled left-hand runs on the keyboard.
Learned from the greats
Duskin provides one of the last living connections to Meade Lux Lewis, Pete Johnson, Albert Ammons and the other musicians who forged the boogie woogie style, Ibold says.
"Joe is the direct descendent and learned directly from them," he says. "He is definitely the king of the boogie woogie."
In January 2004, Duskin returned to the studio for a session with Paul, a drummer who moved to Cincinnati in the early 1950s, and Conley, an upright bassist who was born in Covington. In the 1950s and 1960s, both men cut numerous tracks for the influential Cincinnati-based label King Records.
Recaptured legacy
The 16 songs on "Big Joe Jumps Again!" capture Duskin's legacy with originals, several of which address heartbreak in its various exquisite forms, and distinctive takes on blues classics such as "Key to the Highway," which features a guest turn by venerable guitarist and Indian Hill resident Peter Frampton.
The record's release has drawn local attention to Duskin and his contributions both to the blues genre and the area's music scene. Cincinnati declared July 31, 2004 Big Joe Duskin Day, and the pianist was given a key to the city this summer at the Cincy Blues Fest.
A diabetic, Duskin doesn't get around as easily as he once did, but that doesn't keep him from the stage. His November performance at Southgate House attracted a lineup of local guest musicians spanning several generations and genres, along with a loyal crowd of followers. In May, Duskin will pack his distinctive sunglasses and hats for a trip to Memphis for the W.C. Handy Blues Awards ceremony.
Paul says he's glad to see Duskin finally receive some much-deserved recognition, especially in his hometown.
"I think it's very wrong that Cincinnati does not honor its local artists as it should," he says.
Admirers celebrate
Paul, Ibold and a slate of other performers who've worked with and looked up to Duskin are planning to attend his 84th birthday celebration.
Paul says he wants to pay homage to Duskin not only as a great performer, but also as a good, warmhearted man.
Duskin's veracity comes through with every note he sings, Paul says.
"There's a lot of honesty in the way he delivers his lyrics," he says. "I think people latch on to that, when they can hear the sincerity in what you're doing."
E-mail [email protected]
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| February 7th, 2005 05:21 AM |
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| riccardo |
AND there is even Stones connection as in the 80s Big Joe Duskin was featured in one episode of the South Bank Show where he performed live and in his band was Charlie Watts.Luckily is has been rebroadcasted recently and I recorded on DVD. |
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