October 2011 A new documentary captures him right down to his glittering eye patch. Honor Roll According to one source, he played only a few Christmas pageants during the ministry of Father Borgia Aubespin (1973-1978). August 2014 Lodging July 2015 Beautiful Things Body+Mind+Spirit “So it’s two in the afternoon, a bunch of drunks are telling some story I don’t understand, pointing to a deer head, while listening to music that I just played randomly, and that was ultimately my introduction to Booker.”, Video: A Piano Genius Is Revealed in ‘Bayou Maharajah’. August 2017 September 2020 According to Kent Taylor, Booker returned again and again for family. Throughout his long and storied career, it is unclear when and how often Booker returned to the Bay to visit his Aunt Bessie Lizana and nephew Kent Taylor and nieces, Shelia Twiggs and Yolanda Barroughs, but return he did. Science August 2013 December 2012 June 2018 How the notoriously temperamental — paranoid and high — Booker made it through the Iron Curtain with a wig filled with marijuana is anyone’s guess. December 2019 Growing Up Downtown May 2018 Bay Reads November 2011 Food Coast Cuisine © Copyright 2020 Rolling Stone, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. Legends And Legacies June 2011. (In fairness, that might be attributed in part to his touch-and-go local performances. November 2019 February 2019 “A little bit longer and so many of the people in the film would have been dead, and so much of this stuff wouldn’t have existed.”. October 2012 December 2015 Arts Alive Top Answer. March 2013 Writer Edward Gibson traces some of those early years and explains why the Bay was always a touchstone for the legend who died too young. Mural of James Booker, 2118 St. Claude Avenue, in New Orleans, The debut Booker Fest takes place in Bay St. Louis, August 30 & 31. Beach-to-bayou September 2019 July 2017 February 2018 Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Footage was hardest to find in New Orleans, where Booker’s critical and commercial appeal was nowhere near that of Europe. Mind+Body+Spirit Events February 2012 Design September 2011 Bay Bride April 2015 September 2017 “When I went to Google him there were like two articles. December 2014 He can tear into Rachmaninoff with such authentic gusto and flair, then wind it into a Jelly Roll Morton swing, then again into “Goodnight Irene.”, 200 N. Beach and the BSL Balcony Sports Lounge. Musician Dr. John described Booker as "the best black, gay, one-eyed junkie piano genius New Orleans has ever produced." Each person interviewed had a different story on how he lost his eye, ranging from an infection to a mob goon squad who pulled it out to settle a debt. October 2016 A shirt for all those who know the genius of James Booker and his iconic eye patch. 15 Minutes Shared History February 2020 These days, Fess [fellow piano genius Professor Longhair] is on every T-shirt everywhere you turn, but there’s no Booker DVD, there’s no Booker poster. July 2016 November 2017 May 2020 Want more Rolling Stone? August 2018 Town Green October 2017 There was just so little stuff available. February 2013 Vintage Vignette Environment Asked by Wiki User. December 2016 Perhaps it was removed by record producers, as Booker sometimes said; but probably not, as Booker told Dr John, by JFK; and certainly not, as Booker replied when asked about his star-shaped eye patch, by Ringo Starr. “People at the bar would hear the music and go, ‘Ah, Booker!’ and they’d start telling stories,” Keber said, remembering afternoons at the dive, deep in New Orleans’ Bywater neighborhood, which happened to be decorated with a stuffed deer head wearing an eye-patch in honor of piano legend James Booker. But the real Booker fan will delight in the colorful tidbits. Across The Bridge December 2017 January 2016 Grape Minds September 2012 Fashion May 2019 “It seemed like the whole world could be crumbling around him, or his relation to reality, but as long as he was sitting in front of the piano, he was in charge of something.”. Architecture June 2019 January 2020 Rheta Grimsley Johnson June 2015 August 2011 July 2018 He told Kent Taylor he lost it in Angola, but would not say how. Beach To Bayou Sean O'Hagan : He was a one-eyed, drug-addicted piano genius who wore a wig stuffed with marijuana and once held a gun to his head on stage – now a new film tells James Booker… Good Neighbor He had a penchant for performing in skimpy briefs and once stuffed pot into his Afro to smuggle it into East Germany. James Booker was (and is) ... As to how he lost his eye, nobody knows - a cheap journalistic trick, of course, but one of which Booker would approve. Antiques Local Focal Day Tripping In 1978, James Carroll Booker III took the stage in Leipzig, DDR - one man and one piano. You can’t blame the storm on that. Coast Lines Column To fill in the gaps, the documentarian interviews Irma Thomas, Allen Toussaint, Dave Bartholomew, Dr. John, Charles Neville, Harry Connick Jr., Hugh Laurie and even the writer and academic Douglas Brinkley. Health February 2015 New Orleans “I am trying to show the full spectrum of the ways he struggled with everyday reality. March 2019 He turns then to Aretha Franklin’s “People Get Ready.” “I’m free at last,” he sings before he transforms Franklin’s theme into a blues riff in the high register before turning it again, now into ragtime, and then back again to Aretha’s song of freedom. November 2014 April 2017 Photograph by Michael P. Smith ©The Historic New Orleans Collection, 2007.0103.4.714. Big Buzz Booker, the Bay and (finally) the truth about how he lost his eye, http://roots.life/new-orleans/james-booker/, https://64parishes.org/entry/james-booker. Wellness October 2015 It was just one more thing that made him an outsider,” Keber said. September 2016 August 2016 October 2020 Scroll down to end of essay for the full schedule or. House And Garden And Toussaint calls him a “true genius.”, “Booker’s memory was on the edge of a cliff,” Keber said. Wines And Dining, December 2020 January 2018 James Booker performing "True" at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1978. He made this huge, deep impression, but in terms of the world of commerce there was nothing,” Keber said. Booker was a showman, and a showman loves and needs mystery. Accounts differ as to how often he accompanied the choir at St. Rose de Lima. BSL P&Z Benefit Dr. John, Allen Toussaint and more honor eccentric New Orleans great. Waveland Sponsor Spotlight DIY James Carroll Booker III (December 17, 1939 – November 8, 1983) was a New Orleans rhythm and blues keyboardist born in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.Booker's unique style combined rhythm and blues with jazz standards. “All I had to do was ask and they would say yes, because they love Booker and they don’t want to see him forgotten,” Keber said. Nature June 2016 Shelter Stars Tying The Knot November 2016 For now, Keber is still looking for distribution, and will continue to screen the film on the festival circuit. On The Shoofly He had his first hit at 14, toured with Aretha Franklin, recorded with Little Richard, tutored a young Connick Jr. and taught Dr. John to play the organ. Another neighbor, Clarence Collins, joined. came from 216 Sycamore and brought a guitar. Business ... Ringo did it, thus the star on the black patch he wore. Bay Business Second Saturday September 2015 October 2019 Window Shopping Editors Notes Fortunately, she trolled European state archives for concert footage, scored previously unseen super-8 footage courtesy of an East German blues fanatic, discovered new audio recordings (like an unreleased 1974 session, produced by Jerry Wexler) and inherited a rare reel-to-reel interview from a Swiss collector. Education April 2016 February 2016 April 2020 Murphy's Musical Notes Sign up for our newsletter. February 2017 July 2011 63 64 65. News “So many TV stations just threw their tapes in the Dumpster. Pass Christian May 2016 History January 2015 December 2018 Harry Connick Jr. and James Carroll Booker III at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. ), Still, if there was one thing that kept the musician grounded, it was those “spiders on the keys.”, “I feel like there was no realm in which Booker was in control, except the music,” Keber said. 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