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Pinetop Perkins

Pinetop Perkins was one of the last great Mississippi bluesmen still performing. He began playing blues around 1927 and is widely regarded as one of the best blues pianists. He created a style of playing that has influenced three generations of piano players and will continue to be the yardstick by which great blues pianists are measured. Born Willie Perkins, in Belzoni, MS, in 1913, Pinetop started out playing guitar and piano at house parties and honky- tonks but dropped the guitar in the 1940s after sustaining a serious injury in his left arm. Perkins worked primarily in the Mississippi Delta throughout the thirties and forties, spending three years with Sonny Boy Williamson on the King Biscuit Time radio show on KFFA, Helena, Arkansas. Pinetop also toured extensively with slide guitar player Robert Nighthawk and backed him on an early Chess session. After briefly working with B.B. King in Memphis, Perkins barnstormed the South with Earl Hooker during the early fifties. The pair completed a session for Sam Phillips’ famous Sun Records in 1953. It was at this session that he recorded his version of Pinetop Smith’s Boogie Woogie. By this time, Pinetop had developed his own unmistakable sound. His right hand plays horn lines while his left kicks out bass lines and lots of bottom. It was Pinetop, along with Pete Johnson, Meade Lux Lewis, Albert Ammons, and Little Brother Montgomery, who provided the basic format and ideas from which countless swing bands derived their sound - whole horn sections playing out what Pinetop’s right hand was playing. Although Pinetop never played swing, it was his brand of boogie-woogie that came to structure swing and, eventually, rock ‘n’ roll. Still, with recent successes the exception, Pinetop is best known for holding down the piano chair in the great Muddy Waters Band for twelve years during the highest point of Muddy’s career. Replacing the late, great Otis Spann in 1969, Pinetop helped shape the Waters sound and anchored Muddy’s memorable combo throughout the seventies with his brilliant piano solos. In 1980, Pinetop and other Waters alumni decided to go out on their own and formed the Legendary Blues Band. Legendary recorded two records for Rounder and toured extensively. Pinetop, who had been labeled a sideman throughout most of his career, eventually left Legendary to concentrate on a solo career. Within two years, he had his first domestic record as a frontman and had a most impressive touring schedule.

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188
Album Review

Pinetop Perkins, Michael Parrish: One Heart

Read "One Heart" reviewed by Ed Kopp


Boogie-woogie reigns in this collection of piano duets featuring Chicago blues veteran Pinetop Perkins and Bay Area bluesman-turned-rocker Michael Parrish. Inspired by the popular 1930s collaborations of Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons, One Heart showcases two talented blues pianists cooperating on some lively originals and a few old warhorses.The CD includes no vocal tracks and no additional instruments aside from two Steinway Concert Grands. With the spare setup, fans of blues piano will find plenty to like. ...

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46

Obituary

R.I.P. Pinetop Perkins

R.I.P. Pinetop Perkins

Source: JamBase

JULY 7, 1913-MARCH 21, 2011 Legendary bluesman Pinetop Perkins passed away yesterday at his home in Austin, TX. He was 97 years old. A highly influential piano man, Perkins played with luminaries like Earl Hooker and Sam Philips before spending more than a decade playing with Muddy Waters. In 1980, he left to form The Legendary Blues Band with Willie “Big Eyes" Smith. Perkins also released several highly regarded solo albums, including 1988's After Hours, and 1998's Sweet Black Angel. ...

162

Recording

One Track Mind: Pinetop Perkins, with Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, "Grinding Man" (2010)

One Track Mind: Pinetop Perkins, with Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, "Grinding Man" (2010)

Source: Something Else!

By Nick DeRiso With “Grinding Man," a rollicking rapscallion highlight from his Grammy nominated album with Willie “Big Eyes" Smith, we get a winking glimpse into how 97-year-old Pinetop Perkins has kept himself going all these years. Perkins, who like Smith made his bones playing with Muddy Waters, connects the dots between blues music's rustic era pioneers like Robert Johnson and the gritty post-war urban sounds that succeeded them. Born in July 1913 in Belzoni, Miss., Perkins backed Robert Nighthawk ...

189

Recording

Joined at the Hip/ Pinetop Perkins and Willie 'Big Eyes' Smith

Joined at the Hip/  Pinetop Perkins and Willie 'Big Eyes' Smith

Source: All About Jazz

“Walking Down the Highway" is one of the treasures from Pinetop Perkins and Willie “Big Eyes" Smith's new album Joined at the Hip.

They have 170 years of living-legend status between them. Go Walking Down the Highway with Pinetop Perkins and Willie “Big Eyes" Smith.

“Walking Down the Highway," Pinetop Perkins and Willie “Big Eyes" Smith

This is how it's done.

The former Muddy Waters sidemen turned blues elder statesmen pour every one of their combined 170 years of living ...

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

On Top

95 North Records
2005

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One Heart

Geographic Records
1999

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