Orleans Piano

Michael Ricker Pewter Piano New Orleans Jazz Band Sign
$174.99
Up for sale is a MINT condition 3pc 1983 signed Michael Anthony Ricker Pewter of a man sitting on a barrel playing piano. I believe this is titled "Piano - New Orleans Jazz Band - 'Moody' "....but I am not 100% sure. It is signed on the bottom of the man. All pieces has amazing details as Michael Ricker truly mastered the beauty of sculpturing pewter. Sadly, Mr. Ricker passed away in January 2006, so we will not see anymore of these stunning works of art. Measurements: Piano=>4"x4" Small Barrel=> 1.5" Tall Man=> 5" Tall Sitting

Keep It Rollin': The Blues Piano Collection
$9.99
I enjoyed this CD very much and can recommend this to anyone looking to add a nice blues piano anthology to your collection. There is good variety on this from Rounder Records and I particularly enjoyed the James Booker cuts which are terrific. What a talent he was. Booker is joined in good company on this by Charles Brown, Eddie Bo, Booker T. Laury and others. Nice stuff which I find perfect for a Sunday morning to get the day rollin'. Buy it and enjoy.

Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: Piano Blues
$7.99
I agree that they might have come up with a more descriptive and less- misleading title for this CD which is, as it turns out, meant only as an introduction to the 5-CD box set of Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues - A Musical Journey - featuring music contained in the PBS TV series.

I should also point out that there are 20 tracks here, not the 18 shown above. From track 12 on they are listed erroneously and so I have shown the corrections here, along with the recording dates shown in the liner notes: 12] Piney Brown Blues - Big Joe Turner & Jay McShann - 1974; 13] Mission Ranch Blues - Jay McShann & Dave Brubeck - first release - recorded September 21, 2002; 14] The Ladder - Joe Turner - Feb. 25, 1975; 15] Honey Dripper - Dr. John - 1981; 16] World Full Of People - Henry Townsend - Oct. 12/13, 1999; 17] Big Chief - Dr. John - first release - July 1, 2003; 18] Carmel Blues - Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins & Marcia Ball - first release - September 21, 2002; 19] Travelin' Blues - Dave Brubeck - first release - September 21, 2002; 20] How Long Blues - Dr. John, Pete Jolly & Henry Gray - first release - July 1, 2003.

Recording dates for the first 11 tracks are: 1] May 4, 1939; 2] December 30, 1938; 3] June 24, 1939; 4] September 11, 1945; 5] December 10, 1949; 6] 1949; 7] November 1953; 8] February 18, 1959; 9] 1961 or 1962 in Copenhagen; 10] September 17, 1962; 11] November 19, 1968.

In the liner notes are a single introductory page by Martin Scorcese, two pages by Clint Eastwood under the title The Film And The Music, and three pages under the title The Music by Nat Hentoff, author of Listen To The Stories and American Music Is. There is also a discography of the contents, along with pictures of Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, Thelonius Monk, Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, Dr. John, and two nice shots of Clint with Jay McShann and Ray Charles. Another page of notes talks about the making of the films.

What drew me specifically to this fine compilation was track 4, a # 2 R&B hit for Johnny Moore's Three Blazers in early 1946 which spent an incredible 23 weeks on those charts [the only thing keeping it from # 1 was Lionel Hampton's Hey Ba-Ba-Re-Bop which stayed at # 1 for 16 weeks]. But when I began listening to it I realized what a gem I had purchased, including those tracks by living legends and produced here for the first time.

New Orleans Piano Wizard: Live!
$16.98
This is a fantastic live record by a New Orleans genius- a man with an emotive voice and a stunning way of playing piano. Many people feel that Mr. Booker had four hands, two of which were invisible. Though he was a heroin addict and an open homosexual, his eccentricities simply make him more beloved by the Blues and Jazz community. He studied Classical piano until he was 12 years old, thus accounting for his extremely proficient technical skills. This disc is highly recommended.