Erwin Helfer

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Erwin Helfer
Born January 20, 1936 (1936-01-20) (age 72)
Origin Flag of the United States Chicago, Illinois, USA
Genre(s) Boogie woogie, Blues, Jazz
Occupation(s) Pianist
Instrument(s) Piano
Years active 1970s – Present
Label(s) Red Beans, Flying Fish
Website Erwin Helfer official website

Erwin Helfer (born January 20, 1936 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American boogie woogie, blues, jazz pianist.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Born and raised in Chicago, and as a child was more interested in classical music than blues. Helfer was introduced to piano blues as a young teenager growing up in Chicago in the early '50s, the heyday of the city's blues clubs. Once Helfer discovered the blues he enrolled at Tulane University in New Orleans, completing college with a degree in music. Spent time outside of class studying piano style of Crescent City pianists Archibald and Professor Longhair. Helfer began his professional career when Estelle Yancey, wife of pianist and boogie-woogie pioneer Jimmy Yancey, coaxed him to fill in for her accompanist, Little Brother Montgomery. His initial performance with Yancey led to a long-term professional partnership with the singer that lasted to her death in 1986 at age ninety.[1]

In 1982 Helfer began his own record company, Red Beans, and released albums by Estelle Yancey, Blind John Davis, Johnny "Big Moose" Walker, and other Chicago blues artists. He was nominated for the Blues Music Awards in 2003, for "Comeback Blues Album of the Year", for his cd I'm Not Hungry But I Like To Eat - Blues.[2] Recently he has played at the Chicago Jazz Festival, 2005-2007; Hungary's Debrecen Jazz Festival, 2005, and throughout the Chicago's blues clubs.

[edit] Selective discography

Year Title Genre Label
2005 Careless Love Blues, Boogie, Jazz The Sirens Records
2003 St. James Infirmary w/Skinny Williams Jazz, Blues and R&B Sirens
2001 I'm Not Hungry But I Like To Eat - Blues Blues, Boogie, Jazz Sirens
1987 Chicago Piano Blues, Jazz Red Beans
1979 On the Sunny Side of The Street Blues, Jazz Flying Fish
1976 Boogie Piano Chicago Style Boogie Big Bear
1974 Blues, Boogie Woogie Piano Duets & Solos Blues, Boogie Flying Fish

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Santelli, Robert. The Big Book of Blues, Penguin Books, page 201, (2001) - ISBN 0141001453
  2. ^ Blues Music Awards Database

[edit] External links