Champion Jack Dupree

Champion Jack Dupree

Dupree performing at the
Dennis Swing Club, Hamburg
Background information
Birth name William Thomas Dupree
Also known as Champion Jack Dupree, Harelip Jack Dupree
Born Disputed, 1908-10
Died January 21, 1992 (age 81-83)
Hanover, Germany
Genres Blues, boogie-woogie
Occupation(s) Pianist
Instruments Piano
Labels Atlantic, Okeh, Blue Horizon

William Thomas Dupree, best known as Champion Jack Dupree, was an American blues pianist. His birth date has been given as July 4, July 10, and July 23, 1908, 1909, or 1910. He died on January 21, 1992.

Biography

Champion Jack Dupree was a New Orleans blues and boogie-woogie pianist, a barrelhouse "professor". His father was from the Belgian Congo and his mother was part African American and Cherokee. He was orphaned at the age of two, and sent to the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs, the alma mater of Louis Armstrong.

He taught himself piano there and later apprenticed with Tuts Washington and Willie Hall,[1][2] whom he called his 'father' and from whom he learned "Junker's Blues". He was also "spy boy" for the Yellow Pochahantas tribe of Mardi Gras Indians and soon began playing in barrelhouses and other drinking establishments.

He began a life of travelling, living in Chicago, where he worked with Georgia Tom, and in Indianapolis, Indiana where he met Scrapper Blackwell and Leroy Carr. While always playing piano he also worked as a cook. In Detroit, after Joe Louis encouraged him to become a boxer, he fought in 107 bouts, winning Golden Gloves and other championships and picking up the nickname 'Champion Jack', which he used the rest of his life.

He returned to Chicago at the age of 30 and joined a circle of recording artists, including Big Bill Broonzy and Tampa Red, who introduced him to the record producer Lester Melrose, who claimed composer credit and publishing on many of Dupree's songs. Dupree's career was interrupted by military service in World War II. He was a cook in the United States Navy and spent two years as a Japanese prisoner of war.

Afterwards his biggest commercial success was "Walkin' the Blues", which he recorded as a duet with Teddy McRae. This led to several national tours, and eventually to a European tour.

Dupree moved to Europe in 1960, first settling in Switzerland and then Denmark, England, Sweden and, finally, Germany.[3] During the 1970s and 1980s he lived at Ovenden in Halifax, England,[4] and a piano used by Dupree was later re-discovered at Calderdale College in Halifax.[5] Dupree continued to record in Europe with Kenn Lending Band, Louisiana Red and Axel Zwingenberger and made many live appearances, still working as a cook specializing in New Orleans cuisine. He returned to the United States from time to time and appeared at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

Dupree died of cancer on January 21, 1992 in Hanover, Germany.

Musical style and output

Dupree's playing was almost all straight blues and boogie-woogie. He was not a sophisticated musician or singer, but he had a wry and clever way with words: "Mama, move your false teeth, papa wanna scratch your gums." He sometimes sang as if he had a cleft palate and even recorded under the name Harelip Jack Dupree. This was an artistic conceit, as Dupree had excellent, clear articulation, particularly for a blues singer. Dupree would occasionally indulge in a vocalese style of sung word play, similar to Slim Gaillard's "Vout", as in his "Mr. Dupree Blues" included on The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions album.

He sang about life, jail, drinking and drug addiction; although he himself was a light drinker and did not use other drugs. His "Junker's Blues" was also transmogrified by Fats Domino into his first hit, "The Fat Man".[3] Dupree's songs included not only gloomy topics, such as "TB Blues" and "Angola Blues" (about Angola Prison, the infamous Louisiana prison farm), but also cheerful subjects like the "Dupree Shake Dance": "Come on, mama, on your hands and knees, do that shake dance as you please".

On his best known album, Blues from the Gutter for Atlantic, in 1959 he was accompanied on guitar by Larry Dale, whose playing on that record inspired Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones. Dupree was also noted as a raconteur and transformed many of his stories into songs. "Big Leg Emma's" takes its place in the roots of rap music as the rhymed tale of a police raid on a barrelhouse. In later years he recorded with John Mayall, Mick Taylor, Eric Clapton and The Band.[3]

Although Jerry Lee Lewis did not record Dupree's "Shake Baby Shake", the lyrics in his version of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" - "You can shake it one time for me!" - echo Dupree's song.

Although best known as a singer and pianist in the New Orleans style, Dupree occasionally pursued more musically adventurous projects, including Dupree `n` McPhee, a collaboration with English guitarist Tony McPhee, recorded for Blue Horizon Records.

Quotations

"…If you ever had the blues, and you know this how I feel
Like this whole world against you, and nothing don’t seem to be...
White man never have the blues, he only feels bad,
Only a black man have the blues, because he has so much trouble,
And that is automatically given the blues
But I know many white men that they would like to have the blues
But they just don’t have that feeling, It feels bad all right...
Blues is a wonderful thing, when you know you don’t have nothing
You don’t have nothing to worry about…
That’s the way we live, and that’s the feeling we have all the time...
But we always have faith, that we’ll wake up tomorrow and find something
We don’t be worried about killing ourselves cause we don’t have nothing
We just sing our blues away, we sing our feeling out.
"Mama bought a chicken, she took him for a duck
Laid him on the table with his legs stuck up
Yonder come the children with a spoon and a glass
Catch the gravy droppin' from his yes, yes, yes"
"I know you people, I know you glad you ain't one of me
I know you people glad, I know you glad you white and free
Oh yeah, white and free, oh, what will, what will become of me?
Oh I am begging, yes, I'm begging to be free"

Discography

Original 10" shellac (78rpm) and 7" vinyl (45rpm) releases

12" LPs

CD releases/compilations of note

References

  1. ↑ Lichtenstein, Grace and Dankner, Laura Musical gumbo: the music of New Orleans W.W. Norton, 1993 ISBN 0-393-03468-2, ISBN 978-0-393-03468-4 at Google Books
  2. ↑ Broven, John Rhythm & blues in New Orleans Pelican Publishing Company, 1983 ISBN 0-88289-433-1, ISBN 978-0-88289-433-1 at Google Books
  3. 1 2 3 4 Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues - From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books Limited. pp. 107–108. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
  4. ↑ "Small Town Saturday Night". Small Town Saturday Night. Retrieved 2014-06-14.
  5. ↑ "Sound file". Sounduk.net. Retrieved 2014-06-14.
  6. ↑ Blues Britannia: Can Blue Men Sing the Whites? BBC Four, 2009.
  7. ↑ "Smithsonian Folkways - The Women Blues of Champion Jack Dupree - Champion Jack Dupree". Folkways.si.edu. 2013-03-20. Retrieved 2014-06-14.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, February 01, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.