professor longhair, “hey now baby”
from: new orleans piano, 1949
In 2:54 you are presented with a succinctly complete mini encyclopedia of iconic New Orleans piano riffs. The vocals are spooky good too! Someone should do a biopic about Fess’s life with the scene in which a young musicologist finds him sweeping up in front a record store and the machinations which leads to the re-release of his chestnut “New Orleans Piano lp.” Timing is everything of which he was the king. There are lots of piano-sonic references to the sounds you would hear from a bugle at a horse race. You can bet on the Professor to bring it home properly down the stretch.
