Mono Mondays: Professor Longhair, New Orleans Piano

This week’s Mono Monday release is a compilation rather than a studio album, but it’s an important compilation, one which provides a glimpse into the New Orleans sound circa the late 1940s and early 1950s via the early recordings of a gentlemen named Henry Roeland Byrd, known to his friends as Roy and to fans of his music as the one and only Professor Longhair.

Originally released in 1972, New Orleans Piano is a compilation of material recorded by the good Professor between 1949 and 1952, including his take on “Tipitina,” which joined the US National Recording Registry in 2011, but there’s much more in the mix to enjoy, including “Mardi Gras in New Orleans,” “She Walks Right In,” “Walk Your Blues Away,” and a dozen others. In fact, when Rolling Stone compiled its 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, New Orleans Piano was sitting in the #220 spot, which is a remarkably strong showing for an album which was far more influential than it ever was commercially successful.

Professor Longhair continued his career as a performing and recording artist all the way up until his death in 1980 at the age of 61, releasing some highly entertaining in his later years, including the trifecta of Rock ‘n Roll Gumbo (1977), Live on the Queen Mary (1980), and Crawfish Fiesta (1980), but if you’re in search of a single-disc look into his early career, New Orleans Piano is absolutely indispensible.