Lawrence "Booker T." Laury (September 2, 1914 – September 23, 1995) was an American

boogie-woogie Boogie-woogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, but already developed in African-American communities since the 1870s.Paul, Elliot, ''That Crazy American Music'' (1957), Chapter 10, p. 229. It was eventually ex ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

pianist and singer. Laury worked with

Memphis Slim John Len Chatman (September 3, 1915 – February 24, 1988), known professionally as Memphis Slim, was an American blues pianist, singer, and composer. He led a series of bands that, reflecting the popular appeal of jump blues, included saxopho ...

and

Mose Vinson Mose Vinson (June 2 or August 7, 1917 – November 16, 2002) was an American boogie-woogie, blues and jazz pianist and singer. His recordings included "Blues with a Feeling" and "Sweet Root Man". Vinson worked with Booker T. Laury and James Co ...

but did not record his debut album until he was in his late sixties. He appeared in two films: '' Great Balls of Fire!'', the biopic about

Jerry Lee Lewis Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an American pianist, singer, and songwriter. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as "rock 'n' roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis m ...

' early career, and the documentary '' Deep Blues: A Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads'', in which musicologist, writer and blues producer

Robert Palmer Robert Allen Palmer (19 January 1949 – 26 September 2003) was an English singer and songwriter. He was known for his powerful and soulful voice, sartorial elegance and stylistic explorations, combining soul, funk, jazz, rock, pop, regga ...

, along with Dave Stewart from the band Eurythmics, interview and play with blues musicians from Memphis, Tennessee, and the North Hill Country of Mississippi.

Biography

Laury was born in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

, and grew up with his lifelong friend

. At the age of six, after helping his mother play the family's

pump organ The pump organ or reed organ is a type of organ that uses free reed aerophone, free reeds to generate sound, with air passing over vibrating thin metal strips mounted in a frame. Types include the pressure-based harmonium, the suction reed organ ...

, Laury learned to play the keyboards. His barrelhouse playing style, which he developed alongside Slim, was based on the influence of the Memphis performers

Roosevelt Sykes Roosevelt Sykes (January 31, 1906July 17, 1983) was an American blues musician, also known as "the Honeydripper". Career Sykes was born the son of a musician in Elmar, Arkansas. "Just a little old sawmill town", Sykes said of his birthplace. The ...

Sunnyland Slim Albert Luandrew (September 5, 1906March 17, 1995), "Blues pianist and singer Sunnyland Slim was born Albert Luandrew in Vance, Mississippi, September 5, 1906 (most sources say 1907, but the Social Security Death Index and 1920 census data give t ...

, and

Speckled Red Rufus George Perryman (October 23, 1892 – January 2, 1973), known as Speckled Red, was an American blues and boogie-woogie piano player and singer noted for his recordings of "The Dirty Dozens", exchanges of insults and vulgar remarks that have ...

. In the early 1930s, and in the company of the younger

, Slim and Laury began playing in local clubs. In 1935, Sykes suggested to Laury and Slim that they relocate to Chicago, with a view to obtaining a

recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording act (artist or group), where the act makes an audio recording (or series of recordings) for the label to sell and ...

. Slim took the advice, but Laury remained in Memphis, where he played in gambling houses and clubs for decades. Laury had a large hand width, which enabled him to span ten keys. His playing dexterity was such that, after losing one finger on his left hand following an accident with a

circular saw A circular saw or a buzz saw, is a power-saw using a toothed or Abrasive saw, abrasive disk (mathematics), disc or blade to cut different materials using a rotary motion spinning around an Arbor (tool), arbor. A hole saw and ring saw also use ...

in the 1950s, he was still able to play well. Based around

Beale Street Beale Street is a street in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee, which runs from the Mississippi River to East Street, a distance of approximately . It is a significant location in the city's history, as well as in the history of blues music. Today, ...

in Memphis, as that area started to degenerate, Laury traveled around

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

and

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

. Despite differing fortunes, his friendship with Slim did not diminish over the years, up to Slim's death in 1988. Laury recorded his debut album in his late sixties, entitled ''Booker T. Laury and Friends: Nothing but the Blues'', released on the France-based record label Blue Silver in 1981. A 1980 Paris concert was released by Indigo Records in France in 1982. The 1989

Dennis Quaid Dennis William Quaid (born April 9, 1954) is an American actor. He is known for his starring roles in '' Breaking Away'' (1979), '' The Right Stuff'' (1983), '' The Big Easy'' (1986), '' Innerspace'' (1987), '' Great Balls of Fire!'' (1989), ' ...

film '' Great Balls of Fire!'' portrayed the young

and

Jimmy Swaggart Jimmy Lee Swaggart (; born March 15, 1935) is an American Pentecostal televangelist and gospel artist. Swaggart is one of the most well-known televangelists in America. During the 1980s, Swaggart's crusades were a major part of his ministry� ...

looking into a

juke joint Juke joint (also jukejoint, jook house, jook, or juke) is the African-American vernacular term for an informal establishment featuring music, dancing, gambling, and drinking, primarily operated by African Americans in the southeastern United St ...

to see Laury playing "Big Legged Woman." The attention helped boost Laury's popularity. In 1994, Bullseye Blues Records issued ''Nothin' but the Blues'', an album of Laury's voice and piano, performing seven original compositions, two covers, and a story about how he got the nickname "Slop Jar" from his peers. The same year, the Austrian label Wolf Records released a live album, containing concert recordings made in 1987. Laury died of cancer in September 1995, at the age of 81, in Memphis. He has a brass note on Beale Street's Walk of Fame.

Discography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laury, Booker T 1914 births 1995 deaths American blues pianists American male jazz pianists American jazz pianists American blues singers Boogie-woogie pianists Memphis blues musicians Gospel blues musicians Deaths from cancer in Tennessee 20th-century American singers 20th-century American pianists 20th-century American male singers Southland Records artists

Biography

Discography

See also

References