Iromeio "Romeo" Nelson (March 12, 1902 – May 17, 1974) 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 ...
pianist whose recordings from 1929 are regarded as some of the finest, and certainly the fastest, boogie woogie showpieces on record.
Born in
Springfield, Tennessee
Springfield is the county seat of Robertson County, Tennessee, United States. It is located in Middle Tennessee near the northern border of the state. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 18,782.
History
US 431 and US 4 ...
, he moved to
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
at the age of six. For most of his life he played piano at rent parties in the city, although he also lived in East St. Louis for a while in the early 1920s.
In 1929, he made his only series of recordings for
Vocalion Records
Vocalion Records is an American record label, originally founded by the Aeolian Company, a piano and organ manufacturer before being bought out by Brunswick in 1924.
History
The label was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Company, a maker of pi ...
. These included "Gettin' Dirty Just Shakin' That Thing", renowned for its raunchy "
signifying
Signifyin' (sometimes written "signifyin(g)") is a practice in African-American culture involving a verbal strategy of indirection that exploits the gap between the denotative and figurative meanings of words. A simple example would be insulting ...
" lyrics, and "Head Rag Hop", featuring talking by
Tampa Red
Hudson Whittaker (born Hudson Woodbridge; January 8, 1903March 19, 1981), known as Tampa Red, was an American Chicago blues musician.
His distinctive single-string slide guitar style, songwriting and bottleneck technique influenced other Chicago ...
and
Frankie Jaxon
Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon, born Frank Devera Jackson (March 3, 1896 or 1897 – May 15, 1953),Legal name and birth/death dates from headstone application as a military veteran, reproduced in Brian BergerFrankie Jaxon Hilobrow, 2013-02-03. Acces ...
.Peter J. Silvester, ''A Left Hand Like God : a history of boogie-woogie piano'' (1989), pp. 263-264, Da Capo,
"Head Rag Hop" also was released on the Brunswick Collector Series label, which read: "Head Rag Hop", Romeo Nelson, recorded September 1929. On the
b-side
The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...
of this 78 rpm record is "Wilkins Street Stomp", by
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 ...
. The record was part of a Brunswick album titled: ''Boogie Woogie Piano, Historic Recordings by Pioneer Piano Men.'' Also featured were:
Montana Taylor
Arthur "Montana" Taylor (1903 – c.1958) Retrieved 26 September 2016 was an American
Cow Cow Davenport
Charles Edward "Cow Cow" Davenport (April 23, 1894 – December 3, 1955) was an American boogie-woogie and piano blues player as well as a vaudeville entertainer. He also played the organ and sang.
Davenport, who also made recordings under th ...
.Brunswick Collector Series Album No. B-1005.
Nelson died of
renal failure
Kidney failure, also known as renal failure or end-stage renal disease (ESRD), is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney fa ...
, in
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...