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Pinetop Perkins is one of the last great Mississippi bluesmen still
performing. He began playing blues around 1927 and is widely regarded as one of
the best blues pianists. He’s created a style of playing that has influenced
three generations of piano players and will continue to be the yardstick by
which great blues pianists are measured.
Born Willie Perkins, in Belzoni, MS, in 1913, Pinetop started out playing
guitar and piano at house parties and honky-tonks but dropped the guitar in the
1940s after sustaining a serious injury in his left arm. Perkins worked
primarily in the Mississippi Delta throughout the thirties and forties, spending
three years with Sonny Boy Williamson on the King Biscuit Time radio show on
KFFA, Helena, Arkansas. Pinetop also toured extensively with slide guitar player
Robert Nighthawk and backed him on an early Chess session. After briefly working
with B.B. King in Memphis, Perkins barnstormed the South with Earl Hooker during
the early fifties. The pair completed a session for Sam Phillips’ famous Sun
Records in 1953. It was at this session that he recorded his version of Pinetop
Smith’s Boogie Woogie.
Still, with recent successes the exception, Pinetop is best known for holding
down the piano chair in the great Muddy Waters Band for twelve years during the
highest point of Muddy’s career. Replacing the late, great Otis Spann in 1969,
Pinetop helped shape the Waters sound and anchored Muddy’s memorable combo
throughout the seventies with his brilliant piano solos. In 1980, Pinetop and
other Waters alumni decided to go out on their own and formed the Legendary
Blues Band. Legendary recorded two records for Rounder and toured extensively.
Pinetop, who had been labeled a sideman throughout most of his career,
eventually left Legendary to concentrate on a solo career. Within two years, he
had his first domestic record as a frontman and had a most impressive touring
schedule. Since going solo, Pinetop has been featured on many nationally
syndicated news and music shows, and appeared in numerous movie productions, as
well as television and radio ads. He has also headlined nearly every major
showcase room in North America and most of the major festivals around the world.
It’s certainly ironic that Pinetop waited for his eighth decade to blossom as
a headliner releasing 15 solo records in 15 years beginning in 1992. Born In
the Delta (a multimedia enhanced CD), his Telarc debut, documented an
amazing historical figure and had an abundance of entertainment value for a
contemporary audience. On his 1998 release, Legends, Pinetop collaborated
with master blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin. Together, they blended the
traditional delta blues sound with modern electric blues rock, showcasing the
spirit and energy of the music. Both CDs were nominated for Grammy’s –in 1997
and 2000 respectively. This was followed by a 2005 Grammy nomination for Ladies Man released by MC Records.
In 2005 he was also presented with a lifetime achievement award at the
Grammy’s. In 2000 he received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National
Endowment of the Arts. He has been featured in the documentary
Piano Blues
directed by Clint Eastwood for the Martin Scorsese PBS series, The Blues.
In addition, he continued to win the Blues Music Award for best blues piano
every year until 2003 when he was retired from that award, which now bears his
name--the Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year.
In 2007, still on the road in his 94th year, Pinetop Perkins’ unique
life was chronicled in Peter Carlson’s biographical documentary DVD,
Born In
The Honey, which includes a live CD with a rare studio outtake track.
Beyond his musical accomplishments Pinetop is a friendly, charming, and
gentle man. He says yes to everything and goes where he's taken, but somehow,
life turns out well for him. He's quick to joke and play with words and he still
goes out every night. He loves people and makes everyone around him feel good.
Then he plays the piano and sings his blues and brings us his special gift.
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