Little Brother Montgomery

Infobox musical artist
Name = Little Brother Montgomery


Img_capt = 'Little Brother Montgomery on cover of Magpie PY 4451
Img_size = 200
Landscape =
Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Eurreal Wilford Montgomery
Alias = Little Brother Montgomery
Born = birth date|1906|04|18
Died = death date and age|1985|09|06|1906|04|18
Origin = Kentwood, Louisiana
Instrument = Vocals
Piano
Voice_type =
Genre = Jazz
Blues music
Occupation = Pianist
Vocalist
Years_active =
Label =
Associated_acts = Lil Hardin Armstrong
Buddy Petit
URL =
Current_members =
Past_members =
Notable_instruments = Piano

Eurreal Wilford "Little Brother" Montgomery (18 April 1906 – 6 September 1985 [ [http://wc02.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:hifyxq95ld0e~T1 All Music Guide biography] ] ) was a jazz and blues pianist and singer.

Largely self-taught, Montgomery is often thought of as just a blues pianist, but he was an important blues pianist with an original style. He was also quite versatile, however, and worked in jazz bands including larger ensembles that used written arrangements. Although he did not read music, he learned band routines by ear, once through an arrangement and he had it memorized. He was a singer with an immediately recognizable, rather affecting wobble: an oral historian as full of musical anecdotes as Jelly Roll Morton.cite book
first= Tony
last= Russell
year= 1997
title= The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray
edition=
publisher= Carlton Books Limited
location= Dubai
pages= p. 146
id= ISBN 1-85868-255-X]

Career

Montgomery was born in the town of Kentwood, Louisiana, a sawmill town near the Mississippi Border, across Lake Pontchartrain from the city of New Orleans, where he spent much of his childhood. As a child he looked like his father, Harper Montgomery, and was called Little Brother Harper. The name evolved into Little Brother Montgomery, a nickname which stuck. He started playing piano at the age of 4, and by age 11 he was playing at various barrelhouses in Louisiana. His own musical influences were Jelly Roll Morton who used visit the Montgomery household.

Early on he played at African American lumber and turpentine camps in Louisiana and Mississippi, then with the bands of Clarence Desdunes and Buddy Petit. He first went to Chicago from 1928 to 1931, where he made his first recordings. From 1931 through 1938 he led a band in Jackson.

In 1942 Montgomery moved back to Chicago, which would be his base for the rest of his life, with various tours to other United States cities and Europe. His repertoire alternated between blues and traditional jazz (he played Carnegie Hall with Kid Ory's Dixieland band in 1949). [ [http://wc02.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:hifyxq95ld0e~T1 All Music Guide biography] ] In the late 1950s he was "discovered" by wider white audiences. He toured briefly with Otis Rush in 1956. [ [http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=9523 Allboutjazz.com - accessed January 2008] ] His fame grew in the 1960s, and he continued to make many recordings, including on his own record label, FM Records (formed in 1969) [ [http://wc02.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:hifyxq95ld0e~T1 All Music Guide biography] ] . FM came from Floberg, his wife Jan's maiden name and Montgomery, his own surname.

These and other recordings added momentum to Montgomery’s career and he became a world traveller, visiting the UK and Europe on several occasions during the 1960s, cutting several of his 20-odd albums there, while remaining based in Chicago.cite book
first= Tony
last= Russell
year= 1997
title= The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray
edition=
publisher= Carlton Books Limited
location= Dubai
pages= p. 146
id= ISBN 1-85868-255-X] Montgomery appeared at many blues and folk festivals during the following decade and was considered a living legend, a link to the early days of blues and New Orleans. [ [http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=9523 Allboutjazz.com - accessed January 2008] ]

Among his original compositions are "Shreveport Farewell", "Farrish Street Jive", and "Vicksburg Blues".

Montgomery died on September 6 1985 in Champaign, Illinois, and is interred in the Oak Woods Cemetery.

Paul Gayten is his nephew.

ee also

*List of Chicago blues musicians
*Adelphi Records
*77 Records
*
*List of people from Louisiana
*List of blues musicians

Further information

*"The Story of Little Brother Montgomery" by Karl Gurt Zer Heide, published by Studio Vista, London, in 1970, provides an overview of his life and early career.

*The October 1985 issue of "The Mississippi Rag" has an article on Little Brother Montgomery by Paige Van Vorst. This article was revised and updated and included in the liner notes of the 1990 album "Little Brother Montgomery - At Home" (posthumously issued as Earwig 4918). These articles provide an overview of his life and musical career.

*The 2 LP Set "Little Brother Montgomery - Crescent City Blues" (AXM2-5522), published by RCA in 1975, featuring many of his Bluebird records from the mid 1930s also has comprehensive liner notes giving an overview of his musical career. They were written by Jim O'Neal, the editor of "Living Blues" magazine, in Chicago, August, 1975.

*cite book | author = Oliver, Paul | title = Conversation With the Blues | publisher = Cassell, London | year = 1965 | id = ISBN 3-85445-065-6 , published in 1965 and re-issued by Cambridge University Press in 1997, includes interviews with Little Brother Montgomery.

References

External links

* [http://www.wirz.de/music/montgome.htm Illustrated Little Brother Montgomery discography]
* [http://wc02.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:hifyxq95ld0e~T1 Montgomery biography] at Allmusic website