Champion Jack Dupree – Early Cuts From A Singer, Pianist And Songwriter Who Took Blues To The World (4 CD, 2009)

 

The most likely date for Champion Jack's birthday is July 23, 1908 or 1909. His parents (mother Creole, father from the Belgian Congo) ran a New Orleans grocery store. One night a kerosene container exploded, setting fire to the building. His parents died in the fire, he was thrown clear. He ended up at the same Colored Waifs Home which had raised Louis Armstrong. He left the Home aged fourteen, hoping to live with a sister. That failed and he was forced onto the streets, finally shacking up with the family of a friend. With a secure base, he began singing outside the joints on Franklin and Rampart Streets, getting close to the pianists whose playing was a daily contest. He also took up boxing, fighting for $30 or $40 a bout. Towards the end of the 1920s, he set off north. Sometime in 1935 he met Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell. Elements of Carr's style stayed in Jack's repertoire for the rest of his life. Boxing took him to Chicago and New York and he also took work as a musician or a cook. After losing a fight with a Bob Montgomery, he quit the ring. He developed an act, which featured him as a musician, dancer and comedian. He started to get noticed. In a trip to Chicago, while hanging out with Tampa Red, he was signed by Lester Melrose. Billed as Champion Jack Dupree, he made his recording debut on June 13, 1940. Champion Jack's first records reveal an enthusiastic and competent pianist whose lyrics instantly hit the spot, especially those dealing with gambling and the chain gang. His engaging vocal style echoed Leroy Carr. Although never highly paid, Jack established himself as part of the Blues scene in Chicago. He was drafted in 1942, and spent over two years away. During his absence, his wife died, and on return to the US, he settled in New York, where he'd made a handful of recordings while on leave. On April 3, 1945 (before the end of the war) he signed with Beacon Records for whom he recorded eight titles. He was back in the game.

 

 

Champion Jack Dupree - The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions [2 CD, 2005/FLAC]

 

Champion Jack Dupree was one of the first American blues performers to leave the States and settle in Europe, where racial restrictions were less prominent. Arriving on the Continent in 1959, Dupree was well established and in a good position to take advantage of the British blues boom when it hit in the early to mid-'60s. Never one to let contractual obligations stand in the way of a recording session, Dupree tracked sides for a wide array of European labels, including several for Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon Records in 1968 and 1969, which resulted in two LPs, When You Feel the Feeling You Was Feeling and Scooby Dooby Doo, a scattering of singles, and a live set for a projected third album that was never released. All of that material -- 38 tracks in all -- is presented here in this wonderfully varied two-disc compilation. Dupree began his musical journey as a barrelhouse New Orleans piano player, and elements of that driving style stayed with him throughout his 50-year recording career (he first cut a record in 1940 and was still active as a performer when he died in 1992), but along the way he also developed into a complete entertainer, exceedingly casual and comfortable around audiences, capable of delivering thundering, gutbucket blues pieces, but also able to turn things smooth and elegant (witness his almost Vegas-styled jazz take on "The Sheik of Araby," included on the second disc here). That versatility is certainly on display in this anthology, which features Dupree working both solo and with crackerjack young British blues musicians, and the live tracks included allow a glimpse at Dupree's loose and confident stage manner. Among the highlights in this well-sequenced set are his signature "See My Milk Cow," a stomping version of "A Racehorse Called Mae," a delightfully wry "My Home's in Hell," and the absolutely churning, burning, and rocking "Grandma (You're a Bit Too Slow)." Dupree's huge personality shines through in track after track, and because of that, and because of the variety of musical settings, The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions makes a nice and substantial introduction to this engaging musician.