Blue Nile Celebrates Black History - James Booker

“Nobody played any of what I just played till Booker came up with some of that kind of stuff,” Dr. John says after demonstrating Booker’s style on the song “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean.”

The Piano Prince.

As a piano player from New Orleans, he has no peers,though there is legion of those who have tried to imitate, duplicate and emulate his phenomenal approach on the keys.

James Carroll Booker III was born in New Orleans on December 17, 1939, son of a minister, who played piano. It was his sister’s music teacher who taught him piano scales and to read music. He was known for his musical gifts at an early age, and was considered a piano prodigy, giving classical recitals at age six, and continued classical training until twelve. He was acknowledged to have perfect pitch, instant musical recall, and a photographic memory in sight reading. He was playing Chopin, Erroll Garner, and Liberace, and could play their solos from memory. He would sneak out and play boogie woogie, and also learned local music from Tuts Washington, a family friend.

If in NOLA, check out this mural. It was painted by an artist who goes by Preacher, who based it on a photograph by Jim Scheurich. The image, produced through the NOLA Mural Project, shows Booker after he lost his left eye under mysterious circumstances around 1974.

James Carroll Booker III (1939 – 1983), called the Piano Prince of New Orleans, the Bayou Maharaja, and the Black Liberace among other titles, was a virtuoso pianist and organist, and a legendary New Orleans character.