Roosevelt Sykes

• Born: January 31, 1906, Elmar, AR
• Died: July 17, 1983, New Orleans, LA
• Active: '20s, '30s, '40s, '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s
• Genres: Blues
• Instrument: Piano, Vocals
• Representative Albums: "Roosevelt Sykes (1929-1941)," "The Honeydripper," "Hard Drivin' Blues"
• Representative Songs: "44 Blues," "Night Time Is the Right Time," "The Honeydripper"

Biography

Next time someone voices the goofball opinion that blues is simply too depressing to embrace, sit 'em down and expose 'em to a heady dose of Roosevelt Sykes. If he doesn't change their minds, nothing will.

There was absolutely nothing downbeat about this roly-poly, effervescent pianist (nicknamed "Honeydripper" for his youthful prowess around the girls), whose lengthy career spanned the pre-war and postwar eras with no interruption whatsoever. Sykes's romping boogies and hilariously risqué lyrics (his double-entendre gems included "Dirty Mother for You," "Ice Cream Freezer," and "Peeping Tom") characterize his monumental contributions to the blues idiom -- he was a pioneering piano-pounder responsible for the seminal pieces "44 Blues," "Driving Wheel," and "Night Time Is the Right Time."

Sykes began playing while growing up in Helena. At age 15, he hit the road, developing his rowdy barrelhouse style around the blues-fertile St. Louis area. Sykes began recording in 1929 for OKeh and was signed to four different labels the next year under four different names (he was variously billed as Dobby Bragg, Willie Kelly, and Easy Papa Johnson)! Sykes joined Decca Records in 1935, where his popularity blossomed.

After relocating to Chicago, Sykes inked a pact with Bluebird in 1943 and recorded prolifically for the RCA subsidiary with his combo, the Honeydrippers, scoring a pair of R&B hits in 1945 (covers of Cecil Gant's "I Wonder" and Joe Liggins's "The Honeydripper"). The following year, he scored one more national chart item for the parent Victor logo, the lowdown blues "Sunny Road." He also often toured and recorded with singer St. Louis Jimmy Oden, the originator of the classic "Going Down Slow."

In 1951, Sykes joined Chicago's United Records, cutting more fine sides over the next couple of years. A pair of Dave Bartholomew-produced 1955 dates for Imperial in New Orleans included a rollicking version of "Sweet Home Chicago" that presaged all the covers that would surface later on. A slew of albums for Bluesville, Folkways, Crown, and Delmark kept Sykes on the shelves during the 1960s (a time when European tours began to take up quite a bit of the pianist's itinerary). He settled in New Orleans during the late '60s, where he remained a local treasure until his death.

Precious few pianists could boast the thundering boogie prowess of Roosevelt Sykes -- and even fewer could chase away the blues with his blues as the rotund cigar-chomping 88s ace did. ~ Bill Dahl, All Music Guide

Blues Man Buy this CD	Grind It! Buy this CD	Meek Roosevelt Sykes Buy this CD	King of Barrelhouse Buy this CD	1931-1941 Buy this CD
Honeydripper [Fabulous] Buy this CD	Roosevelt Sykes: 1929-1942 Buy this CD	Way I Feel Buy this CD	Honeydripper's Ball Buy this CD	Music Is My Business [Corazong] Buy this CD

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blues musician; pianist

Personal Information

Born January 31, 1906, in Elmar, Arkansas, died in New Orleans, Louisiana, on July 17, 1984.

Career

Around age ten played church organ; 1918 taught himself piano; from 1921 left home to play barrelhouses in West Helena; during the mid 1920s worked nightspots in Lake Providence, Louisiana; moved to St. Louis late 1920s; recorded on Okeh label 1929 and Victor in 1930; performed in Memphis in early 1930s; recorded for Bluebird label in Chicago 1933; recorded with the Decca label 1934-1941; formed the Honeydrippers in 1943 and played venues in the South; recorded on Victor label 1945-1949 and Specialty 1946-1947; on Regal label 1949; recorded for the United label 1951-1954 and Imperial in 1954; played club dates in Mississippi and St. Louis during late 1950s; recorded for Bluesville label 1960; worked Chicago clubs early 1960s; recorded for Delmark label 1963; toured with the American Folk Blues Festival 1965-1966; performed at Ann Arbor Blues Festival 1969-1970 and Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival 1973; performed colleges and clubs throughout 1970s and early 1980s.

Life's Work

Considered by musicians and music historians as the father of the modern blues piano style, Roosevelt Sykes possessed a beautiful voice and a unique keyboard style that was often imitated by other blues pianists. During the 1930s, he performed with sidemen ranging from jazz drummer "Big" Sid Catlett to slide guitarist James "Kokmo" Arnold. He also performed solo piano pieces. A genial man with a vibrant personality, Sykes was the consummate entertainer. He often delighted audiences both in Europe and the United States with blues and ragtime-influenced songs filled with risque humor. By the 1940s, Sykes had incorporated elements of jump blues into his music and he continued to entertain audiences on a full-time basis until his death in 1984.

Roosevelt Sykes was born on January 31, 1906, in Elmar, Arkansas, a community he later described in Honkers and Shouters, as "Just a little sawmill town." In 1909, Sykes moved with his family to St. Louis, Missouri. He often returned to his grandfather's farm near West Helena and played the organ in a local church. By 1918 he had taught himself the art of blues piano and, three years later, left home to work as an itinerant pianist in gambling establishments and barrelhouses throughout Louisiana and Mississippi. He led the life of a rambler, playing music in order to survive. As Sykes told Margaret McKee and Fred Chisenhall in Beale Black & Blue, "When I did get started, I wouldn't do nothing else, just play piano ... If I didn't play, I didn't eat."

While in St. Louis, Sykes performed as a soloist and occasionally played with other musicians like guitarist Big Joe Williams. He later attributed his early piano influences to local St. Louis musicians such as "Red Eye" Jesse Bell, Joe Crump, and Baby Sneed. However, his most important mentor was "Pork Chop" Lee Green, who taught Sykes a rendition of the "Forty-Four Blues" piano style. As Peter J. Sylvester observed in A Left Hand Like God, "'The Forty- Four Blues' was a popular theme in the South and many pianists attempted to master its intricate separated rhythms in the bass and treble."

In 1929 Sykes met Jesse Johnson, the owner of the Deluxe Record Shop in St. Louis. Sykes, who at the time performed at an East St. Louis club for one dollar a night, quickly accepted Johnson's invitation to a recording session in New York. Accompanied by Johnson, Sykes arrived at the Okeh Studios in New York in June of 1929. He recorded several numbers, including a version of "Forty- Four Blues" which featured vocals based on the theme of a .44 pistol. During the same year, while attending a recording session for Paramount, Sykes received the nickname "The Honey Dripper" from a song written by singer Edith Johnson. Although some people speculated that this nickname was a reference to Sykes's sexual prowess, Johnson contended that she gave him the nickname in reference to his kind disposition and outgoing personality.

In the early 1930s, Sykes moved to Chicago. During the Depression years, he recorded for several labels under various pseudonyms. For the Victor label, he recorded as Willie Kelly on the classic 1930 side "32-20 Blues." Two years later, he cut his popular number "Highway 61 Blues" for Champion, the subsidiary label of Gennett Records. During the 1930s, Sykes served as a back-up pianist for more than thirty singers including Mary Johnson and James "St. Louis Jimmy" Oden.

Through the recruiting efforts of Mayo "Ink" Williams, Sykes signed with Decca Records in 1934. His 1936 Decca side "Driving Wheel Blues" emerged as a blues classic. Sykes settled in Chicago in 1941 and, within a short time, became a house musician for the Victor/Bluebird label. Although the label marketed him as the successor to Fats Waller, who recorded on the same label and died in 1943, Sykes found success as the creator of his own style and remained active as a session man, recording with such musicians as Robert Brown (Washboard Sam). While in Chicago, Sykes formed his own group, The Honeydrippers, in 1943. The Honeydrippers consisted of twelve musicians, including many of Chicago's finest horn players. Traveling with his group, Sykes played venues like the Palace Theater in Memphis. While performing with The Honeydrippers, Sykes worked to conform his loose, solo-oriented piano style to formal chord sequences. He recalled in Beale Black & Blue that he, "took up harmony, by having me a band. I had to tell the fellows what I wanted them to do.... But I didn't play what I told them, see, 'cause I never could play anything over again just alike."

Following the end of World War II in 1945, Sykes continued to perform and recorded with several labels. In the liner notes to Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival 1973, John Sinclair noted: "The music of Roosevelt Sykes, so timelessly buoyant, so fresh and personal at times, transcended every vagary of the marketplace and lived a vibrant life of its own, no matter what current fads of stylistic alterations held sway, all through the turbulent years between 1929 and 1949." Sykes moved to New Orleans in 1954 and, despite the decreasing popularity of the blues during the mid-1950s, continued to play in small clubs around the Crescent City. He returned briefly to St. Louis in 1958 and then moved to Chicago in 1960, where he was "rediscovered" by enthusiasts of the folk music revival.

The folk and blues revivals of the 1960s marked the resurgence of Sykes's career. By the early 1960s, he recorded for Bob Koester's Delmark label, cutting the album Mistake in Life. In 1961, Sykes toured Europe and appeared in the Belgian film Roosevelt Sykes: the Honeydripper. In 1965 and 1966, he toured with the American Folk Blues Festival. While in Europe in 1966, Sykes cut the album Roosevelt Sykes, Gold Mine for Delmark. He also recorded for specialty labels such as Bluesville, Storyville, and Folkways.

Sykes moved to New Orleans in the late 1960s and often played at the Court of the Two Sisters. He appeared as the opening act for the first annual Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1969, playing before an audience of cheering young admirers. As Bob Koester recalled, in the liner notes to Roosevelt Sykes, Gold Mine, "He wound up in an historic confrontation-duo with the King of the Blues himself. I will never forget this set--B. B. left the stand with tears in his eyes." Sykes opened the Ann Arbor Blues Festival in the fall of 1970 and, as Jim O'Neal noted in the Down Beat review of the event, "barrelhoused his way through an enjoyable set."

Sykes appeared in the French film Blues Under the Skin in 1972. In September 1973, he made a triumphant return to the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival and his set was recorded on the album Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival, Volume 3. That same year, Delmark released Sykes's album Feel Like Blowing My Horn, featuring such Chicago- based bluesmen as guitarist Robert Lockwood, Jr. and drummer Fred Below. In 1976, he took part in the BBC television series The Devil's Music-A History of the Blues. He also appeared on John Hammond Jr.'s 1978 Vanguard album Footwork as a guest performer. Sykes continued to perform at festivals and in concert until his death from a heart attack on July 17, 1984, in New Orleans.

Roosevelt Sykes was a man who possessed incredible musical talent, as well as the ability to communicate with people from all walks of life. Sykes cited the real inspiration behind his musical talent in Beale Black & Blue, "Blues is a talent you're born with from God. He gave me the gift. I didn't even take a lesson in my life."

Works

Selective Discography

• Solo work Roosevelt Sykes (1929-1941), Story of the Blues, 1988.
• Roosevelt Sykes, 1929-1934, Matchbox.
• Roosevelt Sykes Vol. 2 1936-1951, Blues Documents.
• Boogie Honky Tonk, Oldie Blues.
• Dirty Mother for You, Bluetime.
• Hard Driving Blues, Delmark, 1995.
• Feel Like Blowing My Horn, Delmark, 1973.
• Gold Mine, Delmark, 1992.
• Raining In My Heart, Delmark, 1987.
• At Webster College, Document.
• The Country Blues Piano Ace, Yazoo.
• Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival 1973, Vol. 3, Schoolkids Records, 1996.

With others

• Blues Piano Orgy, Delmark, 1996.
• The Blues Of Lonnie Johnson, Swaggie (import).
• Washboard Sam, Rockin' My Blues Away, RCA (Bluebird) Heritage Series, 1992.
• John Hammond, Footwork, Vanguard, 1978.

Collections

• Postscripts, 1927-1933. The Piano Blues, Vol. 5, Magpie.
• Hard Time Blues: St.Louis, 1933-1940, Mamlish.
• Nashville Jumps-R&B from Bullet, 1946-1953, Krazy Kat.
• Memphis and The Delta-1950s, Blues Classics.
• Legends of the Blues Vol. 2, Columbia, 1991.
• The Blues: A Smithsonian Collection of the Classic Blues Singers, Sony Music, 1993.

Further Reading

Books

• McKee, Margaret and Fred Chisenhall, Beale Black & Blue: Life and Music on Black America's Street, Louisiana State University Press, 1981.
• Shaw, Arnold, Honkers and Shouters: Golden Years of Rhythm & Blues, MacMillan Pub. Co. Inc., 1978.
• Silvester, Peter J., A Left Hand Like God: A History of Boogie Woogie Piano, Da Capo, 1988.

Liner notes

• Koester, Bob, Roosevelt Sykes, Gold Mine, Delmark 1992.
• Sinclair, John Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival 1973, Vol. 3, Schoolkids Records, 1996.

Periodicals

• Down Beat, October 1, 1970; March 1994; May 1997.
• Entertainment Weekly, September 15, 1995.
• Living Blues, Autumn 1983.

— John Cohassey

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