Champion Jack Dupree

小簡介
Champion Jack Dupree - 1909年7月23日出生于美國紐奧良，1992年1月21日去世于德國的漢諾威市。為一藍調鋼琴大師。
Champion Jack Dupree 的一生是充滿著傳奇的色彩。這位曾在二次大戰(zhàn)期間淪為日本戰(zhàn)俘二年的藍調大師，他的父母在他年幼時于一次火災中不幸喪生。根據他早期的說法指出這是出自于三K黨的惡意縱火，不過他在日后對這起事件的發(fā)生改變了說法，僅表示這起火災純粹為一意外事件。Champion Jack Dupree 自幼于孤兒院成長，在1935年前他曾是一名職業(yè)拳擊手，并且有超過一百場以上的比賽經驗。之后他放棄了拳擊手生涯來到芝加哥，實現了他在音樂上的理想。
1940 年 Champion Jack Dupree 于芝加哥展露頭角。他的音樂除了精湛的即興鋼琴演奏，歌聲中也充分的展現了美國南方鄉(xiāng)村的淳樸與熱情?；蛟S自知生命將至盡頭，Champion Jack Dupree 在1992年過世之前，曾在1990年回到家鄉(xiāng)紐澳良居住了一段時間。這一次的返鄉(xiāng)與他前一次的離開家鄉(xiāng)，期間足足相隔了三十六年。Champion Jack Dupree 最后的客死異鄉(xiāng)，或許是他這一生之中，最后的一個遺憾吧！
A formidable contender in the ring before he shifted his focus to pounding the piano instead, Champion Jack Dupree often injected his lyrics with a rowdy sense of down-home humor. But there was nothing lighthearted about his rock-solid way with a boogie; when he shouted Shake Baby Shake, the entire room had no choice but to acquiesce.
Dupree was notoriously vague about his beginnings, claiming in some interviews that his parents died in a fire set by the Ku Klux Klan, at other times saying that the blaze was accidental. Whatever the circumstances of the tragic conflagration, Dupree grew up in New Orleans Colored Waifs Home for Boys (Louis Armstrong also spent his formative years there). Learning his trade from barrelhouse 88s ace Willie Drive em Down Hall, Dupree left the Crescent City in 1930 for Chicago and then Detroit. By 1935, he was boxing professionally in Indianapolis, battling in an estimated 107 bouts.
In 1940, Dupree made his recording debut for Chicago A&R man extraordinaire Lester Melrose and OKeh Records. Duprees 1940-1941 output for the Columbia subsidiary exhibited a strong New Orleans tinge despite the Chicago surroundings; his driving Junkers Blues was later cleaned up as Fats Dominos 1949 debut, The Fat Man. After a stretch in the Navy during World War II (he was a Japanese P.O.W. for two years), Dupree decided tickling the 88s beat pugilism any old day. He spent most of his time in New York and quickly became a prolific recording artist, cutting for Continental, Joe Davis, , Apollo, and Red Robin (where he cut a blasting Shim Sham Shimmy in 1953), often in the company of Brownie McGhee. Contracts meant little; Dupree masqueraded as Brother Blues on Abbey, Lightnin Jr. on Empire, and the truly imaginative Meat Head Johnson for Gotham and Apex.
King Records corralled Dupree in 1953 and held onto him through 1955 (the year he enjoyed his only R&B chart hit, the relaxed Walking the Blues.) Duprees King output rates with his very best; the romping Mail Order Woman, Let the Doorbell Ring, and Big Leg Emmas contrasting with the rural Me and My Mule (Duprees vocal on the latter emphasizing a harelip speech impediment for politically incorrect pseudo-comic effect).
After a year on RCAs Groove and Vik subsidiaries, Dupree made a masterpiece LP for Atlantic. 1958s Blues From the Gutter is a magnificent testament to Duprees barrelhouse background, boasting marvelous readings of Stack-O-Lee, Junkers Blues, and Frankie & Johnny beside the risqué Nasty Boogie. Dupree was one of the first bluesmen to leave his native country for a less racially polarized European existence in 1959. He lived in a variety of countries overseas, continuing to record prolifically for Storyville, British Decca (with John Mayall and Eric Clapton lending a hand at a 1966 date), and many other firms.
Perhaps sensing his own mortality, Dupree returned to New Orleans in 1990 for his first visit in 36 years. While there, he played the Jazz & Heritage Festival and laid down a zesty album for Bullseye Blues, Back Home in New Orleans. Two more albums of new material were captured by the company the next year prior to the pianists death in January of 1992. Jack Dupree was a champ to the very end.