⬇️ BOOKER T. LAURY ⬇️
(Lawrence 'Booker T.' Laury)
(5CD/DVD)
Laury was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and grew up with his lifelong
friend Memphis Slim. At the age of six, after helping his mother play the
family's pump organ, Laury learned to play the keyboards. His barrelhouse
playing style, which he developed alongside Slim, was based on the
influence of the Memphis performers Roosevelt Sykes, Sunnyland Slim, and
Speckled Red. In the early 1930s, and in the company of the younger Mose
Vinson, Slim and Laury began playing in local clubs.
In 1935, Sykes suggested to Laury and Slim that they relocate to Chicago,
with a view to obtaining a recording contract. Slim took the advice, but
Laury remained in Memphis, where he played in gambling houses and clubs
for decades. Laury had a large hand width, which enabled him to span ten
keys. His playing dexterity was such that, after losing one finger on his
left hand following an accident with a circular saw in the 1950s, he was
still able to play well. Based around Beale Street in Memphis, as that
area started to degenerate, Laury traveled around Tennessee, Arkansas and
Missouri. Despite differing fortunes, his friendship with Slim did not
diminish over the years, up to Slim's death in 1988.
Laury recorded his debut album in his late sixties, entitled Booker T.
Laury and Friends: Nothing but the Blues, released on the France-based
record label Blue Silver in 1981. A 1980 Paris concert was released by
Indigo Records in France in 1982.
The 1989 Dennis Quaid film Great Balls of Fire! portrayed the young Jerry
Lee Lewis and Jimmy Swaggart looking into a juke joint to see Laury
playing "Big Legged Woman." The attention helped boost Laury's
popularity.
In 1994, Bullseye Blues Records issued Nothin' but the Blues, an album of
Laury's voice and piano, performing seven original compositions, two
covers, and a story about how he got the nickname "Slop Jar" from his
peers. The same year, the Austrian label Wolf Records released a live
album, containing concert recordings made in 1987.
Laury died of cancer in September 1995, at the age of 81, in Memphis. He
has a brass note on Beale Street's Walk of Fame.