(Eurreal Wilford "Little Brother" Montgomery)
DISCOGRAPHY 1960-2000 (17CD)
Largely self-taught, Montgomery was an important blues pianist with
an original style. He was also versatile, working in jazz bands,
including larger ensembles that used written arrangements. He did not
read music but learned band routines by ear—once through an
arrangement and he had it memorized.
Montgomery was born in Kentwood, Louisiana, United States, a sawmill
town near the Mississippi border, across Lake Pontchartrain from New
Orleans, where he spent much of his childhood. Both his parents were
of African-American and Creek Indian ancestry. As a child he looked
like his father, Harper Montgomery, and was called Little Brother
Harper. The name evolved into Little Brother Montgomery, and the
nickname stuck. He started playing piano at the age of four, and by
age 11 he left home for four years and played at barrelhouses in
Louisiana. His main musical influence was Jelly Roll Morton, who used
to visit the Montgomery household.
Early in his career he performed at African-American lumber and
turpentine camps in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi. He then
played with the bands of Clarence Desdunes and Buddy Petit. He lived
in Chicago from 1928 to 1931, regularly playing at rent parties, and
Chicago was where he made his first recordings. From 1931 through 1938
he led a band in Jackson, Mississippi.
In 1942, Montgomery moved back to Chicago, which would be his home for
the rest of his life, and went on tours to other cities in the United
States and Europe. He toured briefly with Otis Rush in 1956.[8] In the
late 1950s he was discovered by a wider white audience. His fame grew
in the 1960s, and he continued to make many recordings, some of them
on his own record label, FM Records, which he formed in 1969 (FM stood
for Floberg Montgomery, Floberg being the maiden name of his wife).
Montgomery toured Europe several times in the 1960s and recorded some
of his albums there. He appeared at many blues and folk festivals
during the following decade and was considered a living legend, a link
to the early days of blues in New Orleans.
Among his original compositions are "Shreveport Farewell", "Farrish
Street Jive", and "Vicksburg Blues". His instrumental Crescent City
Blues served as the basis for a song of the same name by Gordon
Jenkins, which in turn was adapted by Johnny Cash as "Folsom Prison
Blues."
In 1968, Montgomery contributed to two albums by Spanky and Our Gang,
Like to Get to Know You and Anything You Choose b/w Without Rhyme or
Reason.
Montgomery died on September 6, 1985, in Champaign, Illinois, and was
interred in the Oak Woods Cemetery.
In 2013, Montgomery was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of
Fame. (Wikipedia)