100 years ago today (12/19/18), influential and pioneering New Orleans R&B singer and pianist Professor Longhair was born. Longhair switched to blues and rock ‘n’ roll and later jazz, won a posthumous Grammy for the collection House Party New Orleans Style (1987). Longhair’s piano style has always been his own and described as “instantly recognizable, combining rumba, mambo, and calypso. The pianist died of a heart attack on 1/30/1980 at age 61. Watch Professor Longhair play “Big Chief” in a rare recording from the 1973 Montreux Jazz Festival.
