Eurreal Wilford "Little Brother" Montgomery (April 18, 1906 – September 6, 1985) was a jazz and blues pianist and singer.
Largely self-taught, Montgomery is often thought of as just a blues pianist, but he was an important blues pianist with an original style. He was also quite versatile, however, and worked in jazz bands including larger ensembles that used written arrangements. Although he did not read music, he learned band routines by ear, once through an arrangement and he had it memorized. He was a singer with an immediately recognizable, rather affecting wobble: an oral historian as full of musical anecdotes as Jelly Roll Morton
Little Brother Montgomery and Jeanne Carroll were great friends for years. This video was taken at his home in the 60's. Jeanne Carroll is still working, singing jazz all over Europe as she now lives in Germany. Geraman tv just did a big interview with her about her life in jazz. You can catch part of the interview on YouTube along with watching other video's of her singing just a few months ago. She lives near her daughter, famous blues/jazz/gospel singer Karen Carroll who is releasing a CD "Karen Carroll Blues Mix" at the end of Aug.. Jeanne and Karen are doing a duet gig together next month in Brussels, a mother/daughter show. We know where Karen got her talent and musical talent, it is in the blood. You can book them by contacting bluescontact.de or just send them a note via the contact info given on the web site. They are great friends and real people who are American living history. I'm suprised either of them have not be nominated for a Grammy for singing or songwriting as they do it all. Jeanne plays the piano and electric guitar and Karen plays accoustic guitar in all of her gigs. Thanks for posting this as Brother would be proud of them today. Get to Brussels next month to see both of them!!!
ReplyDeleteThat's great info. Thanks for posting!
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