Tipitina - Professor Longhair

If you recently discovered Tipitina off of Hugh Laurie's album, allow me to throw a little grit, sweat and soul in your eyes with the original. We're going to dirty things up to wash away Mr. Laurie's take on the inimitable Professor Longhair:

Professor Longhair – Tipitina

Professor Longhair is one of the fathers of blues piano, introducing a funk and swing to the music via the rhumba rhythms of his native Louisiana that would come to be defined as the New Orleans Piano sound. He spent the early part of his life hustling on the street till he turned to the piano in earnest in the late 1940s and early 50s. Recordings from this period were collected on the 1972 album New Orleans Piano, and it's on this record where we can find not just one but two versions of Tipitina.

The Professor has a marvelous way of making music with intensely infectious energy that manages to sound completely laid back, as if he sat down to jam one day and just happened to play a masterpiece. It's the feeling of your shirt sticking to your back from hours of dancing without you having to move a muscle. It's the melody of laughing with friends even if your friends are a world away. It's the sound of a world buzzing and humming while you catch a nap.