"Hey Little Girl" - Professor Longhair
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/14pbVDUZQdtbFwZ3J817tz?si=d38a3d6e2c644866
Recorded in New Orleans, October 1949
Professor Longhair himself had little to do with the story of the Atlantic label, but nearly any decent compilation of Atlantic R&B will, as a rule, include a couple of his songs. Reason? Even though, for Professor Longhair, the label was just a means by which he could get some dough, for the label themselves, Longhair's recordings were an event: not everybody working for Atlantic Records understood it at the time, but they were given an opportunity to cut some sides for the greatest piano-playing genius of New Orleans during his early peak. By giving him this platform, they were among the first to release FOUR timeless New Orleans standards ("Hey Little Girl," "Mardi Gras In New Orleans," "In The Night," "Tipitina") and release two more of his classics ("Hey Now Baby" and "Ball The Wall") on the future New Orleans Piano compilation. Quite an honor for an up-and-coming label that hadn't even become a household name yet.
Still, it really is all about Longhair and Longhair alone here. This song is simply a masterful demonstration of how proper use of dynamics and creative phrasings can transform an ordinary blues melody into something genuinely magical. Just listen to how he places an extra accentuation on that second-to-last note each time that funky piano riff is played, letting it tumble into completion rather than giving it a smooth finale. Or listen to how, before returning to the main groove, he plays a lighter melody that he literally punctures with a sharp glissando, shattering your mind into pieces before sucking you back into its intoxicating strut. With phrasings like these, the recording's drunken stumble feels alive and visceral in a way you can only get from a great bluesman like 'Fess, but the incredible fluency and flow of his piano-playing style allows it to attain the tightness of a perfect piece of machinery.
And if that doesn't already impress you enough, wait until you make it to the "Look what you gonna miss, honey!" solo. This is where Longhair's raw potential is unleashed in all of its glory: the heavy bassline is almost bone-crushing and the light part is incredibly beautiful in its airy and playful elegance, yet both of these parts mesh together perfectly as two facets of Longhair's personality, forever locked into battle for the rest of his career. Really, no other player in the history of the blues has placed heavy basslines and light melodic phrases together in a way that sounds so incredibly organic, and this is one of the first (and finest) demonstrations of this gift. Add in his deep, gritty vocals with his fun but cocky attitude, and you got yourself a recording that hasn't aged a day since 1950. Of course, he would sporadically produce more of this brilliance in the '50s and '60s before reaching his technical peak in the '70s, and while most of the performances on Rock 'N' Roll Gumbo and Crawfish Fiesta well surpass "Hey Little Girl" in terms of complexity and intricacy, in terms of raw power, he would pretty much never surpass the astonishing impact of his best Atlantic recordings.
Verdict: Classic
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