People, Locations, Episodes

Professor Longhair, New Orleans Musician born

Professor Longhair

Professor Longhair was born on this date in 1918. He was a Black blues and jazz musician.

Henry Roeland Byrd was born in Bogalusa, Louisiana, and lived in New Orleans from age two onward. As a child, he learned to play on an old piano in an alley. He seriously began to master the instrument while working at a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in 1937. After enlisting in the service during World War II, he returned to New Orleans and began playing at clubs like the Caledonia Bar just outside the French Quarter.

Here, he was called Professor Longhair, the "professor" part being an honorary nickname bestowed on New Orleans piano greats. He first recorded in 1949 and scored his one R&B chart hit, "Bald Head," released on Mercury Records. A year later, he was signed to Atlantic Records. As a vocalist, Professor Longhair was a classic blues shouter. As a pianist, he was a unique force in New Orleans.

It was a city whose sense of festivity he celebrated with such songs as "Tipitina" (now the name of the city's most fabled music club), "Mardi Gras in New Orleans," and "Big Chief." Longhair remained locally popular as a working musician from the late 1940s to the early 1960s, rarely venturing away from the city. He abandoned the music business 1964 to work odd jobs and deal cards for a living. After languishing in obscurity, Professor Longhair was rediscovered and enlisted to play at the second New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in 1971.

His reappearance included tours of Europe and albums for major labels as a new generation discovered his inimitable "mambo-rumba-boogie" style. He remained the patron saint of his city's Jazz-fest, closing out the final show each year until he died in 1980.

To Become a Musician or Singer