Little Brother Montgomery

about

Eurreal Wilford "Little Brother" Montgomery (Kentwood, Louisiana, April 18, 1906 – Champaign, Illinois, September 6, 1985) was an American jazz, boogie-woogie 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. Montgomery was born in the town of Kentwood, Louisiana, a sawmill town near the Mississippi Border, across Lake Pontchartrain from the city of New Orleans, where he spent much of his childhood. As a child he looked like his father, Harper Montgomery, and was called Little Brother Harper. The name evolved into Little Brother Montgomery, a nickname which stuck. He started playing piano at the age of 4, and by age 11 he was playing at various barrelhouses in Louisiana. His own musical influences were Jelly Roll Morton who used visit the Montgomery household. Early on he played at African American lumber and turpentine camps in Louisiana and Mississippi, then with the bands of Clarence Desdunes and Buddy Petit. He first went to Chicago from 1928 to 1931, where he made his first r

top songs

albums

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Little Brother Montgomery (1930-1954)

Tasty Blues

Blues

At Home

Farro Street Jive

Classic Blues From Smithsonian Folkways

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Women Be Wise

Classic African American Gospel from Smithsonian Folkways

Classic African American Gospel

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Little Brother Montgomery's Something Keeps A-Worryin' Me

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Classic Piano Blues from Smithsonian Folkways

Church Songs: Sung and Played on the Piano by Little Brother Montgomery

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