Henry Roeland Byrd, known to the world as Professor Longhair, was born in Bogalusa, Louisiana in 1918 and raised in New Orleans. He learned to play piano by listening to records and watching players in the city's bars and clubs, developing an approach that fused boogie-woogie with Cuban rhumba rhythms in a way no one had done before.
Longhair began recording in the late 1940s for small New Orleans labels, cutting sides that immediately announced a distinctive and original voice. Songs like 'Mardi Gras in New Orleans' and 'Tipitina' (for which the legendary club was eventually named) were built on a rhythmic foundation so unique and infectious that they became building blocks for the entire New Orleans R&B tradition.
Despite his enormous influence, commercial success eluded Longhair for most of his career, and he spent years working outside of music. His rediscovery in the early 1970s — partly through the efforts of Quint Davis and the nascent New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival — brought him back to stages and studios where a new generation could witness his greatness firsthand.
He died in 1980, just months after recording the masterful album Crawfish Fiesta, which showed his powers undiminished. His legacy is everywhere in New Orleans music: in the piano styles of Dr. John, James Booker, and Allen Toussaint; in the very DNA of the city's musical identity. Tipitina's, the legendary club, bears the title of one of his greatest songs.
