AMG Review of New Orleans Piano

Bill Dahl
All Music Guide

All 16 of Professor Longhair's Atlantic sides from 1949 and 1953 (including a handful of alternate takes) are here on one glorious disc. Longhair's work for the label was famously marvelous -- this version of "Mardi Gras in New Orleans" reeks of revelry in the streets of the French Quarter, "She Walks Right In" and "Walk Your Blues Away" ride a bedrock boogie, and "In the Night" bounces atop a parade-beat shuffle groove and hard-charging saxes.