Professor Longhair Collection (Piano Solo Personality) [Paperback]

Professor Longhair (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1999

This terrific collection includes 19 solo piano transcriptions from this legendary New Orleans R&B artist. Songs include: Baldhead * Big Chief * Crawfish Fiesta * Gonna Leave This Town * Hey Little Girl * Hey Now Baby * Mardi Gras in New Orleans * Mean Ol' World * Meet Me Tomorrow Night * Mess Around * No Buts No Maybes * She Walks Right in * Stag-O-Lee * Thank You Pretty Baby * Tipitina * more. Features a biography and discography.

Product Details

Sample Music Notation [20kb PDF]

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0793593344
• ISBN-13: 978-0793593347
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 8.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #770,194 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy This Book!, July 5, 2000

By 

Amiee E. Jacobsen (Bloomington, IN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Professor Longhair Collection (Piano Solo Personality) (Paperback)

Being a piano player myself, I know how hard it is to find someone to teach you New Orleans Style piano. (If you've ever had someone give you the 'that's not Chopin' look, then you know what I mean.) This book will help you nail down all the patterns and licks you can hear in the music, but can't quite get to your fingers yet. I found it to be really helpful not only to learn specific Professor Longhair songs, but also to learn basic New Orleans/Boogie & Blues piano riffs and styles suitable for accompanying singers or other players. This book will take you miles and miles into the world that is Professor Longhair. Definitely recommended!

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your money, December 9, 2006

By 

D. Verbin (Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Professor Longhair Collection (Piano Solo Personality) (Paperback)

I bought this book based on the fact that I am a huge Professor Longhair fan and wanted to learn how to play in a New Orleans style, and thought this would be a great place to start. Unfortunately, I have found this book to be basically useless. I have been playing piano for over 15 years and have bought many books but this has to be one of the biggest wastes of money I've come across.

Yes, it does contain lyrics to many of Fess's best known songs, but you could probably find those easily by googling the song. The basic problem I have with this book is the "arrangments". First of all, they leave out most (or in some cases) all of the right hand improvisation and touches that are integral to the Professor's playing style. What's left over are overly simplistic songs that don't teach you much about New Orleans piano. You might as well download some pfd's of public domain Scott Joplin rags if you want to learn basica ragtime technique. Because that's basically all that these arrangments consist of, since they leave out everything that made Professor Longhair into Professor Lonhair.

Secondly, the majority of these "arrangments" leave out the piano solos! Yes, I'm not joking, they just feature a short intro section, the chorus with the lyrics and a small closing tag and that's it.

I don't know about you but I sure didn't buy a Professor Longhair collection for the lyrics. If you want to learn how to sing like Fess I guess this book's for you then. Otherwise, save your money and buy a book on New Orleans piano technique instead. You won't find much of that here.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New Orleans Piano Masterclass, September 22, 2007

By 

S J Buck (Kent, UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Professor Longhair Collection (Piano Solo Personality) (Paperback)

This is an excellent songbook to get. Contrary to the previous reviewer I believe the majority of these transcriptions are accurate. As with a lot of Jazz and Blues transcriptions you cannot document the 'feel' that Professor Longhair had. The book I have certainly includes some of his solos and some of the pieces are instrumental without lyrics.

His style is a mixture of Blues/Boogie-Woogie/Rumba/Samba all mixed up together. If you want to learn to play like Prof Longhair there is no better place to start - and there are no other songbooks of his material That I know of!