LEOTHUS LEE GREEN
Leothus Lee Green , se conoce del pianista su nacimiento aproximado , que sería según los datos alrededor de 1900 en Mississippi, desconociéndose exactamente cuando fué su muerte. Aunque se calcula que podría hacer sucedido sobre 1945 . Fué un cantante de blues americano y -Pianista que permaneció en activo durante los años 1930 y 1940 en la zona de Mississippi.
Green, también conocido como "Pork Chops ", fue un contemporáneo de Little Brother Montgomery y un mentor de Roosevelt Sykes. Trabajó a tiempo completo en una lavandería en Vicksburg; Además, apareció como músico y recorrió los lugares cercanos al Delta del Mississippi. Se dice que Montgomery le enseñó en Vicksburg el tema "44 blues", en 1925 volvió a colaborar con Green, que se sentía más bien orientado hacia el jazz. por su parte . Más tarde salió de gira con Roosevelts y juntos hicieron un pequeño "tour" por la zona en la cual solían moverse. Las primeras grabaciones de Green se hicieron en julio de 1929 para Gennett y Supertone en Richmond (Indiana); otra sesión tuvo lugar en enero de 1930. 1929/30 grabó para Vocalion, algunos temas y otros 14 para Decca entre agosto de 1934 y septiembre de 1937. Sus últimas grabaciones se realizaron en octubre de 1937 para Bluebird en Aurora (Illinois). Además del blues, también le gustaba tocar novedades de ragtime, con influencias de boogie-woogie y pinceladas de jazz parecidos a los de un piano de cola. Se dice que murió alrededor de 1945. Sus canciones fueron tomadas por otros músicos de blues. Sus primeros pasos al de piano contienen claras influencias de ragtime , mientras que en las grabaciones posteriores tocó más estilo blues. Legó a grabar un par de temas con el cantante George "Hambone" Ruthers (alias F.T. Thomas).
Leothus Lee "Pork Chops" Green - (Good Mornin' Susie) I'm Gonna Beat Your Bread
From The Album: Those Dirty Blues Volume 3
Piano & Vocals - Leothus Lee "Pork Chops" Green, Guitar - Possibly Sleepy John Estes Or Charlie Pickett, Jug - Hammie Nixon. Recorded In New York August 3rd 1937.
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Leothus "Lee" Green:Vocals & Piano
Recorded in Richmond, IN. Saturday, September 7, 1929
Originally issued on the 1929 single (Paramount 12865) (78 RPM)
This recording taken from the 1993 album "Leothus "Lee" Green Vol. 1" (CD) (Austria)
Leothus Lee Green, also known as Pork Chops, was an early contemporary of Little Brother Montgomery and a mentor to Roosevelt Sykes. Born in Mississippi around 1900, Green worked as a clothes presser in Vicksburg while perfecting his piano technique. Soon Leothus was traveling throughout the Lower Mississippi River Basin, earning a living by playing piano for the people. Montgomery knew him in Vicksburg, and claimed to have taught him the "44 Blues" in Sondheimer, LA, back in 1922. Sykes first heard Green in 1925 playing his own loosely improvised ragtime, waltz, blues, and jazz accompaniments for silent movies at Miller's Theatre in West Helena, AR. Green taught the then jazz-oriented Sykes how to really play the blues, and the two men became traveling and gigging companions, circulating throughout the region for several years, often simultaneously performing on opposite sides of the same town. Green made his first four recordings in Richmond, IN, for Gennett and Supertone on July 10, 1929, just weeks after Sykes cut his first sides for OKeh in New York. Excepting for a brief excursion to New York in August 1937, Green performed and recorded mainly in or near Chicago. He cut 24 sides for Vocalion in 1929 and 1930, and 14 titles for Decca between August 1934 and September 1937. His last records were made for the Bluebird label in Aurora, IL, on October 11, 1937. Although primarily a bluesman, he was capable of quoting ragtime novelties, shifting into boogie-woogie, and running stride-like jazz passages. Little is known about the life of Leothus Lee Green; his death is believed to have occurred around 1945. All of his known recordings have been reissued in chronological sequence by the Document label.
The Forty-Fours," as its earlier form was sometimes referred to, was a piano-driven "barrelhouse honky-tonk blues" that was performed as an instrumental. Little Brother Montgomery, who is usually credited with the development of the song, taught it to another blues pianist along the way by the name of Lee Green; Green, in turn, taught it to Roosevelt Sykes. As Sykes explained: Lee Green was the first guy I ever heard play the "44" Blues. So Lee Green took a lot of time out to teach me how to play it
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