Pinetop Perkins, ‘Boogie Woogie’ Blues Pianist, Waters Sideman, Dies at 97

[Hazcat]

By David Wilson - Mar 21, 2011 11:00 PM ET

Pinetop Perkins, the Mississippi Delta-born piano player who started a solo career in his 70s after performing with fellow bluesman Muddy Waters for more than a decade, has died. He was 97.

He died yesterday at his home in Austin, Texas, the Associated Press reported, citing his manager, Hugh Southard. The cause was cardiac arrest.

Perkins got his nickname from “Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie,” a song by another pianist that he recorded for Sun Records. The title described his style of playing rhythm patterns with his left hand and melodies and improvisation with his right.

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In 2007, he became the oldest musician to receive a Grammy Award. He was honored for playing on the album “Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live in Dallas.” Two years earlier, he had won a lifetime-achievement award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which sponsors the Grammys.

The Blues Foundation named its piano player of the year award for him after he won the category 12 times in a row, from 1992 to 2003. He received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2000.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-22/pinetop-perkins-boogie-woogie-blues-pianist-waters-sideman-dies-at-97.html

[jaybet]

Saw him 3 time...twice in the 70's before he left Muddy and once at a jazz fest about 10 years ago. He had slowed up a bit by then but could still lay down a bed of ivory. RIP Mr. Perkins.

[PegLeg45]

97 years was a whole lotta Boogie and Blues.
May he rest in peace.

[shooter32]

He could tickle the ivory's with the best of them, RIP Mr. Sideman.

[twyacht]

Muddy And Pinetop Together Again.

Great Pair.

RIP. Muddy got his Ivory Player back.

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