Bayou Maharajah

I lived above James Booker in the French Quarter on Dumaine Street in New Orleans in 1983 and one morning I came downstairs on my way to work and saw him standing in front door of his courtyard apartment and he asked me to call him am ambulance. That night when I came home the door to the courtyard was wide open and I somehow sensed the inevitable. I walked over to the french doors of his apartment, peered through the glass. All was quiet but I remember seeing his hats and canes on the wall right in front of me. I found out soon after that he had died that day. His music is exceptional and will send a lightning bolt through you the second you hear him sing and play his first note. Soulful and yearning, the circumstances of his life molded him and we get a real sense of who he was in this film. The effects of his music is immediate and Booker is a dynamic presence. I don't think I'll ever love a piano player more than James Booker and am forever enriched as I recall his sound, electrifying, soulful and grabbing at your heartstrings. How wonderful we get this glimpse into his genius that is so important to remember and pay tribute to.