Little Brother Montgomery

Blues musician

• Born: April 18, 1906
• Birthplace: Kentwood, Louisiana
• Died: September 6, 1985
• Place of death: Chicago, Illinois

Although he is generally categorized as a blues pianist, Montgomery played musical styles ranging from boogie-woogie and ragtime to pop songs. Such versatility was typical of pianists born around the turn of the twentieth century. Montgomery also was responsible for composing the original blues song known as “’44’ Blues.”

Early Life

Little Brother Montgomery was born Eurreal Wilford Montgomery in Kentwood, Louisiana. He grew up in a musical family. His father, Harper, owned a honky-tonk in Reeds Quarters, and nearly all of his ten children could play instruments. The honky-tonk was an important stop for pianists from New Orleans, including Cooney Vaughn and Jelly Roll Morton. Montgomery was first dubbed Little Brother Harper because of his close resemblance to his father. The nickname developed into Little Brother Montgomery.

Around the age of five or six, Montgomery began to make up his own compositions on the piano. When he was about eleven, he dropped out of school and left home to become a professional musician. He first played in small towns in Louisiana and later traveled to New Orleans and Vicksburg, Mississippi, from the late 1910’s to the mid-1920’s. His main performing venues were barrelhouses typically located in lumber and turpentine camps around this area.

During the late 1920’s, Montgomery toured the Midwest as a member of Clarence Desdune’s Joyland Revellers and temporarily settled in Chicago. Because the Depression affected his job as a pianist, he moved back to the South during the 1930’s and toured there on the Theater Owners Booking Association circuit in black vaudeville shows.

Life’s Work

When Montgomery lived in Chicago, he took his first formal piano lessons from Bob (Alexander) Robinson, who co-owned a music store with his wife. Perhaps through this shop, Montgomery got to know Arthur Laibly, a producer of Paramount Records. In 1930, Montgomery had his first recording session as a leader with Paramount. Subsequently, in 1931, he recorded for Melotone. Although he could not make any records from 1932 to 1934 because of the Great Depression, he extensively recorded for Bluebird in 1935 and 1936.

Montgomery’s recordings during the 1930’s showcase the many different musical styles that were popular during the early history of the blues: boogie-woogie, ragtime or early jazz, bluesy pop songs, and various blues compositions. Willie Dixon, a blues songwriter from Vicksburg who also was an enthusiastic follower of Montgomery, once said, “At that particular time, he played all the different styles, all the styles other people never heard of.”

While Montgomery recorded more blues compositions than other styles, the variety of his performing styles help prevent his music from becoming monotonous. For example, “No Special Rider Blues” is in a brisk boogie-woogie style. In “Pleading Blues,” for the first and second verses, the accompaniment pattern is in a slow and fluent walking bass style, but the third verse has a rhythmic trick, a stop-time riff technique in which Montgomery’s piano plays only on the first beat of each measure while he continues singing. This section has a complicated harmonic progression instead of three basic chords and their sevenths heard in typical blues compositions. In “Chinese Man Blues,” Montgomery hardly uses musical devices that are related to blues, such as boogie-woogie or walking bass, but he still framed the song as “blues.”

“Vicksburg Blues” especially shows Montgomery’s craftsmanship. He described it as “The hardest barrelhouse blues of any blues in history to play because you have to keep two different times going in each other hand.” His recording proves this complexity; on the basis of double-time meter for a basic pulse (“1-and 2-and 3-and 4-and” instead of simply “1-2-3-4”), his right hand plays a fast shuffle pattern, while his left hand plays a slow blues pattern accentuated by quick arpeggio passages.

“Vicksburg Blues” was developed by Montgomery with two other pianists, Long Tall Friday and Dehlco Robert, around 1922. It was passed on to another pianist, Lee Green, and Green passed it on to Roosevelt Sykes, who premiered it as “’44’ Blues” for Okeh Records in 1929. The same year, Green recorded it as “Number Forty-Four Blues” for Vocalion. Montgomery recorded two other versions of “Vicksburg Blues” in 1935 and 1936 after his first recording in 1930.

Recordings by Montgomery as well as those by contemporary pianists demonstrate that these artists’ repertoires were based on eclectic musical styles and tended to use complex rhythmic configurations and harmonic progressions. Compared with their work, the repertoires of later pianists such as Leroy Carr and Big Maceo were highly formulated and simplified.

In 1942, Montgomery moved back to Chicago, where he continued recording. In 1957 and 1958, he accompanied guitarist-singer Otis Rush’s recordings on Cobra Records. Montgomery continued to perform worldwide throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s until his death on September 6, 1985, in Chicago.

Significance

Montgomery’s musical output demonstrates the depth and variety of Delta blues during its early development. His “Vicksburg Blues” in particular is a distinctive composition on par with other Delta blues classics such as “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” and “Catfish Blues.” While he was largely self-taught, he mastered a multitude of styles and became a major figure in the evolution of blues music.

Bibliography

Dixon, Willie, and Don Snowden. I Am the Blues: The Willie Dixon Story. New York: Da Capo Press, 1989. Dixon discusses his relationship with Montgomery and how he was influenced by Montgomery’s versatility.

Evans, David. “Goin’ up the Country: Blues in Texas and the Deep South.” In Nothing But the Blues, edited by Lawrence Cohn. New York: Abbeville Press, 1993. Examines the piano blues tradition in the Deep South, including the work of Montgomery, Roosevelt Sykes, Peetie Wheatstraw, Lee Brown, and others.

Gert zur Heide, Karl. Deep South Piano: The Story of Little Brother Montgomery. London: Studio Vista, 1970. Based on interviews, this biography covers Montgomery’s life from his childhood in Louisiana to the early 1940’s. Includes song lyrics and discography.

Montgomery, Little Brother. “Little Brother Montgomery: Oral History.” Interview by Mike Joyce and Bob Rusch. Cadence 3, nos. 4/5 (October, 1977): 17-18. Montgomery offers anecdotes from his life and career in this candid interview.

Oliver, Paul. Conversation with the Blues. 1967. Reprint. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. A collection of interviews with blues artists, including Montgomery. Addresses the pianists who played in Kentwood, Louisiana, during the early twentieth century, the early boogie-woogie piano tradition, and how Montgomery and other pianists crafted the Delta blues piano classic “Vicksburg Blues.”