At 95 years old, Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins is widely recognized as the world's best blues piano player and one of the last great Mississippi bluesmen. He created a style of playing that has influenced three generations of piano players and will continue to be the yardstick by which blues pianists are measured.
Born in Belzoni, Mississippi in 1913, Pinetop started out playing guitar at house parties and honky tonks. He came under the tutelage of Clarence "Pinetop" Smith, for whom he composed a tune entitled "Pinetop's Boogie" that later became a hit record. When Perkins started performing that tune publicly, he adopted the name Pinetop for himself.
He worked primarily as a guitarist during the 1930's and early 1940's. In the mid 1940's he was with Rice "Sonny Boy Williamson" Miller in Helena, Arkansas when he suffered an arm injury that led him to switch to playing piano. He spent five years with Sonny Boy on the King Biscuit Time radio program on KFFA. Pinetop also toured extensively with slide guitarist Robert Nighthawk, backing him on early Chess Records recording sessions.
After briefly working with B.B. King in Memphis, Perkins barnstormed the south with Earl Hooker during the early 1950's. The pair cut a session for Sam Phillips' Sun label in Memphis in 1953.
By now Pinetop had already developed his own unmistakable piano sound, his right hand mimicking horn lines while the left hand kicks out bass lines and the bottom end. It was Pinetop, along with the likes of Pete Johnson, Meade Lux Lewis, Albert Ammons and Little Brother Montgomery, who provided the basic format and ideas from which countless swing bands derived their sound. Although Pinetop never played swing, it was his brand of boogie-woogie that was shaped to form swing and, eventually, rock and roll.
Pinetop is perhaps best known for his work with Muddy Waters. In 1969, Muddy designated Pinetop to replace the great Otis Spann in his legendary band. Pinetop helped shape the Waters sound and anchored Muddy's memorable combo throughout the 1970's with his brilliant ivory work. In 1980 he got together with other Waters alumni and formed the Legendary Blues Band, which recorded several albums for various labels.
Although he has appeared as a sideman on countless recordings, Pinetop never had an album devoted solely to his artistry until the release of After Hours on Blind Pig in 1988. On this long overdue "debut" album, Pinetop played authentic Chicago blues, ably supported by Little Mike and the Tornadoes. Backed by this energetic group of young players who revere him, Pinetop rose to the occasion with an inspired performance full of energy and wit.
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