The doc Bayou Maharajah chronicles James Booker’s journey from child prodigy to R&B visionary. He made the leap from classical piano to organ at age 12 on New Orleans radio WMRY, playing every Sunday. By 1953 he was out of high school and making records, eventually recording with everyone from Aretha to B.B. King to Ringo Starr.
Constant battles with the law, and the challenge of being a one-eyed, gay junkie in and out of the most brutal prisons in the country, meant that when Booker played the blues he never had to fake it.
He could zigzag from the most rollicking boogie woogie to the most delicate Chopin without missing a beat.
Musician / Author Brian Cullman:
“I used to see him regularly at The Maple Leaf Bar & Laundromat in New Orleans. If the sorority girls from Tulane got too loud or weren’t paying enough attention to his extraordinary playing, he’d stop, get up onto the piano bench, unzip his fly, pee into a beer mug, then ceremoniously drink it. “Do I have your attention now?” he’d ask. Then he’d go back to playing.”
The doc Bayou Maharajah captures the magic and the madness:
The film is streamable:
https://www.bayoumaharajah.com