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Leroy Carr

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MTJ3:

--- Quote from: dj on May 31, 2007, 02:33:10 PM ---Thanks for posting that, Bunker Hill.  I wonder what ever happened to the photo of Carr in his army uniform.  Has it been lost to history?  Does any one know?
--- End quote ---
At the time, the relative wouldn't relinquish the photo, even temporarily.  I don't think anyone knows what its status is now.

Bunker Hill:

--- Quote from: Bunker Hill on June 01, 2007, 10:32:18 AM ---Francis Wilford-Smith presented a program on BBC Radio 3 - a mainly classical music station - in 1988 entitled "This Alkyhol is Killing Me: The Death of Leroy Carr".
--- End quote ---
Apologies, this was the tabloid type headling adopted by B&R the actual programs (broadcast 26 Aug & 2 Sept 1988) went out under the title of "The Life And Death Of A Bluesman".

bobstep:
That hour of BBC radio documentary, "Leroy Carr - The Life & Death of a Bluesman," made it to YouTube in 2014...
Narrator is blues collector and record producer (and cartoonist, as "Smilby") Francis Wilford Smith...

https://youtu.be/zM4042AnRrI?si=C9BPVfjhaIphulJE

Description from poster "videocurios":

"Here's a beautiful BBC radio documentary written and Narrated in two parts by the brilliantly talented late Cartoonist and bluesologist Francis Wilford Smith aka pseudonym Smilby  - Leroy Carr - "The Life & Death of a Bluesman"

Leroy Carr (March 27, 1905 – April 29, 1935)[1] was an American blues singer, songwriter and pianist, who developed a laid-back, crooning technique and whose popularity and style influenced such artists as Nat King Cole and Ray Charles. He first became famous for "How Long, How Long Blues" on Vocalion Records in 1928.

Leroy Carr was born in Nashville, Tennessee, but raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. Although his recording career was cut short by an early death, Carr left behind a large body of work.[2] Some of his most famous songs include "Blues Before Sunrise" (1932), "Midnight Hour Blues" (1932), and "Hurry Down Sunshine" (1934). He had a long-time partnership with guitarist Scrapper Blackwell. His light bluesy piano combined with Blackwell's melodic jazz guitar worked to attract a sophisticated black audience. Carr's vocal style moved blues singing toward an urban sophistication, influencing such singers as T-Bone Walker, Charles Brown, Amos Milburn, Jimmy Witherspoon, Ray Charles among others.[3]

Count Basie and Jimmy Rushing used some of Carr's songs and Basie's band shows the influence of Carr's piano style.[4]

His music has been covered by notable artists such as Robert Johnson, Ray Charles, Big Bill Broonzy, Moon Mullican, Champion Jack Dupree, Lonnie Donegan and Memphis Slim.

Carr was an alcoholic in private, and died of nephritis shortly after his thirtieth birthday.

Francis Wilford-Smith (12 March 1927 - 4 December 2009) was a British cartoonist, graphic artist, and producer and archivist of blues music. As a cartoonist, he used the pseudonym Smilby, a contraction of his surname with his wife's maiden name."

Blues Vintage:
Hi bobstep,

Thanks for posting that and welcome to Weenie Campbell.

Francis really was an expert on blues piano;

Blues For Francis
https://www.frog-records.co.uk/products/blues-for-francis?variant=11975764612

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