The Last Mardi Gras

As the originator of the rhum-boogie, that amalgam of rhumba and boogie-woogie peculiar to New Orleans, Henry Roeland Roy Byrd a.k.a. Professor Longhair was a seminal influence on several generations of Crescent City stars, everybody from Fats Domino to Huey Smith to Allen Toussaint to Dr. John. But, as album producer (and controversial biographer of Elvis, John Lennon and Lenny Bruce) Albert Goldman writes in his liner notes to The Last Mardi Gras, the Professor was was wasting away in comparative obscurity while the record companies either refused to cut him or sat upon the records he had already made. So Goldman, who at the time was music critic for Esquire, campaigned in the magazine s pages for proper recognition of the New Orleans legend, and, lo and behold, Atlantic Records stepped forward with a 16-track mobile recording unit to get the job done. Thus armed, Goldman set out to make the definitive Professor Longhair recording by capturing two nights of performances during (when else?) Mardi Gras in 1978 at (where else?) the Tipitina Club, and having the shows mixed by (whom else?) Cosimo Matassa, who engineered the original records of Fats Domino, Little Richard, Ray Charles et al. The result: the one indispensable audio document of the great man s career (and the last Mardi Gras he ever played). Our Real Gone reissue features Goldman s original liner notes and added pictures. CD debut, released on (when else?) Fat Tuesday itself!