Roosevelt Sykes
Encyclopedia
Roosevelt Sykes was an American
blues
musician
, also known as "The Honeydripper". He was a successful and prolific cigar-chomping blues
piano
player, whose rollicking thundering boogie-woogie
was highly influential.
, Sykes grew up near Helena
but at age 15, went on the road playing piano
with a barrelhouse style of blues. Like many bluesmen of his time, he travelled around playing to all-male audiences in sawmill, turpentine and levee camps along the Mississippi River
, gathering a repertoire of raw, sexually explicit material. His wanderings eventually brought him to St. Louis
, Missouri
, where he met St. Louis Jimmy Oden
.
In 1929 he was spotted by a talent scout and sent to New York
to record for Okeh Records
. His first release was "'44' Blues" which became a blues standard
and his trademark. He quickly began recording
for multiple labels
under various names including 'Easy Papa Johnson', 'Dobby Bragg' and 'Willie Kelly'. After he and Oden moved to Chicago
he found his first period of fame
when he signed with Decca Records
in 1934. In 1943, he signed with Bluebird Records
and recorded with 'The Honeydrippers'.
In Chicago, Sykes began to display an increasing urbanity in his lyric
-writing, using an 8-bar blues
pop
gospel
structure instead of the traditional 12-bar blues. However, despite the growing urbanity of his outlook, he gradually became less competitive in the post-World War II
music scene. After his RCA Victor contract expired, he continued to record for smaller labels, such as United
, until his opportunities ran out in the mid 1950s.
Roosevelt left Chicago in 1954 for New Orleans as electric blues
was taking over the Chicago blues
clubs
. When he returned to recording in the 1960s it was for labels such as Delmark
, Bluesville
, Storyville
and Folkways
that were documenting the quickly passing blues history. He lived out his final years in New Orleans, where he died from a heart attack
on July 17, 1983.
", and "Night Time Is the Right Time".
He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame
in 1999 and the Gennett Records
Walk of Fame in 2011.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, also known as "The Honeydripper". He was a successful and prolific cigar-chomping blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
player, whose rollicking thundering boogie-woogie
Boogie-woogie
Boogie-woogie has the following meanings:*Boogie-woogie, a piano-based music style*Boogie-woogie , a swing dance or a dance that imitates the rock-n-roll dance of the 1950s*"Boogie Woogie" , a song by EuroGroove and Dannii Minogue...
was highly influential.
Career
Born in Elmar, ArkansasArkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
, Sykes grew up near Helena
Helena, Arkansas
Helena is the eastern portion of Helena-West Helena, Arkansas, a city in Phillips County, Arkansas. As of the 2000 census, this portion of the city population was 6,323. Helena was the county seat of Phillips County until January 1, 2006, when it merged its government and city limits with...
but at age 15, went on the road playing piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
with a barrelhouse style of blues. Like many bluesmen of his time, he travelled around playing to all-male audiences in sawmill, turpentine and levee camps along the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
, gathering a repertoire of raw, sexually explicit material. His wanderings eventually brought him to St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, where he met St. Louis Jimmy Oden
St. Louis Jimmy Oden
James Burke "St. Louis Jimmy" Oden was an American blues vocalist and songwriter.Born in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, Oden sang and taught himself to play the piano in childhood. In his teens, he left home to go to St. Louis, Missouri where piano-based blues was prominent...
.
In 1929 he was spotted by a talent scout and sent to New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to record for Okeh Records
Okeh Records
Okeh Records began as an independent record label based in the United States of America in 1918. From 1926 on, it was a subsidiary of Columbia Records.-History:...
. His first release was "'44' Blues" which became a blues standard
Blues standard
A blues standard is a blues song that is widely known, performed, and recorded by blues artists. The following list identifies blues standards and some of the blues artists that have recorded them...
and his trademark. He quickly began recording
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
for multiple labels
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
under various names including 'Easy Papa Johnson', 'Dobby Bragg' and 'Willie Kelly'. After he and Oden moved to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
he found his first period of fame
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
when he signed with Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
in 1934. In 1943, he signed with Bluebird Records
Bluebird Records
Bluebird Records is a sub-label of RCA Victor Records originally created in 1932 to counter the American Record Company in the "3 records for a dollar" market. Along with ARC's Perfect Records, Melotone Records and Romeo Records, and the independent US Decca label, Bluebird became one of the best...
and recorded with 'The Honeydrippers'.
In Chicago, Sykes began to display an increasing urbanity in his lyric
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
-writing, using an 8-bar blues
Eight bar blues
In music, an eight-bar blues is a typical blues chord progression, "the second most common blues form," "common to folk, rock, and jazz forms of the blues," taking eight 4/4 or 12/8 bars to the verse....
pop
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
structure instead of the traditional 12-bar blues. However, despite the growing urbanity of his outlook, he gradually became less competitive in the post-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
music scene. After his RCA Victor contract expired, he continued to record for smaller labels, such as United
United Records
For "United Records", see United Records United Records was in business from July 1951 to December 1957. It was operated by Chicago businessman Leonard Allen, initially in collaboration with Lew Simpkins...
, until his opportunities ran out in the mid 1950s.
Roosevelt left Chicago in 1954 for New Orleans as electric blues
Electric blues
Electric blues is a type of blues music distinguished by the amplification of the guitar, bass guitar, drums, and often the harmonica. Pioneered in the 1930s, it emerged as a genre in Chicago in the 1940s. It was taken up in many areas of America leading to the development of regional subgenres...
was taking over the Chicago blues
Chicago blues
The Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois, by taking the basic acoustic guitar and harmonica-based Delta blues, making the harmonica louder with a microphone and an instrument amplifier, and adding electrically amplified guitar, amplified bass guitar, drums,...
clubs
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
. When he returned to recording in the 1960s it was for labels such as Delmark
Delmark Records
Delmark Records is an independent American jazz and blues record label, based in Chicago since 1958. The label originated in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1953 when owner Bob Koester released a recording of the Windy City Six, a traditional jazz group, under the "Delmar" imprint.-History:Born in 1932 in...
, Bluesville
Bluesville Records
Bluesville Records is a subsidiary of Prestige Records, launched in the 1960s with the primary purpose of documenting the work of the older classic bluesmen passed over by the changing audience...
, Storyville
Storyville Records
Storyville Records is a large international record label based in Copenhagen, Denmark, specializing in jazz and blues music. Besides its original material, Storyville Records has licensed and reissued many vintage jazz recordings that previously appeared on such labels as Paramount Records,...
and Folkways
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.-History:...
that were documenting the quickly passing blues history. He lived out his final years in New Orleans, where he died from a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
on July 17, 1983.
Legacy
Sykes had a long career spanning the pre-war and postwar eras. His pounding piano boogies and risqué lyrics characterize his contributions to the blues. He was responsible for influential blues songs such as "44 Blues", "Driving WheelDriving Wheel (song)
"Driving Wheel", also called "Drivin' Wheel" or "Driving Wheel Blues", is blues song recorded by Roosevelt Sykes in 1936...
", and "Night Time Is the Right Time".
He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame
Blues Hall of Fame
The Blues Hall of Fame is a listing of people who have significantly contributed to blues music. Started in 1980 by the Blues Foundation, it honors those who have performed, recorded, or documented blues.-1980:*Big Bill Broonzy*Willie Dixon*John Lee Hooker...
in 1999 and the Gennett Records
Gennett Records
Gennett was a United States based record label which flourished in the 1920s.-Label history:Gennett records was founded in Richmond, Indiana by the Starr Piano Company, and released its first records in October 1917. The company took its name from its top managers: Harry, Fred and Clarence Gennett....
Walk of Fame in 2011.
Selected discography
- The Honeydripper, Prestige/Bluesville 1960
- Piano Blues, Folkways Records 1966
- Blues Roots/Chicago - The 1930's, Folkways 1967
- Feel Like Blowing My Horn, Delmark RecordsDelmark RecordsDelmark Records is an independent American jazz and blues record label, based in Chicago since 1958. The label originated in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1953 when owner Bob Koester released a recording of the Windy City Six, a traditional jazz group, under the "Delmar" imprint.-History:Born in 1932 in...
1973 - Blues by Roosevelt "The Honeydripper" Sykes, Smithsonian FolkwaysSmithsonian FolkwaysSmithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was founded in 1987 after the family of Moses Asch, founder of Folkways...
1995