Amos Milburn

Amos Milburn, renowned as a boogie piano master, first saw the light of day in Houston and returned there to pass away just 52 years afterward. Across that span he hammered out some of the most ferocious postwar boogies, cutting most of them in Los Angeles for Aladdin Records while focusing on lighthearted, high-spirited numbers about drinking and its mixed consequences that became enormous successes in the years right before rock & roll arrived.

Though self-taught, the keyboard virtuoso earned local notice around Houston as “the He-Man Martha Raye,” then enlisted in the Navy and took part in overseas combat during World War II. Upon discharge he worked the clubs of the Lone Star State until he encountered the person whose persistence would launch him to fame.

Manager Lola Anne Cullum is said to have marched uninvited into Aladdin chief Eddie Mesner’s hospital room, portable disc machine in hand and Milburn’s audition recording already queued. The ploy succeeded, securing him a contract with Aladdin in 1946. His debut session featured a pounding “Down the Road Apiece” that foreshadowed the coming explosion of rock & roll, yet he also possessed gentler gifts, delivering smooth blues ballads in a style indebted to Charles Brown—the two later became close friends and frequent collaborators.

Milburn’s initial chart triumph arrived in 1948 with the celebratory “Chicken Shack Boogie,” the first of his nineteen Top Ten R&B hits; it topped the listings and gave his band its enduring nickname, the Aladdin Chickenshackers. That same year a silky “Bewildered” showcased his relaxed after-hours manner and also climbed the charts, but it was the raucous, horn-led likes of “Roomin’ House Boogie” and “Sax Shack Boogie” for which he became best known. His thundering piano work left a mark on numerous later players, among them Fats Domino.

When “Bad, Bad Whiskey” reached number one in 1950, Milburn began a run of similarly liquor-themed successes: “Thinking and Drinking,” “Let Me Go Home Whiskey,” “One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer” (a round John Lee Hooker apparently savored), and “Good Good Whiskey,” his final hit in 1954. Alcoholism eventually exacted a harsh toll, lending those songs a bitter retrospective edge. His national standing earned him several spots on the mid-1950s television program Showtime at the Apollo, hosted by Willie Bryant, where he delivered a scorching “Down the Road Apiece.”

Aladdin continued to record him well after the hits stopped, sending him to New Orleans in 1956 to work with the celebrated studio musicians at Cosimo’s. There he recut “Chicken Shack Boogie” with such fire that its failure to chart remains baffling, as tenor saxophonist Lee Allen and drummer Charles “Hungry” Williams drove the track with explosive force while Milburn grunted encouragement over his own rolling piano solo. He departed the label for good in 1957.

In 1960 Milburn added a lively entry to the R&B holiday repertoire with “Christmas (Comes but Once a Year)” for King. Berry Gordy offered a fresh platform in 1962 by releasing an album on Motown that consisted largely of updated versions of earlier hits—an LP that remains unjustly scarce today, even though a young Little Stevie Wonder contributed harmonica to the sessions.

By then nothing could revive the pianist’s waning fortunes. A series of strokes progressively robbed him of mobility, culminating in the amputation of his left leg, and not long afterward one of the true originators of R&B was gone.