Biography
Fewer than half a dozen blues pianists from Charlotte, North Carolina, entered the recording studios during the 78 rpm period, and "Peg Leg" Ben Abney stood among them. He cut exactly six sides in Charlotte on June 22, 1936. The birth date listed in the Social Security Death Index, if accurate, would have made him 52 at the sessions and therefore one of the oldest blues pianists ever documented on disc. His left-hand stride figures and occasional Earl Hines-like "trumpet piano" phrases nevertheless point to a style formed in the mid- or late 1920s rather than an earlier era. The dense, congested, and sharply dissonant character of his playing suggests he came to the instrument relatively late in life. Age, nickname, and musical manner together imply that Abney may have begun as a manual laborer, sustained a disabling injury in middle age, and turned to blues performance for income afterward. Charlotte city directories of the 1930s list him simply as a musician. He sang with authority, and the six surviving blues contain lyrics that appear to draw on personal episodes. Bluebird titled the third selection "Way Down in Town," a courteous choice; the words Abney actually sang refer to "Way Down in Polack Town" and describe panhandling in a predominantly white neighborhood. He delivers the couplet "Some people give me a nickel, others a lousy dime/Anyone who'd give me that much, you guys ain't no friend of mine." Although the songs mention Tennessee and St. Louis, nothing in the surviving record indicates that Abney ever left North Carolina. His keyboard work nevertheless reveals an awareness of Chicago approaches, not only those associated with Hines but especially the manner of Jimmy Yancey. Like Yancey, Abney favored an eccentric turnback chord that anticipates a device later identified with Thelonious Monk, and the figure appears in three of the six recorded selections. Bluebird withheld the final coupling until 1938; that release alone carries the full billing "'Peg Leg' Ben Abney." Original copies of these Bluebirds are exceedingly scarce, and even the Document Records reissue derives from a worn and deteriorating tape copy rather than the original 78 rpm shellacs.
Albums
