Little Brother Montgomery

Blues piano player Little Brother Montgomery was born Eurreal Montgomery in 1906 in Kentwood, LA. He learned to play the piano by watching the piano players who performed in his father's "barrelhouse", and picked up the nickname "Little Brother Harper" (later shortened to just "Little Brother", and still later lengthened to "Little Brother Montgomery"). He has claimed that he left home at 11 years of age and traveled all over the South as a piano player, performing in every place from small clubs and house-rent parties to brothels and logging camps, and pretty much everything in between, specializing in blues, jazz and boogie-woogie. He eventually got jobs playing with such blues figures as Clarence Desdunes and The Joyland Revelers. In 1930 he recorded some songs for Paramount Records. He expanded his "territory" to Chicago and New Orleans, but returned home to Louisiana and then moved to Jackson, MS, in the early 1930s. He resumed recording in 1935 after signing a contract with Bluebird Records. He returned to Chicago in 1942 and recorded for several smaller labels that catered to the African-American market. He gained a reputation as a first-rate session man and played on recordings by such artists as Sippie Wallace, Minnie Hicks and Irene Suggs. He kept his performing confined mostly to the Chicago area for the next four decades, although he did do some touring and played blues and jazz festivals around the country. He still did session work in Chicago, playing with such singers as Otis Rush and Magic Sam. In 1966 he formed his own label, FM Records (the "F" was for his wife, Janet Floberg), but most of the label's releases were of albums by Montgomery and his wife. He recorded his final album in 1982. He died in Chicago, IL, in 1985.