For a piano player, a solo gig at The Maple Leaf is a dream come true and a daunting responsibility. The New Orleans piano tradition has one of its richest chapters inside the venerable Oak St. bar, thanks to James Booker‘s regular appearances there before his untimely death in 1983. Since the Piano Prince’s passing, the Leaf’s piano legacy has lived on in contemporary players such as Davell Crawford, Jon Cleary, Henry Butler, Carl “Sonny” Leyland, Tom McDermott, and Tom Worrell. When the Maple Leaf instituted traditional piano nights on Mondays, it went without saying that there was going to be some formidable talent handling the ivories.

Joe Krown was a regular Monday night performer at the Leaf in 1997, and that trend is continuing in ’98. Krown’s not a household name, but his face is probably familiar to many local music fans as the man behind Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown‘s keyboards for the last six years. Now Krown has taken his years of experience on the keys and released his first solo record, aptly titled Just The Piano…Just The Blues, on the local STR label. For New York native Krown, it’s a labor of love culled from an impressive resume.

“The last gig I had [before Gatemouth] was three years with Luther (Guitar Jr.) Johnson (an alumni of Muddy Waters‘ band), and that’s where I got into the hard-core study of boogie-woogie. I’d always liked ragtime and I played some boogies, but that’s when I really started to get into the whole style, and where that style is coming from. It was like going back to the roots of blues piano playing,” says Krown. “Gate, he’s coming out of the big-band era, so Count Basie and all the boogie-woogie players like Pete Johnson, these guys are the players, and you’ve got to listen to them all.”

The proof is in the grooves. Just The Piano…Just The Blues is a warm, intimate journey crossing decades of blues piano styles, from a faithful homage to original boogie-woogie master Pinetop Smith on “Pinetop Boogie” to the luxurious swinging rhythms of Ray Charles “Rockhouse” to a New Orleans Professor Longhair medley of “Big Chief/Mess Around.” But Krown isn’t just replicating licks: the true beauty of Just The Piano…Just the Blues are his original compositions such as the rolling “Pudding Time” and the slow-building right-hand motifs of “All That.”

“When I was making it, I wanted to be able to do something that was in a certain style but unique to itself. One thing Gatemouth constantly says for advice is try to be like yourself, don’t always copy what other guys are doing. That’s important. You’ve got to come up with something that’s expressive and says something.”

Krown’s debut conveys his love for the Crescent City’s bawdiest piano traditions as well. “It’s really kind of the roots of New Orleans. A lot of people ignore that. A lot of people dig the Booker and Longhair thing, but you’ve got to realize these guys sat around and played at parties where they played whorehouse blues. Look at Champion Jack [Dupree].”

Krown celebrates his debut with a CD release party of Just The Piano…Just the Blues at The Maple Leaf on February 4, and an in-store performance at The Louisiana Music Factory at 2:00 p.m. on February 21. Even casual blues fans owe it to themselves to check out Krown live; he’s always good for a few classic piano covers like Vince Guaraldi‘s “Peanuts” and Scott Joplin‘s “Pineapple Rag.”

While Krown is giving blues piano buffs a treat, fans of blues guitar should start counting the days until Duke Robillard returns to The Maple Leaf on February 15. Robillard’s last two appearances there have been nothing short of spectacular, three-hour affairs that showcase Robillard’s six-string mastery. Robillard still maintains his home base in Rhode Island, but he’s an honorary New Orleanian, having contributed his tasteful playing to Johnny Adams‘ Walking on a Tightrope and Sings Doc Pomus…The Real Me albums, and recently guesting on Ruth Brown‘s New Orleans-flavored R&B=Ruth Brown.

“As far as the rhythm and blues stuff that I do, a lot of that really developed in New Orleans,” Robillard said in a recent interview. “I remember the first time I heard “Blueberry Hill,” and I heard the intro, and then when [Domino] did that trill and the band came in, I remember getting goosebumps for the first time…And on Johnny’s Doc Pomus album, I got to do kind of big-band acoustic rhythm guitar in the Danny Barker tradition, and that meant more to me than anything.”

Roomful of Blues founder and ex-Fabulous Thunderbirds member Robillard’s new record is Dangerous Place (Pointblank), an evocative and almost cinematic record that evokes the film-noir steam of 40’s-era blues. To help capture the mood, the grainy black-and-white cover shot of Robillard sitting in a motel room was taken out on Airline Highway. “We found the seediest one we could find, with that big motel sign outside that window, and I mean it was funky. Believe me, you didn’t want to get on that bed. It really was a dangerous place.”

For his Maple Leaf show, Robillard will be debuting his new band line-up, which features his old Roomful of Blues cohort Doug James on sax. “We’ve got two horns now, and everybody’s real gung-ho about it,” says Robillard. “We’re doing some new things, and doing some real arrangements from my album tunes, which I really hadn’t been able to do with one horn, but with two it’s going to open things up.” Don’t miss it.

1997 was a year of tremendous losses for the blues community, as Johnny Copeland, Luther Allison and Jimmy Rogers were just a few of the esteemed artists who left us. January 1998 brought two more deaths: Jr. Wells and Jr. Kimbrough. Wells was one of the blues’ greatest harmonica players, a member of Muddy Waters’ band who produced a host of albums including the classic Hoodoo Man Blues. His last project, the Grammy-nominated Come On In This House, was recorded at Maurice, Louisiana’s Dockside Studios and featured John Mooney, Corey Harris, Sonny Landreth and Jon Cleary.

Kimbrough’s raw brand of John Lee Hooker-like trance blues was introduced to the world through Robert Palmer‘s Deep Blues movie and soundtrack. Kimbrough went on to join the Fat Possum label roster, releasing albums such as the hypnotic All Night Long. We can only hope that Kimbrough’s sons will continue to run his juke joint in Mississippi.

At press time, OffBeat learned that Bryan Lee has left his recent gig at Tropical Isle on Bourbon St. Tropical Isle owner Earl Bernhardt said the split was mutually amicable, as Lee was simply used to working in a room with table seating. No word yet on where Lee will pop up next, but keep your eyes and ears peeled for a record release party for his new Justin Time release Live at the Old Absinthe Bar…Friday Night. The eagerly anticipate live album was recorded last summer and features James Cotton and Kenny Wayne Shepherd as guests.

Speaking of Cotton, his itinerary shows him booked for the 1998 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, which is a good omen for blues fans…

Finally, the first high-profile blues release of the year is Alligator’s Hound Dog Taylor — A Tribute. It kicks off with one of the last songs Luther Allison recorded, an incendiary slide-fueled “Give Me Back My Wig,” and also features cuts from the likes of Ronnie Earl, Magic Slim, and Son Seals. Lafeyette’s Sonny Landreth also contributes his unique slide-fretting technique to the album.