If you listen to Al “Lil’ Fats” Jackson sing without seeing him, you may assume you’re hearing Fats Domino.

There’s good reason for that. When Jackson was a child in Bridge City, he listened to the stacks of 45-rpm vinyl records his grandfather brought home from the jukebox in the family’s bar: dozens of classics by Domino, Ernie K-Doe, Earl King, Huey “Piano” Smith and more 1950s ...