“This is the bare bones of Davell Crawford,” declares the Piano Prince of New Orleans on what listeners can expect from his newly released Piano in the Vaults, Vol. I. The unique album is the first in a series of six to be put out by Basin Street Records. The recordings capture the brilliant pianist and vocalist performing solo in various studios during the period from 1996 to 2013. The material on this initial disc includes five Crawford originals, several of which remain rarities; two tunes written by his grandfather, vocalist/pianist James “Sugar Boy” Crawford; one composition by Jelly Roll Morton and more.

Early on in his career, Crawford, 40, had the insight to preserve his work, though his intention wasn’t necessarily for the resulting products to reach the public.

“I’ve never stopped documenting myself—I think that’s important for an artist always to do,” Crawford says, adding that he took advantage of a bit of self-imposed down time to go into the studio and create. “At one time, I had stopped touring and stopped making a lot of public appearances in New Orleans and I also knew that I wasn’t going to release a record for quite some time. I just wanted to rest and have some privacy.” He laughingly mentions that he has a cassette that he recorded when he was 12 years old on which he played a Casio keyboard that offered multiple functions, like bass, drums and strings. By using two cassette players, he was able to get the desired result of instrumentally accompanying himself on vocals.

Volume I opens with two tunes from Crawford’s pen, “Song for James” and “Booker Days,” that it would logically be presumed were written in honor of New Orleans pianist/vocalist/composer genius James Booker.

“’Song for James’ was originally written for my grandfather but it sounds more like James Booker than James Crawford, who was a helluva piano player,” Crawford explains. “That song kind of took on a life of its own. ‘Booker Days’ was written for Booker though I performed it [by changing the lyrics] as a tribute to Ray Charles when he passed. I create the art and I give it to you to analyze it.”

It could also be assumed that these two tunes were chosen to lead off the CD because of their reference to Booker, whose music was certainly an influence on Crawford and who is among those who make up New Orleans’ great lineage of piano players of which Crawford is also a part.

Again, that was, says Crawford, not the case. “I create a play list by considering specific factors—the energy of the song, the key of the song and the mood of a song,” he offers.

“Davell presented it to us and we said that sounds great,” says co-executive producer and Basin Street Records owner Mark Samuels. “I generally trust our producers to get things done and Davell is an excellent producer. Everything is in Davell’s hands. I’ve paid the bills to mix and master this work to [engineer] David Farrell.”

“I gave it to David first,” Crawford says. “I didn’t want Mark Samuels to hear anything until he got a master that was ready to go and be shipped off. Some of the recordings weren’t the best of all. David cleared up what he could—get the hissing out, add a little bottom and level out the whole recording.”

The results are outstanding with the piano on tunes like Jelly Roll Morton’s “Buddy Bolden’s Blues,” on which Crawford offers his take on a stride style and ends with a surprising flourish of notes, retaining the rich, full sound of the acoustic instrument. His gospel-influenced vocals on Percy Mayfield’s “Please Send Me Someone to Love” clearly ring out with the heartfelt request.

Crawford initially mentioned the Piano in the Vaults recordings to Samuels when he first signed with Basin Street Records in 2011. “I knew one day I would release some of them,” Crawford remembers, “and I wanted a record company that knew the value of this particular kind of music and that its basic fan base loved this kind of music. In the middle of the negotiations, I called Mark and said, ‘I’d like for you to release my Piano in the Vaults. He immediately said, ‘Well, sure—yes.’”

The project didn’t come to fruition until Crawford was in the studio recording his wonderfully epic 2013 album and Basin Street debut, My Gift to You. “I woke up one morning and said, ‘I guess I’ll send them the masters,’” Crawford remembers. “I guess I could have done it a long time ago.”

“So he was sitting on all these recordings—these great assets,” says Samuels, adding that they are actually still owned by Crawford. “We are licensing them for a 10-year period and doing everything we can to get people to be aware of them and hopefully buy them. It didn’t require us to make any payments to studios or musicians though there are always plenty of costs in making a record. Davell probably has a lot of other material he’s sitting around on though I had to stop at six CDs. That’s a lot of music.” (Piano in the Vaults, Vol. I boasts 13 selections. Multiply that by six albums and you’re talking about close to 80 tunes.)

Crawford reveals little stories about and special reasons for each of the songs appearing on volume one of the series. For instance, the tune “Fine Brown Frame,” the only non-solo cut, is the first song that Louisiana-born vocalist Carol Fran, a good friend of his and his grandmother, showed him on the piano. The singers enjoy a humorous exchange on this lively number that demonstrates their caring compatibility. The great R&B legend Ruth Brown taught a young Crawford the standard “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out.” “Morning Star,” which is performed as an instrumental, was written by Sugar Boy Crawford for his wife, Davell’s grandmother. It is Sugar Boy’s pen that also contributes the rhythm and blues selection “Baby Please Be True.” Crawford’s first recollection of the classic “Make Me a Pallet on the Floor” was hearing guitarist/banjoist/vocalist Danny Barker perform it. “After that I heard Lady BJ [Crosby] and Lillian [Boutté] sing it,” Crawford says. “I learned the majority of songs that I know from our people.”

In many regards, the music heard on Piano in the Vaults, Vol. I more closely represents what one might enjoy at one of Crawford’s live performances than that heard on his expansive My Gift to You. Thus future audiences will have the opportunity to figuratively bring home what they have just experienced.

“After 2005, I geared my shows to New Orleans music, period,” Crawford explains. “My Gift to You is a beautiful statement of my life and admiration for Louisiana. It was not recorded in the tradition of New Orleans—that’s what I wanted. This [Piano in the Vaults] reaches a certain audience, a more mature audience and any audience that just loves roots music.”

“Just from a commercial standpoint, it gives him the opportunities to do more solo shows that are certainly more viable,” Samuels offers. “And then he has a fresh product of what he just performed.”

“The beautiful thing about music today is that it isn’t a situation that you have six months of shelf space for a product and then you have to stop selling it because you can’t distribute it,” Samuels continues, offering examples of the still-strong sales for older albums by other Basin Street musicians such as trumpeter/vocalist Kermit Ruffins and the Rebirth Brass Band. “Fortunately our artists, as popular as they are in their world, are not [recording] pop music. So we haven’t exhausted people. So there are always more people out there who need to get turned onto it. Davell has a world in front of him. He’s got a whole world of potential fans.”

Piano from the Vaults, Vol. 1 was released in New Orleans just before the second weekend of the 2016 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Its official street date for distributors is July 8, 2016. “As soon as we could push the buttons we had digital platforms all over the world with high resolution on our download for those people who say they don’t buy CDs anymore,” Samuels says. “With six volumes, we said, ‘Let’s put it out there!’”

“It’s like giving birth, one would assume,” says Crawford of finally releasing this material. He laughs when he adds, “Of course I’ve never given birth. I’ve held these [recordings] for so long and I have gone through happy moments listening to them. I’ve gone through ‘It wasn’t good enough; I hate my piano, I hate my voice and what was I thinking of at this time?’”

“I had to get over that,” he continues. “I have to remind myself every now and then that I don’t record music or perform music for myself. I never have. I am here for the people and I record music for the people—for my fans and for my future fans. This is what this is about. It’s about preserving our great piano legacy in New Orleans and Louisiana and roots music as a whole. This is all a part of my gift to you—giving this gift to them. This is part of our heritage in Louisiana and I think it’s my responsibility to keep it alive.”

Davell Crawford will be celebrating the release of Piano in the Vaults, Vol. I at Snug Harbor on Friday, July 29.