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James Booker was the greatest piano virtuoso in the history of New Orleans r&b, and he appeared as a session player on hundreds of dates, from blues and Dixieland to pop. He could handle it all. Unfortunately, he couldn't always handle life as well as he handled music, and during the last few years of his tragically short life, he quit traveling, did virtually no session work, and limited his performances to gigs around New Orleans, the majority of them at his home base, the Maple Leaf Bar on Oak Street, where he could be tedious one night and brilliant the next. This album, a 'best of' edited from tapes recorded night after night at the Maple Leaf, focuses on Booker's vocals, which were as much a part of his persona as his piano.