Dave Bartholomew (Born 24/12/1920)

He played tuba and trumpet as a child and became a Bourbon Street bandleader when still in his teens. He learnt to score music and arrange during a stint in the army and after getting back to New Orleans in the late 40s, he formed his own band, which became one of the most popular and accomplished in the city. He worked for several labels in the late 40s, including Specialty, Aladdin and De Luxe (he had a reasonable success on the De Luxe label with the 'Country Boy' release). You can get to hear his own early material (including 'Country Boy' and others) on "In The Alley", but you might have difficulty sourcing it.
From 1949 onwards, he worked for Imperial and introduced Fats Domino to the label after discovering him at the 'Hideaway Club'. Their collaboration is the stuff of legend, but Bartholomew also played a significant role in the careers of Smiley Lewis ('I Hear You Knockin' and 'One Night'), Lloyd Price ('Lawdy Miss Clawdy'), Shirley and Lee, Earl King, Roy Brown, Chris Kenner, Robert Parker and Frankie Ford amongst others. The Domino chart successes were the icing on the cake and nationwide million sellers, but Bartholomew used the same studio musicians to make equally satisfying records with many others, including visiting R&B greats (such as T-Bone Walker and Charles Brown) as well as the aforementioned local stars.

Bartholomew stayed with Imperial until the hits dried up in the mid 60s and then recorded at Trumpet, Mercury and on his own Broadmoor label. In the 70s and 80s he mainly held down various behind the scenes musical jobs and continued to live off his ample songwriting royalties (he claims to have written over 4,000 songs).

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. His own solo recordings have been covered by an eclectic and select range of artists including Elvis Costello and Buster Poindexter (the Fabulous Thunderbirds did a great version of 'The Monkey'), but his real legacy is the New Orleans sound he pioneered. He was undoubtedly one of the most significant figures to emerge from the New Orleans scene and was largely responsible for shaping the rhythms of the city into what we now remember as rock and roll. A double disc set "The Spirit Of New Orleans" nicely combined his own recordings with his productions for other artists but now appears to be impossible to get hold of. A single CD "The Big Beat Of Dave Bartholomew" is a concise and consistently excellent showcase of the great man's talents, with most of the acknowledged classics included, along with a few of his own recordings.