New Orleans Piano | How to play Tipitina (Professor Longhair)

Sheet music available here: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/...

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The Definitive Piano Arrangement:
As you learn this, it is essential to keep in mind that there is no “right way” to play this song, or any blues / boogie woogie song for that matter. There are literally no two Professor Longhair recordings of Tipitina that are identical. The improvisations and inconsistencies across performances are part of what make this style of music so honest and expressive. Therefore, I urge you to take this score as more of a guide than as a sacred document that must be played exactly as written. That being said, this arrangement is a combination of what I consider to be the ‘best’ piano parts from the five Professor Longhair (“Fess”) recordings listed below (recorded between 1953 and 1980).

Tipitina, Live on the Queen Mary (1978 One Way Records)
Tipitina, Fess Up - Documentary (1980)
Tipitina, Rock ’N’ Roll Gumbo (1985 Dancing Cat Records)
Tipitina, Single (1953 Atlantic Records)
Tipitina, New Orleans Piano (1972 Atlantic Records)

Tipitina always includes Fess’s vocals, but this arrangement was created to be a solo piano piece, so no vocals are included.

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