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William Thomas Dupree, best known as Champion Jack
Dupree, was an American blues pianist.  His birth
date is disputed, given as July 4, July 10, and
July 23, in the years 1908, 1909, or 1910. He died
January 21, 1992.  

Champion Jack Dupree was the embodiment of the New
Orleans blues and boogie woogie pianist, a true
barrelhouse "professor".  His father was from the
Belgian Congo and his mother was a Creole of color
and part Cherokee.  He was orphaned at the age of
2 and sent to the New Orleans Home for Colored
Waifs (also the alma mater of Louis Armstrong).  

He taught himself piano there and later
apprenticed with Tuts Washington and the legendary
Willie Hall|Drive'em Down, whom he called his
"father" and from whom he learned "Junker's
Blues". He was also "spy boy" for the Yellow
Pochahantas tribe of Mardis Gras Indians and soon
began playing in barrelhouses, drinking
establishments organized around barrels of booze.

As a young man he began his life of travelling,
living in Chicago, where he worked with Thomas A.
Dorsey|Georgia Tom and Indianapolis, Indiana,
where he hooked up with Scrapper Blackwell and
Leroy Carr.  While he was always playing piano, he
also worked as a cook, and in Detroit he met Joe
Louis, who encouraged him to become a
boxing|boxer.  He ultimately fought in 107 bouts
and winning Golden Gloves and other championships,
and picking up the nickname Champion Jack, which
he used the rest of his life.  

He returned to Chicago at age 30 and joined a
circle of recording artists, including Big Bill
Broonzy and Tampa Red who introduced him to
legendary blues record producer Lester Melrose,
who claimed composer credit and publishing on many
of Dupree's songs.  

Dupree's playing is almost all straight blues and
boogie woogie, with no ballads or pop songs, not
even blues ballads.  He was not a sophisticated
musician or singer, but he had a wry and clever
way with words: "Mama, move your false teeth, papa
wanna scratch your gums." He sometimes sang as if
he had a cleft palate and even recorded under the
name Harelip Jack Dupree.  This was an artistic
conceit, as Dupree had excellent clear
articulation, particularly for a blues singer.

He sang about life as he found it, singing about
jail, drinking, drug addiction, although he
himself was a light drinker and did not use other
drugs.  His "Junker's Blues" is still sung in New
Orleans, and was also transmogrified by Fats
Domino into his first hit "The Fat Man".  Dupree's
songs included not only gloomy topics, such as "TB
Blues" and "Angola Blues" (about the infamous
Louisiana prison|prison farm), but also cheerful
subjects like the "Dupree Shake Dance": "Come on,
mama, on your hands and knees, do that shake dance
as you please".  

Dupree was also noted as a raconteur and
transformed many of his stories into songs.  "Big
Leg Emma's" takes its place in the roots of rap
music as the rhymed tale of a police raid on a
barrelhouse.  

In later years he recorded with John Mayall, Mick
Taylor, and Eric Clapton.

Although Jerry Lee Lewis did not record Dupree's
"Shake Baby Shake" as suggested by some sources,
the lyrics in his version of "Whole Lotta Shakin'
Goin' On" echo the title of Dupree's song. Indeed,
Dupree's 1957 rerelease of "Shake Baby Shake" may
have been a response to the success of Jerry Lee
Lewis's record in that year.  

Dupree's career was interrupted by military
service in World War II.  He was a cooking|cook in
the navy|United States Navy and spent two years as
a Japanese prisoner of war.

His biggest commercial success was "Walkin' the
Blues", which he recorded as a duet with Teddy
McRae|Mr. Bear.  This led to several national
tours, and eventually to a European tour.  Dupree
moved to Europe permanently 1959, the first of
many blues stars to make the move to a less
racially prejudiced environment.  He continued to
record in Europe and also made many live
appearances there, also still working as a cook
specializing in New Orleans cuisine. He returned
to the United States from time to time and
appeared at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage
Festival.  He died in Hanover, Germany of cancer. 
   

==Quotations==
*When you open up a piano, you see freedom. 
Nobody can play the white keys and don't play the
black keys.  You got to mix all these keys
together to make harmony.  And that's what the
whole world needs: Harmony.

*"Nasty Boogie Woogie" by Jack Dupree
:Mama bought a chicken, she took him for a duck
:Laid him on the table with his legs stuck up
:Yonder come the children with a spoon and a glass
:Catch the gravy droppin' from his yes, yes, yes

*"Death of Martin Luther King", recorded just
after his assassination
:I know you people, I know you glad you ain't one
of me
:I know you people glad, I know you glad you white
and free
:Oh yeah, white and free, oh, what will, what will
become of me?
:Oh I am begging, yes, I'm begging to be free.