Big Joe Duskin
| Big Joe Duskin | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Joseph L. Duskin |
| Born |
February 10, 1921 Collegeville, Birmingham, Alabama, United States |
| Died | May 6, 2007 (aged 86) Avondale, Ohio, United States |
| Genres |
Blues Boogie-woogie |
| Occupation(s) | Pianist, singer, songwriter |
| Instruments | Piano, vocals |
| Years active | Early 1970s – 2007 |
| Labels |
Arhoolie Records Yellow Dog Records various |
Big Joe Duskin (February 10, 1921 – May 6, 2007) was an American blues and boogie-woogie pianist. He is best known for his debut album, Cincinnati Stomp (1978), and the tracks "Well, Well Baby" and "I Met a Girl Named Martha".
He was born Joseph L. Duskin in Birmingham, Alabama. By the age of seven he had started playing the piano. He played in church, accompanying his father, the Rev. Perry Duskin. His family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and Duskin was raised near the Union Terminal train station, where his father worked. On the local radio station WLW, Duskin heard his hero Fats Waller play. He was also inspired to play in a boogie-woogie style by Pete Johnson's "627 Stomp".
In his younger days Duskin performed in clubs in Cincinnati and across the river in Newport, Kentucky. While serving in the U.S. Army in World War II, he continued to play and, in entertaining American servicemen, met his idols Johnson, Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis.
After his military service ended, Duskin's father caught him playing boogie in the church and made him promise to stop playing in that style while he was still alive. However, Rev. Duskin lived to the age of 105, and in the meantime, Joe found employment as a police officer and as a postal worker. Effectively in the middle of his career, he never played a keyboard for sixteen years.
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