Little Brother Montgomery

Little Brother Montgomery (1906-1985), born Eurreal Wilford Montgomery, was a major presence on south Mississippi's blues and jazz scene during much of the pre-World War II era and was famed for his trembling vocals and masterful piano playing. Though often associated with Kentwood, Louisiana, and later Chicago, he was once the most prominent blues pianist in Mississippi. His musical family, including his brothers Joe and Tollie, lived in Norfield, a sawmill town south of Brookhaven, where his father Harper Montgomery ran a juke joint for local lumber workers. Montgomery took to piano as a child, said he left home at age eleven to play on the road, and remained connected to the family home during his travels. He played at sawmills, lumber camps, cafes, and dances in towns including Vicksburg, Jackson, Brookhaven, and McComb, and in the 1920s moved with his family to Norfield after Harper Montgomery went to work for the Denkmann Lumber Company. When Denkmann abandoned Norfield in 1931 and moved its machinery to Canton, the Montgomerys and many other workers' families followed. Sawmill communities and lumber, turpentine, and levee camps provided work for many blues musicians, including Montgomery, who also performed in nightspots in Vicksburg, Canton, Gulfport, and New Orleans, traveled with dance bands, and spent a few years in Chicago. He recorded his signature tune, "Vicksburg Blues," in 1930, returned to Mississippi in 1931, led the Jackson-based Southland Troubadors, sometimes broadcast on stations such as WCOC in Meridian, and toured several states as the Collegiate Ramblers. Although that group never recorded, Montgomery cut twenty-two blues sides released as Bluebird singles in 1935-36. He inspired a young Willie Dixon in Vicksburg, mentored Otis Spann and Little Johnnie Jones in Jackson, and influenced Skip James, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, Sunnyland Slim, and many others. Hailed by Down Beat magazine in 1940 as "the greatest piano man that ever invaded Dixie," he later spent time in Yazoo City, Hattiesburg, and Beaumont, Texas, before settling permanently in Chicago in 1942, where he remained a respected performer in both traditional jazz and blues piano, accompanied major artists on recording sessions, made numerous albums in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, and continued performing until his death on September 6, 1985.

Brookhaven, Mississippi · United States