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Bill Dahl
courtesy of showtime archives, toronto
Rock 'n' roll's groundbreaking mid-1950s vanguard was a provocative lot who sent mainstream America on the defensive. Every time Elvis Presley swiveled his hips, network TV censors quivered in their wing tips. Jerry Lee Lewis kicked his piano bench across a stage, and backwoods preachers predicted Armageddon. Chuck Berry's dangerous wit was light years ahead of typical teenage erudition. Bo Diddley's signature beat made no excuse for its thunderous African origins, and Little Richard's over-the-top flamboyance may have even startled some of his fellow rockers.
But everyone dug Fats Domino. The unthreatening pianist's acceptance was universal from 1955 on: The cuddly Creole-accented Fat Man from balmy New Orleans transcended all demographic boundaries, leaping the chasm between R&B and newfangled rock 'n' roll without altering his easygoing approach. Surrounding himself with the Crescent City's greatest R&B musicians, here was a rock 'n' roll luminary even stuffy parents could endorse, especially when he rolled out the chestnuts "My Blue Heaven" and "Blueberry Hill." Domino's 1949-1962 output for Imperial Records reputedly sold in the neighborhood of 65 million copies, though he never topped Billboard 's Pop chart (he paced the R&B lists nine times; another nine times he stopped at #2).
Though he toured incessantly for decades, Domino seldom journeys too far outside his New Orleans' Ninth Ward neighborhood anymore. In fact, proclamation of a rare Domino concert is now cause for celebration even on his own turf. When he headlined the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival a few years back, the New Orleans Times-Picayune devoted 90 percent of its front page and most of the first section of its Sunday edition to a lengthy article on Domino and his longtime collaborator Dave Bartholomew. Typically, trumpeter Bartholomew handled most of the interview queries; the soft-spoken Domino is a man of few words away from the bandstand.
Born in New Orleans Feb. 26, 1928, Antoine Domino Jr. grew up in a household fluent in French and English, though he didn't speak French himself. Brother-in-law Harrison Verrett, a guitarist and banjo player, was the youngster's primary musical teacher, showing...