Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Mon Feb 10, 2003  6:19 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Big Joe Duskin

BIG JOE DUSKIN

Born 10 February 1921, Birmingham, Alabama

Singer / pianist.
Joe Duskin grew up listening to the blues and boogie-woogie for which
he is known today. He started playing the piano at the age of 7 and had
his first professional gigs when he was 16, shortly after he and his family
had moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. Upon the arrival of World War II, he was
drafted into the army, where, at various U.S.O. events, he had the oppor-
tunity to meet his idols, the boogie woogie giants Pete Johnson, Albert
Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis.
After demobilisation, Joe's career should have really begun to take off.
His father, the Rev. Duskin, however, had always abhorred the idea of his
son playing the "Devil's Music" and, being an old man in his eighties,
asked Joe to refrain from playing blues and boogie woogie during the
remainder of his father's days. Joe made him a solemn vow he would
comply, never imagining for one moment that the old man would live on
to be a hundred and four. By the time the vow was honoured, Joe had
spent nearly twenty years in day jobs and it was only with the encourage-
ment of Steve Tracy (author of the book "Going To Cincinnati") that he
took the first tentative steps back to playing that resulted, in 1977, in his
initial album, "Cincinnati Stomp". His second album, "Don't Mess With
the Boogie Man", followed in 1988. During the 90s, he toured extensively
in Europe, where he probably better known than in his own country.

Interview: http://www.citybeat.com/2001-08-09/musiclocalsonly.shtml
Further reading: Steven C. Tracy, Going To Cincinnati. Urbana, IL : Univ.
of Illinois Press, 1993.
CD's: Cincinnati Stomp (Arhoolie).
Don't Mess With The Boogie Man. 1997 CD release on Indigo, 2003 CD
release on Sanctuary/Castle.