DETROIT JUNIOR LIVE AT THE TOLEDO MUSEUM OF ART

No one on the Chicago blues circuit works a crowd like ebullient pianist Detroit Junior, as delighted attendees of the Toledo Museum of Art's Party of the Century recently learned first-hand. Flying solo and likely standing for part of his set (he occasionally rattles the ivories from underneath the keyboard as well), Junior happily pounded out a '50s rock and roll medley of "Maybellene" and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On," romping R&B ("Caldonia" and the Crescent City classic "Blue Monday"), straightahead blues ("Key To The Highway," "Every Day I Have The Blues"), even Brook Benton's mellow ballad "It's Just A Matter Of Time."

 Working alone is fine with Junior. "I like to bring a band, but when I do solo, I don't have to tell anybody what I want to play. I can go back as far as I want to go," he says. "It gives me a thrill to see people enjoying me. That's why I try to put everything into it when I'm playing."

 Naturally, Junior also revisited a couple of his own gems during the show. That's only fitting, since his sly lyrical humor has long been a trademark; he penned and cut the original (and often-covered) "Call My Job" for USA Records in 1965. The rollicking landlord lament "Turn Up The Heat" served as the title track for his first Blue Suit CD. "I write songs from things I see happen to other people. I know so many buildings in different places that the children weren't getting enough heat," he notes. "I have stayed in some buildings that were the same way, with no heat." "If I Hadn't Been High," hilariously detailing Junior's boozy hijinks, first surfaced on Alligator's Living Chicago Blues anthology series in 1980 and receives an energetic revival.

 Prior to settling in Chicago in 1956 on the advice of fellow 88s ace Eddie Boyd, Junior--born Emery Williams Jr.--saw quite a bit of our nation. "I was born in a little town called Haynes, Arkansas. My people moved from there when I was a baby to Memphis," he explains. "Then I went to a little southern town in Illinois where I stayed about three years. Then I left there and went to Michigan, and stayed there 'til I came here." That early '50s Motor City residency inadvertently gave him his stage name in early 1960, when he cut his debut single for Chicago nightclub owner Narvel "Cadillac Baby" Eatmon's Bea & Baby label.

 "I went in to play piano behind Hound Dog Taylor, Bobby Saxton, and Little Mack Simmons. They were running out of time. At the last minute, they said, 'Let's do a couple of sides on Junior right quick.' So they did a couple of sides on me. I didn't get a chance to hear my tunes back, because they ran out of time," says Junior. "So what they did then was they carried the stuff they recorded around the radio station, to get their opinion. So all of them picked my number, 'Money Tree.' So the next thing I know, they called me up to come to the club. Go to the jukebox, he points to this and points to that. That was the first time I heard it."

 More than four decades later, the same delightful effervescence marks Junior's stage presentation. "When I'm playing and singing, I try to live it in, live it out, let 'em feel it. That makes me feel good, even though I'm still a poor, scuffling musician. That's the one thrill I get, is seeing people enjoy. I don't do things just for the money. I do things because I enjoy it, and I like to see the people enjoy it."

 And they do. Just ask those happy folks in Toledo!

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