Talk:James Booker/Archive 1

Booker transcriptions
A book with transcriptions of ten Booker performances by New Orleans pianist Joshua Q. Paxton is still in print. It's called the James Booker Collection. What's the appropriate way to work it into the article? It's available from amazon or louisianamusicfactory.com if anyone wants to take a look. Doesn't seem quite right to mention either of those sites under external links though. I believe it is the only such book available. Drumsac 06:00, 29 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Seems reasonable to add a section or just a paragraph on transcriptions. There are 3 Booker transcriptions in New Orleans Piano Legends as well. -- Rick Block (talk) 06:22, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

International Chopin Piano Competition
Did Booker really win this prize? A brief look at the competition website shows nothing was held in 1958 and Booker doesn't appear in any of the other years.
 * It was added by this edit by a user who made only two edits last December. Sounds to me to be not verifiable.  I'll delete it. -- Rick Block (talk) 18:37, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

Should the external links be alphabetized?
I've added some new links but the list is starting to look a bit ugly. Putting them in alphabetical order would fix this, any thoughts?
 * At least some of them should really be turned into references, cited from the text using (perhaps) the REF syntax (see Footnotes). It's more work than alphabetizing, but ultimately much more useful (allows specific statements in the article to be verified as from a specific source).  -- Rick Block (talk) 13:46, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Okay, I'm going to alphabetize them and then have a look at the referencing system - thanks.

Appearence
One of the most striking things about James Booker's appearence was his trademark eye patch. Was this to cover a mis-shaped, missing or damaged eye or was it merely costmetic? If it was not cosmetic, what were the circumstances regarding the loss or otherwise of his eye.

I think this would be a useful addition to the article if anyone could help out


 * According to http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/04/23/PKGGGI6B3S1.DTL, he lost it under "mysterious, criminal circumstances".  http://www.cascadeblues.org/History/JamesBooker.htm claims Dr John says in his autobiography (presumably "Under a Hoodoo Moon") he lost it after getting beaten up for running a con on some record producers.  -- Rick Block (talk) 03:43, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

According to the radio biography by David Kunian, Booker used to claim that Ringo Starr had some thugs beat him up after some session work he'd done for the Photograph album. Hence the star. This almost certainly isn't true, more likely he created a more 'interesting' story to avoid having to talk about his shady dealings.

Cecil Taylor? McCoy Tyner?
This is my first attempted contribution to Wikipedia, so help me out if I'm messing anything up, BUT, the following sentence from the entry of James Booker is false and should be changed: "Many other classical and jazz pianists have attempted to duplicate Booker's solos note for note; none have been convincingly successful. Among the betters were those made by Cecil Taylor, McCoy Tyner, and (recently) New Orleans' prodigy, Henry Butler."

I can't speak to Butler's case, but I know of no such "duplication of [James Booker] note-for-note" in the case of the two Modern Jazz piano icons.

The whole claim - that "many classical and jazz pianists have attempted to duplicate his solos note-for-note; none have been convinclingly successful" seems unsubstantiated and off target. Unsuccessful to whom? Are these recordings being discussed. No doubt countless pianists have studied Booker with varying degrees of fanatical devotion, but the same is true for most original and famous musicians. I think the author is trying to indicate that Booker's style is "inimitable", like, say, Pee Wee Russell or Glenn Gould. thanks,

John SchottYet Another John Schott 21:19, 7 March 2007 (UTC) Berkeley, CA —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Yet Another John Schott (talk • contribs) 21:17, 7 March 2007 (UTC).


 * The person who added the content about pianists making an effort to duplicate Booker's solos said this was based on his personal knowledge, which seems to go against WP:NOR. Therefore I am removing that content. The author is free to publish the information elsewhere, whereupon it could be incorporated here. --Larrybob 00:42, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:JamesBooker.jpg
Image:JamesBooker.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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GA re-nomination quick-failed
I've quick-failed this article due to: I did not proceed to review further. Please read WP:GA?. G1ggy failed the original nomination just minutes earlier; so please do not resubmit until at least the concerns above are addressed. Carson 07:10, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
 * complete lack of citations
 * lack of sectioning
 * tiny lead
 * no fair use rationale for image