Huey Long


 

4/25/1904 - 6/10/2009

 

 I came to know Huey Ink Spots Long in 1995 when I came from Fiji to teach in Houston, Texas. We hit it off together and became best friends throughout my stay in Houston from 1995 to 2003 when I returned home to Fiji. Huey Ink Spots Long is a rare diamond - a precious gentlemen who inspires love, devotion, reverence, respect and allows one to forget the problems of this world and wing one's flight with him in the world of music, joy, happiness and love. He has unlimited energy and soul power. A fountain of joy and inspiration. He inspires excellence in all things. A perfectionist who forgives people for their shortcomings and never gives up on you. He is a rare and precious soul whose influence lasts forever in people's lives.

To Dear Anita:

I wish to share with you my deepest sympathy and heartfelt sorrow on your moment of grief at the passing away of your dear father, who has given so much to so many people in so many ways for so long...

Thank you God for Mr. Huey Long. Thank you Huey for your lessons on wisdom, too many to count:

  • To take care of the little things exceptionally well and the big things will take care of themselves;
  • To be happy no matter what;
  • To be steadfast no matter what;
  • To be persistent, no matter what;
  • To smile all life long, no matter what;
  • To be a soulmate to all;
  • To be genuine;
  • To be kind;
  • To be gentle;
  • To give and to receive graciouly;
  • To be who you really are;
  • To believe in the goodness of others;
  • To be trusting;
  • To take chances;
  • To be hopeful;
  • To never give up a noble dream no matter how daunting;
  • To be a friend to all, the high and the low and the in betweens;
  • To manage your life, resources and time like a business - professionally and responsibly;
  • To be steady, stable and calm and accepting of all situations and circumstances that life brings your way;
  • To be accepting of all people;
  • Never to burn any bridges;
  • To be infinitely patient;
  • That all your dreams will come true;
  • That beauty and joy are the only true realities;
  • That every human soul has something precious to contribute to your life;
  • That people are the most important treasures on earth;
  • That there is much much more to a person than meets the eye;
  • To be orderly;
  • To be happy;
  • To be self sufficient;
  • To be good;
  • To be appreciative of every moment;
  • To do the right thing;
  • To do things right.

God brought Huey into my life as a friend, co-worker, teacher, guide, advisor, confidante, devotee at the most excellent stage of his life - in his early 90's.

To have such a deep and beautiful wellspring of memories of Huey in the core of my heart - to remember whenever I choose to and to nourish my soul with such a sweet and beautiful life, is the priceless gift that Mr. Huey (Ink Spot) Long has given to me and may His Soul Rest in Peace even though he will live on as long as I do.

Tavenisa Diri

 

 

On July 19, 2009, a memorial service was held in Suva, Fiji Islands, for Huey Long sharing food, readings from the various published information about his life,  viewing an exhibition of his photographs, and and reading from the sacred writings.

 

 

 

 

 

Visit the Huey Long Fiji Branch Blogspot and share your comments, stories and pictures of this remarkable man.

 

1904 HUEY LONG 2009

Ink Spots guitarist was ‘such a heavy cat’

By ALLAN TURNER Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

June 11, 2009, 9:41PM

Sealy-born jazz guitarist Huey Long, who performed and recorded with seminal jazz musicians ranging from Lil Armstrong to Fletcher Henderson before joining the Ink Spots in 1945, died Wednesday in Houston. He was 105.

Long’s career encompassed stints as sideman, band leader, arranger and music teacher. He was equally at home on the piano or banjo, although the guitar remained his instrument of choice, said his daughter, Houston vocalist Anita Long.

“Daddy was always, like, intense,” she said. “He was such a heavy cat, right? I was a singer, and he would accompany me. You had to stay on your p’s and q’s all the time. Daddy was just a privilege. He was such an amazing man.”

Long’s first encounter with professional musicians came as a teen when a group of minstrels visited his home town, his daughter said. Long took up the banjo, working odd jobs in Houston before joining the Frank Davis Louisiana Jazz Band in the mid-1920s.

Switching to guitar in the 1930s, Long migrated to Chicago, where he was a sideman in a number of bands. In that decade he recorded with pianist Armstrong on the Decca label. Long joined Henderson’s orchestra in 1942 at Chicago’s Grand Terrace Ballroom, then moved to New York with the famed leader in 1943.

For a time, he played with Earl Hines’ big band, a group that also featured future be-bop titans John “Dizzy” Gillespie and Charlie Parker.

Long was leading a trio on New York’s 52nd Street in 1945 when he was invited by vocalist Bill Kinney to join the immensely popular Ink Spots.

With their smooth harmonies and popular tunes, the black group was one of the first successful cross-over groups appealing to white listeners, said Houston cultural historian Mack McCormick.

“It was a marvelous organization, and he was a part of it and made a contribution,” McCormick said.

In five sessions, Long and the group recorded favorites such as If I Didn’t Care, Java Java and Street of Dreams.

An avid teacher

After the war, Long performed with saxophonist Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, fronted his own combo and enrolled in a California university to study music. In the 1960s, he lead a revived version of the Ink Spots.

In the 1970s, Long’s career reached its apex as he established a studio in New York City to teach guitar, his daughter said.

“I remember people from all over the world coming just to take lessons,” she said. “He really enjoyed teaching. It was something he fully had control over. When he was with those other groups, he was just one of many musicians.”

In later years, as arthritis stiffened his fingers, Long taught himself to play the piano.

Anita Long said her father was a steadfast supporter of her singing, a talent she sometimes doubted she possessed.

“I always had my subtle insecurities; I’d stop on and off,” she said. “He finally told me, ‘Let your voice come out. Sing the way you sing.’”

Anita Long was with her father on his final day.

“Even at the bedside yesterday I was singing to him,” she said. “It was a broken, tearful singing, but it was something I know he wanted to hear. I sang If I Didn’t Care by the Ink Spots and Amazing Grace.

“He wanted those old spiritual ballads.”

Funeral arrangements for Long are pending.

allan.turner@chron.com

 

 

 

Huey Long played Dixieland, swing and bebop jazz, along with making other musical detours.

 

 

 

On July 19, 2009, a memorial service was held in Suva, Fiji Islands, for Huey Long sharing food, readings from the various published information about his life,  viewing an exhibition of his photographs, and and reading from the sacred writings.

 

 

 

 

 

Visit the Huey Long Fiji Branch Blogspot and share your comments, stories and pictures of this remarkable man.

 

1904 HUEY LONG 2009

Ink Spots guitarist was ‘such a heavy cat’

By ALLAN TURNER Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

June 11, 2009, 9:41PM

Sealy-born jazz guitarist Huey Long, who performed and recorded with seminal jazz musicians ranging from Lil Armstrong to Fletcher Henderson before joining the Ink Spots in 1945, died Wednesday in Houston. He was 105.

Long’s career encompassed stints as sideman, band leader, arranger and music teacher. He was equally at home on the piano or banjo, although the guitar remained his instrument of choice, said his daughter, Houston vocalist Anita Long.

“Daddy was always, like, intense,” she said. “He was such a heavy cat, right? I was a singer, and he would accompany me. You had to stay on your p’s and q’s all the time. Daddy was just a privilege. He was such an amazing man.”

Long’s first encounter with professional musicians came as a teen when a group of minstrels visited his home town, his daughter said. Long took up the banjo, working odd jobs in Houston before joining the Frank Davis Louisiana Jazz Band in the mid-1920s.

Switching to guitar in the 1930s, Long migrated to Chicago, where he was a sideman in a number of bands. In that decade he recorded with pianist Armstrong on the Decca label. Long joined Henderson’s orchestra in 1942 at Chicago’s Grand Terrace Ballroom, then moved to New York with the famed leader in 1943.

For a time, he played with Earl Hines’ big band, a group that also featured future be-bop titans John “Dizzy” Gillespie and Charlie Parker.

Long was leading a trio on New York’s 52nd Street in 1945 when he was invited by vocalist Bill Kinney to join the immensely popular Ink Spots.

With their smooth harmonies and popular tunes, the black group was one of the first successful cross-over groups appealing to white listeners, said Houston cultural historian Mack McCormick.

“It was a marvelous organization, and he was a part of it and made a contribution,” McCormick said.

In five sessions, Long and the group recorded favorites such as If I Didn’t Care, Java Java and Street of Dreams.

An avid teacher

After the war, Long performed with saxophonist Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, fronted his own combo and enrolled in a California university to study music. In the 1960s, he lead a revived version of the Ink Spots.

In the 1970s, Long’s career reached its apex as he established a studio in New York City to teach guitar, his daughter said.

“I remember people from all over the world coming just to take lessons,” she said. “He really enjoyed teaching. It was something he fully had control over. When he was with those other groups, he was just one of many musicians.”

In later years, as arthritis stiffened his fingers, Long taught himself to play the piano.

Anita Long said her father was a steadfast supporter of her singing, a talent she sometimes doubted she possessed.

“I always had my subtle insecurities; I’d stop on and off,” she said. “He finally told me, ‘Let your voice come out. Sing the way you sing.’”

Anita Long was with her father on his final day.

“Even at the bedside yesterday I was singing to him,” she said. “It was a broken, tearful singing, but it was something I know he wanted to hear. I sang If I Didn’t Care by the Ink Spots and Amazing Grace.

“He wanted those old spiritual ballads.”

Funeral arrangements for Long are pending.

allan.turner@chron.com

 

 

 

Huey Long played Dixieland, swing and bebop jazz, along with making other musical detours.

 

June 13, 2009 - The New York Times

Huey Long, Guitarist for Ink Spots, Dies at 105

Frank Davis and his Louisiana Jazz Band were booked to play at the Rice Hotel in Houston in 1925. The banjo player never showed. For Huey Long, who shined shoes outside the hotel and occasionally got onstage to announce the bands, this was the unmistakable sound of opportunity knocking. Putting down his ukulele, he ran out to a music store, got a banjo on credit and stepped into the breach.

And so began an 80-year career in jazz and popular music. For the rest of the century Mr. Long, who took up the guitar in 1933, performed with an extensive list of greats in a journey that began with Dixieland, moved into swing and jumped forward to bebop. Along the way, he spent nine months in 1945 as a guitarist and singer with the Ink Spots, the enormously popular and influential vocal quartet that paved the way for rhythm and blues and rock ’n’ roll.

He died on Wednesday in Houston, the last surviving Ink Spot from the days when the group still had some of its original members. He was 105.

The death was confirmed by his daughter, Anita Long.

On the extended timeline of Mr. Long’s career, his tenure with the Ink Spots takes up no more than a couple of inches, but he joined the group in its heyday. In early 1945, while playing with his own trio at the Three Deuces on 52nd Street in Manhattan, he was approached by Bill Kenny, one of the earliest Ink Spots and the group’s signature voice. Kenny wanted him to replace their guitarist, Bernie Mackey, who was filling in for Charlie Fuqua, an original member who was doing military service.

In late March Mr. Long, providing guitar accompaniment and vocal support, appeared as an Ink Spot at Detroit’s Paradise Theater. He also recorded several songs with the group, including “I’m Gonna Turn Off the Teardrops,” “I’ll Lose a Friend Tomorrow,” “The Sweetest Dream” and “Just for Me.”

When Mr. Fuqua reappeared unexpectedly in October, Mr. Long was suddenly an ex-Ink Spot. But his career rolled on.

Mr. Long was born in Sealy, Tex., a farm town about 20 miles west of Houston. His brother Sam played ragtime piano, and Huey picked up the chords on his ukulele. After he finished his adventure with the Louisiana Jazz Band, a visiting aunt took him back to Chicago, intent on getting him some music lessons and starting him out in nightclubs.

In 1933 he switched to guitar to perform with Texas Guinan’s Cuban Orchestra at the World’s Fair in Chicago. The city was a hotbed of jazz, and Mr. Long, who developed a deft hand at constructing chordal solos, found himself in demand as a studio musician. In 1935 and 1936 he recorded sessions for Decca Records with the pianist Richard M. Jones’s Jazz Wizards and the pianist Lil Armstrong and Her Swing Orchestra, including her signature tune, “Just for a Thrill.” He went on to perform and do arrangements for the trumpeter Zilner Randolph’s W.P.A. Concert and Swing Band.

It was a colorful period. “If you were an entertainer in Chicago, you worked for the gangsters,” he told The Journal of Longevity in 2006. “After midnight they would close a club to the public for a party. Generous and friendly, they threw large bills on the stage as some sort of status symbol. When they left, you counted it, and it was always more than enough.”

Fletcher Henderson hired Mr. Long to play with his orchestra at the Grand Terrace Cafe and later took him to New York, where the simmering bebop movement propelled Mr. Long into a new phase. He joined the pianist Earl Hines’s orchestra and performed with emerging stars like Billy Eckstine, Sarah Vaughan, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie before forming his own trio and then taking a detour with the Ink Spots.

After playing with the saxophonist Eddie (Lockjaw) Davis’s Be-Boppers, he formed a new trio of his own and entertained American troops in Korea and Japan as part of a U.S.O. tour.

Mr. Long briefly attended Los Angeles City College in pursuit of a teaching certificate but grew homesick and returned to New York. The Ink Spots, in the meantime, had broken up, spawning a host of groups using the name, some with no connection to the original group. In the early 1960s Mr. Long formed his own version of the Ink Spots and performed with them in California for two years before returning to New York, where he set up a teaching studio in an apartment in the CBS Building. The studio developed into a small school, which he moved to Broadway and 52nd Street.

In 1996 Mr. Long returned to Houston, where in 2007 his daughter started the Ink Spots Museum across the street from his apartment. In addition to his daughter, Anita Long of Houston, he is survived by two sons, Rene and Shiloh, both of San Jose, Calif.; and seven grandchildren.

At his death Mr. Long was compiling what his daughter described as a musical dictionary, a compilation of the chord melodies he developed over the years. It helped tune out unwelcome developments in popular music.

“Music is defined as sound vibrations that are picked up by the ear,” he told The Journal of Longevity, diplomatically. “The music of today has sound and vibrations — heavy on the rhythm.”

 

 

 

Huey Long celebrated his 105th Birthday on April 25, 2009.

 

Click Here for Pictures of Huey's 103rd birthday party

 

 

 

 

 4/25/1904 - 6/10/2009

Huey Long was the last surviving member of the original Ink Spots. 

HUEY LONG LIVING HISTORY MUSIC MUSEUM

117 East 20th Street

713-677-9736

 

 

April 22, 2008, 4:06PM
 

Daughter preserves Huey Long's legacy
Musician to mark 104th birthday at area museum
 

His daughter, Anita Long, 52, was residing in San Jose, Calif., when she first heard of the situation and she made the decision to move to Houston to take care of him.

"No one watches out for someone like family and I just felt this was what I had to do," Anita Long said. "I love my father and we have always been very close, so even though it was a sacrifice, I willingly did it."

Despite having to leave behind friends, family and a career in digital storytelling, Anita Long came to Houston 1 1/2 years ago, hired attorneys and recently regained legal control of his items of memorabilia that were missing.

Included was a rare, custom-made D'Angelico guitar that is 60 years old.

In June 2007, she opened the The Ink Spots Museum at 117 East 20th St., across the street from her father's apartment at the Heights House.

There she has arranged photos, his autobiography, articles, music and many other items that detail her father's storied musical career.

On Friday, Huey Long will celebrate his 104th birthday at the museum, which will be open from noon-8 p.m.

Music collection

"My father has gathered a collection of music," Anita Long said. "He has things that have a lot of history. They used to be in his apartment, but I opened this as a tribute to him.

"This is something he always wanted, and I am so happy he could live to see this dream come true."

Anita Long opened the museum in the former Clayton Lee Plumbing building at her own expense. She opens it daily, and also runs a small boutique out of the back.

Upstairs are an art gallery featuring works by up-and-coming artists and her offices, where she hopes to continue teaching at-risk youth to document the lives of seniors in digital storytelling projects.

Her documentary work is represented in more than 30 museums and libraries, including the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Before moving to Houston, Anita Long was executive director and co-founder of the Digital Clubhouse Network, a nonprofit.

Planning projects

She plans to continue those projects. She will offer classes in photography and photo journalism, documentary workshops, and learning labs to teach digital storytelling.

Long also took care of her mother, Louise Long, Huey Long's first wife, until she passed away around three years ago. Now she is doing the same for her father.

"He is so much more accomplished than people might know," Anita Long said. "For example, he has written about 80 songs, and he has written an entire dictionary for chord melody."

Huey Long was healthy until a broken hip from a fall made him very frail. Anita Long said he was depressed during the legal proceedings to get his memorabilia returned.

"People he trusted let him down," she said. "That is very common with the elderly."

Caretaking for him is taking up most of her time, so she can't open the museum quite as often as she wants. She hopes to find volunteers from the area to man the museum when she cannot.

I am hoping to make this work, but right now it is both a financial and time drain for me," Long said. "Still it is important to my father, so I will work to keep it going."

 

March 7, 2008, 11:09PM
 

Reunion is music to jazz legend's ears
 

End of legal battle puts instrument back into the hands of 103-year-old
 

 

Legendary Houston jazz musician Huey Long strummed his rare, hand-made guitar Friday afternoon for the first time in nearly a year.

A smile spread across the 103-year-old's thin face as he cradled the smooth, polished guitar in his hospital bed, his resting place since recently fracturing a hip bone.

"It's so wonderful," said Long. "It seems more like a dream."

The reunion ended a legal battle for the custom-made D'Angelico guitar between him and Nancy Tankelson, a woman he said he gave the instrument to for safekeeping. Long said he asked for the guitar back and Tankelson refused, prompting him to file a lawsuit last week.

At court a hearing Friday, state District Judge Ken Wise told Tankelson to return it immediately. He also told her to return about $2,000 cash and memorabilia as well.

Tankelson agreed.

She said she is making a documentary film about Long and needed the guitar for filming. She said she would give it back but wanted to use it again to complete the film.

Anita Long, Long's daughter, said Tankelson could use it again as long as it was insured and handled with care.

"I'm happy," Tankelson said. "I want him to have the guitar."

Anita Long said her father had told her he feared he would never see the instrument again.

He bought it more than 60 years ago in New York City, and it reminds him of all the good times and bad times in his life, she said. He was able to hold onto it even in the times when he had very little money.

According to the lawsuit, Tankelson befriended Long in 2004, culminating in Long giving her power of attorney. That has been terminated, said Ken Ward, Long's attorney.

The suit states that Long allowed Tankelson to make a documentary film about him and helped her with it, but later he could no longer assist her.

The lawsuit alleges that she wanted Long to travel to Austin, Galveston, New Orleans and downtown Houston for more filming and threatened to sue if he refused.

Tankelson, however, said she never threatened to sue Long or asked him to travel when he was unwell. Also, she said, Long signed a contract with her that states she could use any of his memorabilia and materials to make the film.

The woman said that if she had returned the guitar she feared she would not have access to it anymore.

The film is nearly complete, said Tankelson of the documentary that is composed of interviews with Long reminiscing, including performances with such jazz greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughn and Charlie Parker.

dale.lezon@chron.com

 

Click here for video coverage

 

March 1, 2008, 12:27AM

Tribute to jazz icon Huey Long now in discord

A 103-year-old Houston musician lost his guitar to a woman making a documentary about his life. He is suing to get it back.

By DALE LEZON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

A legendary 103-year-old Houston jazz musician who trusted a local woman to make a documentary film about him is singing a different tune now.

Huey Long, a former member of the famed musical group The Ink Spots, sued Nancy Tankelson of Bellaire on Thursday to get back his rare, 60-year-old guitar and other memorabilia he says she refuses to return.

"I was very close to it," Long said of his favorite guitar. "I played it in many places and it means a lot to me. I would certainly like to have it back."

The lawsuit, filed in state district court, seeks the return of the items or $50,000 in damages and a minimum of $20,000 in attorney's fees.

State District Judge Grant Dorfman granted a temporary restraining order Thursday to keep Tankelson from selling the items. A hearing is scheduled for March 7 to allow Tankelson to explain to a judge why she should keep them.

Tankelson did not return telephone messages.

"This is a real common case with older people," said Ken Ward, Long's attorney. "Others insinuate themselves into their lives and try to take advantage of them."

Loss of a lifeline

Long's daughter, Anita Long, said the conflict has taken its toll on her father. He's depressed and has trouble sleeping because he's worried he'll never again see his guitar, which he has owned and played since 1940.

She said her father, who was born April 25, 1904, in Sealy, told her he cherishes the instrument and it reminds him of all the good times and bad times in his life. He was able to hold onto it even in the toughest times when he had very little money.

"The guitar is his lifeline," she said. "It's the reminder of his talent and everything he is in the music world. This lawsuit is something at the end of his life he didn't need."

Anita Long operates the Original Huey "Ink Spot" Long Living History Music Museum in the Heights. Her father often visits with fans at the museum to reminisce about his career, which began in Houston in 1925 after he landed a job playing with Frank Davis' Louisiana Jazz Band.

According to the lawsuit, Tankelson befriended Long in 2004 and "began to insinuate herself" into his life, culminating in Long giving her power of attorney. The power of attorney has been terminated, Ward said.

She also took possession of $2,000 of Long's cash as well as photographs and other memorabilia and his custom-made D'Angelico guitar, the lawsuit alleges.

Long said he gave her the guitar for safekeeping.

Ward said Long also gave Tankelson $10,000 to create and have published a book about his life entitled, The Huey Long Story. He said 1,000 copies were printed. Long has 500 of them. Tankelson has the rest.

A film still in the making

Ward said Tankelson and Long have completed about two-thirds of the documentary film. It includes Long, who lives in an assisted living center in the Heights, traveling to some of the clubs and other venues where he performed with such greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughn and Charlie Parker.

But beginning in 2007, health problems prevented him from traveling anymore, Ward said. He has congestive heart failure and has suffered some mild strokes, he added.

The lawsuit alleges that Tankelson wanted Long to travel to Austin, Galveston, New Orleans and downtown Houston for more filming and threatened to sue him if he refused.

She said she would keep his money, memorabilia and guitar as "security" for his performance in the film, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit is especially troubling for her father now, Anita Long said. His mind is clear, but she took him to the hospital Friday after he fell and hurt his hip the day before.

He told her, she said, he feared he wouldn't come back from the hospital alive.

Friday before he left for the hospital, he was alert and talkative in his one-bedroom apartment and recalling highlights of his career. He said playing spots in Chicago was one of his greatest memories.

The walls of his apartment were covered with framed photographs of him with other legendary musicians.

Beside his bed was a tray packed with containers of dry granola mix, crackers with peanut butter and dates.

He sat up in bed and balanced a narrow electronic keyboard on his lap. He smiled, his dark eyes twinkling, as his slender fingers slid along the keys and he crooned Route 66.

His secret to long life?

"You do things in moderation," he said.

dale.lezon@chron.com

 

 

 

 

Biography of HUEY LONG, An Original "InkSpot"

 (Huey Long is the last living member of the Original "Ink Spots)

Huey Long was born in Sealy, Texas and worked in various jobs in the Houston area until he got a break playing a banjo in 1925's top band of Houston, Texas, "Frank Davis' Louisiana Jazz Band." Huey played in the band with Punch Miller on trumpet and Frank Gibbs on trombone. Later, they were the celebrated "Dixielanders".

After migrating to Chicago, Long appeared at the World's Fair, "A Century of Progress" in 1933 with Texas Guinan's Cuban Orchestra,  under the leadership of violinist Clarence Eddie Moore. That's when Huey Long had to give up the banjo and started playing the guitar.

In the mid-30's, he became a member of Jesse Stone's newly organized orchestra, "Chicago" along with members AI Wynn, Bud Johnson, Scoville Brown, Willie Randall, Gedion Honore and Jabbo Smith. In the late 30's, he was a member and assistant arranger and conductor to Zilner Randolph, who had the WPA Concert and Swing Band, which included jazz stars Preston Jackson and Franz Jackson (not related). Long made recordings around the same time with Lil Armstrong on the Decca label and with the famous Buster Bailey, C. Berry and Joe Thomas.

In 1940 and 1941, he was a member of Johnny Long's Gig Band, which featured the great Joe Williams and on occasion, Dorothy Donnegan on piano. In 1942, he joined Fletcher Henderson's band in the Grand Terrace Cafe in Chicago, and was brought to New York City by Henderson in early 1943. Long then joined Earl "Fatha" Hines, who was revamping his band. Among other names were: Billy Eckstine, Sarah Vaughn, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Johnson, Willie Randall, George Carey, Jesse Simpkins, Brockman and Bennie Green.

In early 1944, Huey Long formed his first trio with C.C. Williams at the piano and Eddie Brown on the bass, which he took into the Three Deuces Café on 52nd street in N.Y.C.  The "Ink Spots" had just reached their peak and this is where Ink Spot and leader, Bill Kenny talked Huey into giving up his trio and become an "Ink Spot", recording those mid-40's war-years tunes like "If I Didn't Care", "My Prayer", "When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano", "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire", "Java-Java", "Street of Dreams" "To Each His Own" and many more songs featuring Huey's famous guitar introduction.

In the late 40's, Huey was recording with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and his "BeBoppers" on Savoy Label. This group consisted of Davis, Fats Navarro, Denzil Best, Gene Raimey and AI Haig.

In the early 50's, Huey was making USA tours with his own trio, and in the mid 50's, he moved to California and entered Los Angeles City College, where he majored in music, putting in a few semesters with plans to teach. Instead, he returned to New York in the late 50's.

In the early 60's, he formed his own group of "Ink Spots" and took them to California for a year or two, returning to New York where he decided to teach and write music in his apartment in the CBS Building (now the building that David Letterman's "Late Night" occupies, formerly the Ed Sullivan Theatre). Later, he moved his studio down to 1674 Broadway at 52nd Street. During his studio teaching years, he played many engagements, keeping up with his friends in jazz music.

After writing and arranging more than 80 songs for chord melody guitar style, he decided to move back to his "roots" in Houston, Texas, where he developed an exhibit of his vast history, memorabilia and songs. In Sealy, Texas, where they are very proud of their native son, there is a large display in their historical museum commemorating Huey Long.

Presently, Huey Long lives in Houston, Texas, where he still writes and teaches, and on weekends, he exhibits his "roots" and his memorabilia. Huey Long is a true gentleman and a legend.

Written by Ed Astrich, guitarist and friend of Huey Long
June, 1998

 

Click Here for Info about Huey Long's Autobiography - now available for purchase

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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