Cueselle Settle (Mr. Q.) - Cocktail Boogie

Styles : Piano Blues
Released : 2011
Lable : Music Maker

01 - Cocktail Boogie
02 - Georgia
03 - We Three
04 - Mr. Q's Blues
05 - San Francisco
06 - Everyday I Have The Blues
07 - You'll Never Know
08 - Mood Indigo
09 - What I Say
10 - Juice Headed Woman
11 - Earl Hines Tune
12 - Thank You Pretty Baby
13 - Begin The Beguine
14 - Don't Take Your Love From Me

Mr. Q was born in 1913. He is an old hep-cat whose music just makes you have to smile. A self-taught pianist, he has fashioned his own sound by mixing the piano styles of Art Tatum, Earl Hines and Oscar Peterson interspersed with songs by the Ink Spots.

He graduated from North Carolina, A&T in the 30s. He started his career when he left school to travel with Blanche Calloway’s Orchestra as a singer. They performed as far away as Mexico, traveling back through Texas he took off on his own and hustled a job as a singer in a local saloon. Returning home six months later his parents were upset. Mr. Q appeased them by giving his mother $500 he earned in tips, all in change. He soon migrated to Harlem, and got a job, playing harmonica with the Savoy Sultans, the house band at the Savoy ballroom. He sang at tables at local. He went to all night jam sessions where he witnessed the legends of the day perform such as Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum and Teddy Wilson. Mr. Q returned to Winston-Salem in 1963 and became a fixture performing at piano bars.

This album was never issued when Mr.Q was alive-he passed away in 2000 of natural causes. Cocktail Boogie has been a secret treasure of the Music Maker office for years.

original CD from sussex