Ezra Charles (born June 17, 1944 in

Texarkana, Texas Texarkana is a city in Bowie County, Texas, United States, in the Ark-La-Tex region. Located approximately from Dallas, Texarkana is a twin city with neighboring Texarkana, Arkansas. The Texas city's population was 36,193 at the 2020 census. ...

, United States) is the

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

of Charles Helpinstill Jr, founder of the company of the same name which makes portable amplified pianos for stage performance. A singer, pianist, songwriter, and bandleader, Charles had his start performing with

Johnny Winter John Dawson Winter III (February 23, 1944 – July 16, 2014) was an American singer and guitarist. Winter was known for his high-energy blues rock albums and live performances in the late 1960s and 1970s. He also produced three Grammy Award-win ...

and

Edgar Winter Edgar Holland Winter (born December 28, 1946) is an American musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist, playing keyboards, guitar, saxophone, and percussion, as well as singing. His success peaked in the 1970s with his band the Edgar Winter Group ...

Beaumont, Texas Beaumont is a coastal city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat, seat of government of Jefferson County, Texas, Jefferson County, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur, Texas, Port Arthur Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area, metropo ...

. He was also the leader of Thursday's Children, a rock band from Houston in the 1960s. He invented the Helpinstill Piano Pickup in 1972. He has led Ezra Charles and the Works band from 1983 to the present, when it is now billed as Ezra Charles' Texas Blues Band.

Biography

Charles performs

jump blues Jump blues is an up-tempo style of blues, usually played by small groups and featuring horn instruments. It was popular in the 1940s and was a precursor of rhythm and blues and rock and roll. Appreciation of jump blues was renewed in the 1990s as ...

music with his group Ezra Charles' Texas Blues Band (formerly Ezra Charles and the Works) in and around the

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

area. His group was unusual for many years in that it did not employ an

upright Body relative directions (also known as egocentric coordinates) are geometrical orientations relative to a body such as a human person's. The most common ones are: left and right; forward(s) and backward(s); up and down. They form three pairs ...

electric bass The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck The ...

. Instead, Charles played the bass notes via a

MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...

device in his piano, which produces a bass note for every piano key played below the "E" below middle "C". In recent years, he has employed an upright bass player. In addition to the piano and bass, the group contains a guitar, drums, and a

horn section A horn section is a group of musicians playing horns. In an orchestra or concert band, it refers to the musicians who play the "French" horn, and in a British-style brass band it is the tenor horn players. In many popular music genres, the te ...

. Hailing now from Beaumont, Texas, Charles is the author of a song called "Beaumont Boys", which pays homage to many of the famous musicians from his hometown, including

The Big Bopper Jiles Perry "J.P." Richardson Jr. (October 24, 1930 – February 3, 1959), known as The Big Bopper, was an American singer, songwriter and disc jockey. His best-known compositions include "Chantilly Lace" and " White Lightning", the latter of wh ...

Johnny Johnny is an English language personal name. It is usually an affectionate diminutive of the masculine given name John, but from the 16th century it has sometimes been a given name in its own right for males and, less commonly, females. Varian ...

and

, and

Harry James Harry Haag James (March 15, 1916 – July 5, 1983) was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band for a short period in 1947 but shortly after he reorganized ...

. Charles is known for his lively stage show, which often features his piano catching fire during particularly "heated" performances.

Discography

*''Texas Bop'' - Rollin' Rock Switzerland (1984) *''Design for Living'' - Boffo Records (1989) *''Modern Years'' - Icarus Records (1993) *''Drive Time'' - Icarus Records (1996) *''Texas Style'' - Icarus Records (1998) *''Return of the Radio Avengers'' (''Greatest Hits Vol. 1'') - Icarus Records (1998) *''Beaumont Boy'' - Icarus Records (2001) *''Blues Lover'' - Icarus Records (2006) *''King of Texas Blues'' - Icarus Records (2011)

Videography

*''Ezra Charles and the Works Live at the Howling Coyote'' - Icarus Records (2006)

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charles, Ezra 1944 births Living people Texas blues musicians People from Beaumont, Texas American blues pianists American male pianists 21st-century American pianists 21st-century American male musicians