Ben Abney

"Peg Leg" Ben Abney was one of less than a half-dozen blues pianists from Charlotte, NC, to make records during the 78 rpm era. Abney's total recorded output consists of six sides made in Charlotte on June 22, 1936. If his birth date as listed in the Social Security Death Index is to be trusted, then Abney was 52 at the time of these sessions, making him one of the oldest blues pianists on record. However this does not mean that Abney's is one of the oldest blues styles represented; his elementary stride basses and fragments of Earl Hines-like "trumpet piano" phrases suggests a manner of playing that was developed in the mid- to late-'20s. Ben Abney's piano playing is dense, clotted, and highly discordant, suggesting that he was a latecomer to the instrument. Abney's age, style and nickname suggest that he may have started out as a general laborer, suffered a debilitating injury in middle age, and learned to play blues as a means to support himself afterward. He is listed as a musician in the Charlotte City directories throughout the 1930s. Abney was a fine singer, and his six surviving blues contain lyrics that may refer to personal experiences. Bluebird was being polite when they titled his third selection as "Way Down in Town," for the lyric as sung is "Way Down in Polack Town," and the song refers to panhandling in a predominantly white neighborhood. Abney sings "Some people give me a nickel, others a lousy dime/Anyone who'd give me that much, you guys ain't no friend of mine." Abney refers to faraway places such as Tennessee and St. Louis in his blues, but among the scant evidence that exists in reference to him there is nothing to suggest that he ever left North Carolina. But his piano playing suggests some awareness of Chicago style, not only that of Hines but in particular the approach of Jimmy Yancey. Like Yancey, Abney has an eccentric pet phrase, a substituted chord in the turnback that reads like something out of Thelonious Monk. This figure is found in three of Abney's six recorded selections. Bluebird waited a long time to release the last coupling from this session; it didn't appear until 1938, and this is the only one of his records to contain the full billing of "'Peg Leg' Ben Abney." The originals of these Bluebirds must be rare in the extreme, as even the Document Records reissue of them is taken from a poor and deteriorating tape copy, rather than the original 78 rpm shellacs.