(July 26, 1932-February 28, 1962)
Born into a family of musicians in the Ninth Ward, the height of the ghettos in New Orleans.
From January 1951 to September 1959, Papoose played on most of Fats Domino’s sessions. His dynamic yet relaxed style became the backbone of the band. When he wasn’t available, he was in jail for drug possession. Fats would bail him out.
On February 28, 1962, at the Theresa Hotel in Harlem, the guitarist was dead of a heroin overdose at the age of twenty-nine. Roy Montrell replaced Papoose as guitarist in Domino’s band. The latter died in very similar circumstances at the Sonesta Hotel in Amsterdam, while the band was on tour in Holland in 1979.
