A New Orleans native and blues musician, Champion Jack Dupree was a champion boxer as well as a formidable boogie-woogie pianist. Champion Jack Dupree was a formidable competitor in the ring, before he switched his focus to the piano. His lyrics were often filled with a rowdy sense humor. His rock-solid style with a boogie was not for the faint of heart. When he shouted “Shake Baby Shake,” everyone in the room agreed. Dupree was not very clear about his origins. He claimed that his parents died in a Ku Klux Klan fire, while other interviews stated that it was an accident. Dupree was raised in New Orleans’ Colored Waifs Home for Boys, where Louis Armstrong spent his formative years. Dupree learned his trade from Willie “Drive ’em Down”, Hall, a barrelhouse 88s ace. He then moved to Chicago and Detroit in 1930. He was already boxing professionally in Indianapolis by 1935 and had fought in an estimated 107 fights. Dupree recorded his debut in Chicago in 1940.
