Hannibal

This solo record by the eye-patch-wearing maniac of New Orleans piano finds him stalking the keyboard with characteristic abandon and supreme chopsmanship. Brimming with blues, boogie, barrelhouse and even a bit of classical — all refracted through Booker's inimitably NOLA sensibility — Junco Partner is a straight-up blast, y'all.

This article appears in Apr 4-10, 2007.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...