Billie Pierce

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Wilhelmina Madison Goodson, also known as Billie Pierce (June 8, 1907 – September 29, 1974), was an American jazz pianist and singer who appeared and recorded with her husband De De Pierce.

Her style has been described as a "potent mixture of barrelhouse, boogie-woogie, and ragtime."

She debuted in New Orleans in 1930 and was active in A.J.'s bands. Emile Barnes, Picou, and George Lewis of Piron, Alphonse Picou.

Early life

Wilhelmina (Billie) Goodson was born in June 8, 1907, in her mother's home town of Marianna, Florida, United States, and she grew up in Pensacola, Florida. She was one of six piano-playing sisters (including Ida Goodson and Sadie Goodson) whose father, Madison H. Goodson, and mother, Sarah Jenkins Goodson, all played the piano. Maggie, Maggie, was the seventh daughter who died young. Billie was the second youngest of the girls; the sisters' orders from oldest to youngest went Mabel; the girls' order was Mabel. Della (1901), Edna (1903), Billie (1907), and Ida (1909).

Goodson was never taught to read music. Both of her parents were singers and performed in the choir at the Baptist church where Madison Goodson was a Deacon. Billie said she was about two years old when she first started playing the piano.

Billie and her siblings were drawn to it despite the fact that her parents disliked ragtime, blues, and jazz, and jazz, which limited to strictly playing religious music. When Ms. Pierce was ten years old, she and her siblings would visit Belmont Theatre to hear Ma Rainey, Ida Cox, and Bessie Smith when they passed through Pensacola, Florida. Bessie Smith passed through town in 1922, when Ms. Pierce was almost thirteen years old. Clarence Williams, Bessie's pianist, died after suffering a heart attack, and Ms. Pierce subbed in to play piano with Bessie Smith for two weeks at the Belmont Theatre.

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Career

Pierce began playing piano professionally at the age of 15 (in 1922). According to some, she appeared to tour with Gertrude "Ma" Rainey; however, during this time she was actually accompanying Ida Cox at the Belmont Theatre. Billie toured as a performer, dancer, and pianist after her time with Ms. Cox. Billie would only accompany bands on the Florida leg of their tours at the start of the 1920s. In 1929, she was performing in a nine-piece ensemble named the Nighthawks Orchestra in Birmingham, Alabama, when she learned that her sister, Sadie, had died and needed a temporary replacement. In Buddy Petit's band on the SS Madison in New Orleans, Sadie and her husband, Abbey "Chinee" Foster, play drums.

Pierce was born in New Orleans in 1930. She was already leading a four-piece Kingfish squad (also known as the Pig Pen) by the 1930s. Pierce performed more extensively with the Mighty Wiggle Carnival (owned by Jack Shaffer), Joe Jesse's orchestra, and her own touring report.

She appeared piano with Alphonse Picou's five-piece (1932, alongside Johnny Dave, banjo; Ernest Milton, drums; Lawrence Toca, trumpet) at the Rialto Nightclub on Jefferson Davis Parkway for a few years. She appeared at the Blue Jay Club, where she met trumpeter De De Pierce, who was touring with a band led by Billie's sister at Mama's and Papa's, a nearby club. She and De De De De De De De Dee were active in a band that included clarinetist George Lewis at a dime-a-dance hall, The Kingfish, from 1933 to 1934. Billie and De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De De St.

Billie Pierce first recorded with Emile Barnes in 1946 (first published in 1997) and in 1953 under her own name.

Billie and De De Pierce performed with their own band, which served as the house band at Luthjen's Dance Hall for 24 years. Billie was in charge of the piano and vocals of the band. In the 1950s, De De De De De De DeDe's vision faded as a result of glaucoma, which paralyzed her for many months, putting a temporary halt to their work. In the 1960s, their careers as Dixieland jazz revived, a revival was revived. She appeared in the Preservation Hall Jazz Band from the 1950s to the early 1970s, and she was a regular on the New Orleans jazz scene from the 1950s to the early 1970s.

Pierce died on September 29, 1974, in New Orleans, Louisiana, at the age of 67. At the age of 69, her husband had died the previous November.

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