PINETOP PERKINS
Camden Jazz Café

Pinetop Perkins

WHAT are you going to be doing when you’re 92?
If you’re doing half the things that pianist Pinetop Perkins can do, then you will be doing just fine. Pinetop must have eaten himself stupid with spinach or at least kept up with his aerobic exercise, because at an age when most of us would be happy with marmite on toast in front of Bergerac repeats, the blues man spends his evenings in the world’s finest jazz clubs.
An undisputed member of blues royalty, more often than not he is the star of the show rather than watching from the sidelines.
I saw his concert at the Union Chapel in Islington a couple of years ago. He didn’t spare the keys, putting in a performance which made a mockery of his age.
For many years, Pinetop was the pianist behind some of Muddy Waters’ finest recordings and concerts. And he still performs a mean Got My Mojo Working, a blues classic, with hardly a croak in his voice.
It is a remarkable sight which gives you a flavour of how exciting the American blues clubs of yesteryear would have been.
Often we talk about veteran’s shows being the last chance to see the legends of the past.
Pinetop gives the impression that he will go and on and on – and good luck to him.

• Pinetop Perkins plays at the Jazz Café on Wednesday July 27. (Camden Town Tube). £20.