Australian honky tonk piano maestro Ezra Lee was truly born into a musical life.
His father, Ed Matzenik, formed The Atlantics (of the famed surf hit “Bombora”) in the late 1950s and also worked as a recording engineer at Tracks Records in London a decade later. Growing up around recording studios and concert stages, Lee’s destiny was set from the get-go.
“Dad turned 80 this year and I have thought a lot about him,” he says. “He has done so much and from a time when the Australian music scene was only just starting in terms of rock ‘n’ roll. He would tell me about watching Little Richard, Eddie Cochran, Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny O’Keefe, Chuck Berry – the list goes on.
“I used to go to gigs with him and he also co-owned Enrec Studios and I would get to watch bands record albums. I remember one was John Williamson. He also recorded a lot of aboriginal country artists like Roger Knox. He taught me how to be a musician – not just playing the instrument – and I was also in a well-known band with him on bass through my teens.”
Not surprisingly, Lee learnt piano from the early age of four, noting that with his father’s tutelage the instrument just spoke to him right from the start.
“Everything else I taught myself by listening to piano players in Tamworth where I grew up and I was always playing for hours a day,” he says. “Piano was and is my favourite instrument and it made sense from day one, same with singing.”
By his teens Lee was playing piano regularly in Johnny Green’s Blues Cowboys. Needless to say, life was pretty different to his friends in school who were at home listening to Cold Chisel and Australian Crawl.
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“It sure was,” he laughs, “and I was making $150 per gig and that was three shows a week. We played rough pubs, clubs, and big festivals. The band was really great with a mix of Chicago blues, rockabilly, and country music and the musicians were well respected in the Aussie music scene.
“I was asked a lot to play at school for teachers and classmates before lessons, so that was great to get people interested in boogie woogie and country music. I did some recording session work in Tamworth. Session work has paid off – I’ve played on over 50 albums by mostly great artists.”
Lee taught himself boogie woogie before becoming interested in New Orleans jazz originator Jelly Roll Morton and his Red Hot Peppers as well as 1950s country piano players Moon Mullican and Floyd Cramer, but it’s Jerry Lee Lewis who remains Lee’s favourite piano and performing influence. He also had the honour of supporting “The Killer” in 2011.
“[…] I’ve always been very independent minded and never wanted to sound too much like anybody else, though I learnt a lot from Jerry Lee, he was the greatest,” Lee says. “I also met Johnnie Johnson (piano player for Chuck Berry) and Dr. John, and they were very nice people and encouraging.
“To be asked to play on the same bill as Jerry Lee Lewis in Las Vegas was a wild thing, and to hear he liked my album was the best thing I could hear. My favourite singers are ‘The Killer’, ‘The Possum’, Hank Williams Sr. and Lefty Frizzel… I really honed in on their styles.”
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Lee has collaborated with many great musicians over the years and has a long list of favourites. He’s toured with the likes of Rose Tattoo, the Queen of Rockabilly Wanda Jackson, Doug Parkinson, Nick Barker, and James Blundell and Dave Larkin (Dallas Crane); he’s recorded with Linda Gail Lewis, Jerry Lee Lewis’ sister, Sun Studios drummer Jimmy Van Eaton (Billy Lee Riley and his Little Green Men / Jerry Lee Lewis), and Little Richard’s guitarist Travis Wammack.
His next roadworthy collaboration is with Nashville-based blues and boogie pianist Henri Herbert on the Piano Boogie Mayhem national tour that kicks off at the Mustang Bar in Perth on June 1st.
Herbert was a star player in the inimitable Jim Jones Revue and has also worked with Sue Foley, Carolyn Wonderland, Dave Alvin, Eve Monsees, Du Blonde, Charlie Sexton, Chuck Leavell, Kim Wilson, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Bob Stroger, and Bryan Adams.
Lee and Herbert will be backed by Jay McIvor (bass), Yugon Chobanoff (drums), and Andy Jarvis (guitar).
“There’ll be two pianos, and a highlight will be new songs from Henri’s new release and when we play the world’s most rockin’ piano together, it’ll be atomic! I think Henri is one of the world’s best boogie and rock ‘n’ roll piano players and has a great voice,” Lee enthuses. “I heard him a lot when he was in The Jim Jones Revue and when he played with them on The Late Show With David Letterman. He has the energy level of a rocket to Mars!
“I knew it would be a blast to tour with him. I think it will go crazy ‘cause The Mustang is the best American-style bar in Australia and it always has killer bands.”
