10 July 1998, soul singer Mavis Staples paid tribute to gospel pioneer Mahalia Jackson at the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Hague. Mavis Staples had brought Hammond B-3 organist and pianist Lucky Peterson and they transformed the audience in the Congo tent into a steaming Baptist congregation, clapping hands and jubilating. This performance made a huge impression and I still remember how happy people left the tent afterwards. Despite her age, Mavis Staples continues to sing and she still spreads her message of faith, hope, and love. But it was a shock to discover that Lucky Peterson (1964) died on May 17, 2020.
Judge Kenneth Peterson’s career had ups and downs. He grew up in a musical environment, his father was the owner of music club The Governor’s Inn in Buffalo. The young Lucky saw famous blues musicians and he absorbed their music eagerly. “I played organ before I knew how to speak,” Peterson said later. He was talented and as a toddler he was allowed to play with really big boys like Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Buddy Guy. Willie Dixon was so impressed by this musical prodigy that he took Little Lucky to the television studio. Five-year-old Lucky Peterson performed in the Ed Sullivan show. Music journalist Tony Russell wrote: “He may be the only blues musician to have had national television exposure in short pants.”
Peterson studied at the Buffallo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts, but he learned most from public performances. He was a natural talent who played the organ, piano, trumpet and guitar and he accompanied Etta James, Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland and Little Milton.
In the nineties he made several albums for Alligator Records and Verve Records. He played blues, jazz, gospel and he also liked to play some reggae. Mavis Staples invited him to do a Mahalia Jackson tribute tour together. The two had a musical connection and they recorded the album Spirituals & Gospel.
After a few years when things didn’t go very well, Lucky Peterson seemed to have gotten his life back on track. He made an album with the hopeful title: 50 years, just warming up! That album showed the range of Peterson’s repertoire from ‘The Blues Is Driving Me’ to ‘Amazing Grace’. A year ago he performed at LantarenVenster in Rotterdam, his wife Tamara joined him in the band. His family announced on social media that Lucky Peterson died at home at the age of 55 after he had become ill suddenly. “At this time please respect the family’s privacy,” says Lucky Peterson’s Facebook page, “but do keep them in your prayers.”