'Big Joe' Duskin still playing at 80

He doesn't play as much these days, he has some trouble walking and often uses a wheelchair. His diabetes has to be closely monitored, but at 80, Cincinnati blues legend ''Big Joe'' Duskin says none of those ailments have affected his boogie-woogie piano touch.

''No, no, no. My playin' is good,'' Duskin says with his trademark hearty chuckle.

Cincinnati's ambassador of boogie-woogie turned 80 Feb. 10. He recently was guest of honor at a benefit for the Greater Cincinnati Blues Society.

Musicians and local blues lovers were on hand to salute the lovable - and underrated - musician who has entertained Cincinnati audiences for 30 years.

''He's an amazing piano player and a great singer. He's one of the last great blues shouters,'' piano player Ricky Nye said. ''Joe's a stylist, and he is a spontaneous writer too. He can do a lot on the fly.... He's just the real deal.''

Duskin has been experiencing some of the biggest success of his life the past 15 years. But not in this country. His unique juke joint piano style has a huge following in Europe. He returned in January from a 15-day tour of Germany, Belgium and Amsterdam playing to sold-out houses of up to 6,000 at a concert.

''It was a sellout every night. Every ticket. I don't like to brag, but they made me the star. And there were some other great musicians there. I guess they think I'm the "Last of the Mohicans,' '' Duskin said.

He's learned enough German over the years to greet his audiences.

''I tell them "Ich liebe dich. I love you, I love all of you.' By me speaking a little German, they love that. They just go crazy.''

Duskin has made the European trips at least once a year for 15 years. Two years ago, he and Cincinnati blues singer Alice Hoskins were featured in a ''Cincinnati blues night'' at clubs in Paris and Italy.

''If they find out a musician like me is coming from Cincinnati, Ohio, they be waitin' on you,'' Duskin said.

The Europeans have developed a true affection for America's indigenous music, even as American music fans perhaps take blues players such as Duskin for granted. But it is in Duskin's playing that one literally hears the roots of rock. There's the bawdy, raucous swagger to his piano style and always the uniquely African-American sly lyrics and double-entendres.

It is a musical structure and attitude that would become rock 'n' roll in the hands of Ike Turner, Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley.

When asked if it bothers him that he has to go to Europe to find large audiences, Duskin simply says: ''People in America just don't stick to our culture of music.''

But you get the feeling - after a triumphant European tour - that Duskin feels a little bittersweet when he returns to his Winton Terrace home. As he puts it, ''Man, if I could get a crowd (here) like I get in Germany ... I'd be the happiest guy in the world.''

Duskin was born in 1921 in Birmingham, Ala., and he got his musical education like so many young blacks of his era: hearing blues players in the juke joints of the deep South. Duskin said he would listen to all the blues records he could get hold of to learn the songs.

He also got another education about being black in America. One of his first memories was seeing hooded Ku Klux Klansmen outside his house. He watched as they dragged his older cousin out of his bed and hanged him for stealing a sack of potatoes and a loaf of bread from a white grocer. Duskin's family later moved to Cincinnati.

Duskin told the story to biographer Steve Tracy in his 1993 book, ''Going To Cincinnati: A History of the Blues in the Queen City.''

In his musical prime, Duskin was never able to make a real career of his playing. It was because of his father, who forbade the young Joe from playing ''the devil's music.'' Duskin tells how he received numerous brutal beatings and whippings from his father when he was caught playing boogie-woogie music.

Duskin finally had it out, telling his father he had to play the music, it was what he needed to do.

''He didn't want me to play the devil's music. "He'll put you in hell for that.' One day I said, "C'mon Dad, what's God gonna' throw me in hell for playin' music. C'mon. Even David plays music. God didn't say nothin' to him about it.'''

His father asked him to make a promise - to at least wait until he died before he played any boogie-woogie. At the time, Duskin's father was 89, and Joe figured he couldn't possible have to wait very long.

His father lived to be 105. But Joe says he mostly kept his promise.

Duskin briefly fronted a band rubbing elbows with some of the great blues contemporaries, but he essentially quit playing professionally from 1945-71 working as a mail handler for the post office.

It was Tracy - the local English teacher, blues aficionado and a talented harp player in his own right - who looked up Duskin in 1971 researching Cincinnati blues players he had heard rumors about. Tracy encouraged Duskin to play with his band in Mount Adams hangouts, and Duskin would became a popular figure in Cincinnati clubs such as Coco's, and later Corry's. He frequently was an opening act at Bogart's when national blues legends passed through.

Duskin is able to have a respected late-in-life career - like many aging bluesmen around the country - because of the blues revival spurred by white baby boomers who went back to discover the original songs behind those Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Eric Clapton covers.

Duskin knows his brand of music did take a back seat for a long time. ''When rock 'n' roll came in, they put the boogie-woogie and the blues down. I don't know why.''

As happy as Duskin is to have a loyal European following - and an appreciative, if smaller one in Cincinnati - there is a tinge of what-might-have-been bravado to hear him talk.

''If it hadn't been for my dad, Oscar Petersen couldn't have touched me, no place. I mean that. I was playing jazz, boogie-woogie, blues, classical - you name it. Even opera. I would have been one of the greatest piano players, if my dad would have let me alone.''