The Black Liberace

Published: Sept. 17, 2014, 2:32 a.m.

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The legacy of jazz pianist James Booker. Classically trained in piano and a child prodigy, Booker toured with Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin and played on sessions with Fats Domino and Little Richard. But, gay at a time when homosexuality was a huge taboo and black in a divided America, Booker died alone, aged 43, after a life of drug and alcohol abuse.

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