Music
Pat Flowers
1917–2000 · jazz pianist, singer
Detroit stride pianist groomed as Fats Waller's successor, who held the bench at Baker's Keyboard Lounge on and off from 1940 into the mid-1950s.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 82- Birth name
- Ivelee Patrick Flowers
- Detroit years
- 1917–1939, 1940s–2000
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Pat Flowers started out at eighteen as the intermission pianist at Uncle Tom's Cabin, a Detroit nightspot, then left for New York in 1939, and made his first records in 1941. Back in Detroit he began a residency at Baker's Keyboard Lounge on Livernois Avenue, where he played intermittently into the mid-1950s and helped establish the club as a pianists' room. Between 1943 and 1948 he was again based in New York, often working with Fats Waller at the Greenwich Village Inn. After Waller's death, Waller's manager Ed Kirkeby promoted Flowers as his successor, booking him into the Ruban Bleu and Café Society, on radio, and on Victor, Waller's old label, in 1946–1947; he also made three short films in 1945. Returning home for good, he became a fixture of the Detroit scene, held a long residency at the Danish Inn in Farmington from 1974 to 1983, toured Europe with a Waller tribute in 1975, and ended his career playing at the Country Club of Detroit.
Highlights
- Resident pianist at Baker's Keyboard Lounge from 1940 into the mid-1950s
- Worked with Fats Waller and was promoted as his successor
- Recorded for Victor in 1946–1947
- Appeared in the 1945 films Scotch Boogie, Dixie Rhythm and Coalmine Boogie
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Performed here · 1940–mid-1950s
Baker's Keyboard Lounge
The Livernois Avenue lounge where Flowers was the featured local pianist from 1940 to 1954.
Performed here · mid-1930s
Uncle Tom's Cabin (Detroit nightclub)
Status being checked
Detroit nightspot where 18-year-old Flowers began as intermission pianist; location not documented.