William Thomas Dupree, best known as Champion Jack Dupree, was an American blues pianist. His birth date has been given as July 4, July 10, and July 23, 1908, 1909, or 1910. He died on January 21, 1992.
Champion Jack Dupree was a New Orleans blues and boogie-woogie pianist, a barrelhouse "professor". His father was from the Belgian Congo and his mother was part African American and Cherokee. He was orphaned at the age of two, and sent to the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs, the alma mater of Louis Armstrong.
He taught himself piano there and later apprenticed with Tuts Washington and Willie Hall, whom he called his 'father' and from whom he learned "Junker's Blues". He was also "spy boy" for the Yellow Pochahantas tribe of Mardi Gras Indians and soon began playing in barrelhouses and other drinking establishments.
He began a life of travelling, living in Chicago, where he worked with Georgia Tom, and in Indianapolis, Indiana where he met Scrapper Blackwell and Leroy Carr. While always playing piano he also worked as a cook. In Detroit, after Joe Louis encouraged him to become a boxer, he fought in 107 bouts, winning Golden Gloves and other championships and picking up the nickname 'Champion Jack', which he used the rest of his life.
We'll watch the snow drift down tonight
Beneath the hand of Midwest lights
We'll watch the snow drift down tonight
The sound, the music, it's Christmastime
I won't forget the moment
You looked at me and said
"in years when we get older
Will you be someone colder?
No one could love so deeply
As I feel you love me now
We built a life from weakness
And joy welled up from sadness
Our love could not burn brighter
A furnace in our chests
Will you be someday colder?
Love can't be more than this"