Powerhouse is so monstrous he sends everybody into oblivion. Then all quietly he lays his finger on a key with the promise and serenity of a sibyl touching the book. It makes everybody crowd around, here in this shadowless steel-trussed hall with the rose-like posters of Nelson Eddy and the testimonial for the mind-reading horse in handwriting magnified five hundred times.

HeвЂ™s going all the time, like skating around the skating rink or rowing a boat. Of course you know how he soundsвЂ“youвЂ™ve heard him on recordsвЂ“but still you need to see him. He is in motion every momentвЂ“what could be more obscene? There he is with his great head, fat stomach, and little round piston legs, and long yellow-sectioned strong big fingers, at rest about the size of bananas. When he plays he beats down piano and seat and wears them away. Big arched eyebrows that never stop traveling, like a JewвЂ™sвЂ“wandering-Jew eyebrows. He listens as much as he performs, a look of hideous, powerful rapture on his face. Powerhouse is not a show-off like the Harlem boys, not drunk, not crazyвЂ“heвЂ™s in a trance heвЂ™s a person of joy, a fanatic. You know people on a stageвЂ“and people of a darker raceвЂ“so likely to be marvelous, frightening. Is it possible that he could be this! When you have him there performing for you, thatвЂ™s what you feel. Improvising, coming on a light and childish melodyвЂ“ smoochвЂ“he loves it with his mouth. And his mouth is going every minute: like a monkeyвЂ™s when it looks for something. HeвЂ™s not coal blackвЂ“ beverage coloredвЂ“looks like a preacher when his mouth is shut, but then it opensвЂ“vast and obscene.

He has African feet of the greatest size, stomping, both together, on each side of the pedals. He has pale gray eyes, heavy lids, maybe horny like a lizardвЂ™s, but big glowing eyes when theyвЂ™re open. вЂњNigger manвЂќ?вЂ“he looks more Asiatic, monkey, Jewish, Babylonian, Peruvian, fanatic, devil.

HeвЂ™s here on tour from the cityвЂ“вЂњPowerhouse and His KeyboardвЂќвЂ“ вЂњPowerhouse and His TasmaniansвЂќвЂ“think of the things he calls himself! ThereвЂ™s no one in the world like him.

Powerhouse eudora welty