As I mentioned in the first post on Boogie Woogie things were happening in New Orleans. One of the standouts in the style was the great Fats Domino.
When it comes to Boogie Woogie and hybrid styles there are so many other notable names from New Orleans, that could play some mean piano; Tuts Washington did it all from Blues and Ragtime to any Jazz style you want. Names like Willie Hall, Champion Jack Dupree, and Alan Toussaint. Some of these names have strong connections to early Rock and Roll as well.
In part one I quoted the Dr. John song “Down in New Orleans”, and that title kind of fit the narrative more than the genre. Below is a clip of Dr. John and Jools Holland (The Squeeze) with some evidence of unequivocal Boogie Woogie. They are hamming it up but laying down some truly amazing piano playing.
As described in the introduction by David Sanborn in the Jools/Dr. John clip, here are Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson, pictured in the video and the recording they are playing is “Yancy Special” composed by Meade Lux Lewis (1936). You have to love that announcer’s introduction!
I come back to this next clip every once in a while as I find it incredibly endearing. Jools Holland with Fats Domino. A perfect interactive demonstration of the New Orleans Boogie Woogie piano style.
There are different techniques used by Fats Domino in his songs. Not all of them are Boogie Woogie. In this way, Fats is the perfect segue here, and when we bring in Little Richard we see another shift in technique. Add Jerry Lee Lewis into the mix, and the conversation has to change.
Boogie Woogie had not one but several “babies”. While related, they are not by definition the same genre, so I will move two of them to separate follow-up posts to arrive in the near future. Firstly, Rock and Roll Piano (as in Jerry Lee Lewis) is not Boogie Woogie. Secondly, as I suggested in Part 1, don’t get me started on that, well that would then be a new post on Boogie Guitar.
If we go back to the first post, some of the music’s early songs in particular were dance instructionals. Not unlike the Square Dance Caller, in the live performance the singer told the dancers when to “mess around” and so forth. Boogie Woogie was very much about what Fats was saying in the above song “Boogie Woogie Baby”, a carefree expression on the dance floor. So the dancing style(s) became increasingly popular and varied.
This is not a ‘baby’ so much as a full-grown adult of Boogie Woogie, Disco. It’s not so much of a mystery when you take a look back. Let’s Boogie!
If you saw the post on Winifred Atwell whose Boogie Woogie playing springboarded her to great success and importance in the UK, well, more traditional American Boogie Woogie piano players found a place there. Blues artists of all stripes were finding an audience there, in large part to people like the Jazz Band Leader Chris Barber. This was because as Rock and Roll ramped up, things slowed down in the US for the Blues, so Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis, and many others would tour Europe. Names such as Lafayette Leaque and Big Joe Duskin for example would come a bit later and were keeping it alive in both the US and the UK. The style was also very popular in Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, The Netherlands and elsewhere.
I started this topic with Meade Lux Lewis and somewhat followed his timeline, unfortunately he kind of “lost his chops” as they say toward the end of his life. It ended tragically when he was rear-ended by another car and crashed into a tree. That was in 1964 and he was 58.
I do want you to know he was not a one-trick pony, even though his Boogie Woogie recording catalog is impressive. In 1936 he learned to play the celesta (suh·leh·stuh) which is a keyboard instrument that uses metal tines for the sound instead of strings. Sometimes spelled celeste. Very similar to the piano but with a completely different sound, hence a different touch on the keyboard.
While Jazz players like Earl Hines started to use it occasionally in 1928, Meade was the first Blues/Boogie Woogie artist to take it up and he played it beautifully. “Breezing at the Celeste” is the on the clip below.
The song I started the first post with by Meade was released in 1929 but recorded in 1927, so we are just a few years shy of a century. It continues to be played today and is a must-know song for the boogie-woogie piano player. So I will go out the way I came in, here are some covers of his song “Honky Tonk Train Blues”.
I could list many great artists but I will finish with just four clips from some remarkable Boogie Woogie piano players. They can and do play other styles but some are best known for Boogie Woogie. A genre that is alive and well, especially in Europe. It will knock your socks off. I will list the names first then the four clips at the end.
Keith Emerson of Emerson Lake and Palmer is well known for his abilities at the keyboard and the mellotron and more, but he can lay down some impressive Boogie Woogie. So he is in the first clip that allowed me to sneak in the late and great pride of Canada, Oscar Peterson. While playing the same song the contrast will not be lost on you.
The next will be a guy who is quite busy on social media, known for his public playing and antics, some I could do without but Brendan Kavanagh from the UK is amazing. If you fast forward to 1:25 on the clip he does an excellent job on the song.
Then we have Ladyva from Switzerland. She started playing when she was 14, which for piano is very late. Well, she caught up in a hurray and has been playing fast ever since. And and now at age 36, she is one of the best in the world at Boogie Woogie among other styles.
I will finish with Axel Zwingenberger from Germany who is one of the greatest of the genre. He and his jazz drumming brother first performed in 1973 and have not stopped since.
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