boogie woogie

Learn the Irish etymology of Jazz, Jizz, Jive & Boogie.

We used the words boogie and boogaloo to mean move fast or depart quickly with no reference to music. ~ Dan Cassidy

The first The first boogie woogie hit was "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" by Pinetop Smith recorded in 1928

Pinetop's Boogie Woogie by "Pine Top" Smith

Main parts of the music style go as far back as 1900. The dance is known as swing dancing (any style) also called "Jump Swing" and done to either faster Blues or Boogie Woogie.

Boogie Woogie was more of a Piano musical style (C,G,A,G) than a dance. Starting with Pinetop or sometimes spelled Pine Top Smith (1899-1929) who wrote the first official Boogie Woogie song in 1928. Clarence "Pine Top" Smith was a vaudeville performer and considered to be the originator of the boogie woogie style of piano playing. Jimmy Blythe's recording of "Chicago Stomps" from April of 1924 is sometimes called the first complete boogie-woogie piano solo record.

According to Clarence Williams, the style was started by Texas pianist George W. Thomas (born 1885, Houston, Texas - died, according to differing sources, in March, 1930, Chicago, Illinois or 1936 Washington, DC). Thomas was a United States blues and jazz pianist and songwriter and head of an important Texas blues clan. He made The Rocks in 1923 (as Clay Custer), a solo which contains the earliest recording of a walking bass. Thomas published one of the earliest pieces of sheet music with the boogie-woogie bassline, "New Orleans Hop Scop Blues" in 1916, although Williams recalled hearing him play the number before 1911.

Meade Lux Lewis’s Honky Tonk Train PDF.
is considered to be part of the “second-era” boogie-woogie style, but the use of train motives and repeated dotted rhythms in the bass are associated with the early development of the style. The use of train-sound metaphors in piano styles was implemented because of the African-American slaves’ involvement with the construction of the national railway system. After hearing the railroad sounds all day, the workers brought them into their playing at the barrelhouses and boogie halls at night; therefore, the use of train-sound metaphors was most likely passed down to Lewis through this tradition of railroad workers.

In 1922 Okeh hired Clarence Williams to act as director of "Race" (African American) recordings for Okeh's New York studios, in addition to making recordings under his own name. Okeh then opened a recording studio in Chicago, Illinois, the center of jazz in the 1920s, where Richard M. Jones served as "Race" recordings director. Many classic jazz performances by the likes of King Oliver, Sidney Bechet, and Louis Armstrong were recorded by Okeh.

In February of 1923 Joseph Samuels' Tampa Blue Jazz Band recorded the George W. Thomas number "The Fives" for Okeh Records, considered the first example of jazz band boogie-woogie.

Boogie Woogie Dream
by Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson

Meade Anderson "Lux" Lewis (1905 - 1964) was a United States pianist and composer noted for his work in the Boogie Woogie style. His best known work, "Honky Tonk Train Blues" is considered one of the first rock and roll records, and has been recorded by many players, including Oscar Peterson and Keith Emerson.
Lewis was born in Chicago, Illinois in September of 1905 (September 3rd, 4th, and 13th are given as his birthdate in various sources). In his youth he was influenced by pianist Jimmy Yancey.
Although he first recorded in 1927, Lewis achieved little fame until he was brought to New York City by promoter John Hammond in 1938 when he appeared at well publicised concerts including at Carnegie Hall. The From Spirituals to Swing concert at Carnegie Hall launched a boogie woogie craze, and he and two other performers from that concert, Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson became the leading boogie-woogie pianists of the day. They performed an extended engagement at Café Society and also toured and recorded as a trio.
Meade "Lux" Lewis died in an automobile accident in Minneapolis, Minnesota on June 7, 1964.

Disabled

Seely & Baldori Honky Tonk Train

In 1938 The Cotton Club Revue featured Cab Calloway and the Whitey's Lindy Hoppers. Cab sang and the Hoppers danced to the song "A Lesson In Jive" and it is said the Boogie Woogie dance formed from this.

Calloway Boogie

JOE HUNTER

STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN

Piano Player and Funk Brother JOE HUNTER explains AND also see
American Music Research Foundation

CHUCK BERRY

Bill Haley and the Comets
Gonna Rip It Up - Boogie Woogie

Rockabilly style was a fusion of Blues and Boogie Woogie by white singers or musicians such as Bill Haley and the Comets, Stompy Jones, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis.