This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And a very special show today, a show that'll be like no one else you got from me and well, you're used from me that dig deep into the history of the music that I play on here, but I never went beyond the twenties and today I'm going to do that. Even worse, I go back a century more, to the 1820s, with - really - Beethoven.
Now before you're gonna turn off the radio and say That Rocking Dutchman gone out of his mind - I got a real good reason to start with the 32nd Sonata of Ludwig Von Beethoven. There's a part in it, that sounds so close to twentieth century ragtime and the boogie-woogie, that some indeed link it to the origins of boogie-woogie. And it's the history of that rolling piano style that I feature today.
So listen to that one and perhaps only piece of classical music that I'll ever play, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. Beethoven's boogie-woogie, or more exact, Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111, and from that a two-minute fragment identified as the third variation of the second section. On the piano Friedrich Gulda.
01 - Friedrich Gulda - Beethoven's Opus 111 (fragment)
The real origins of boogie woogie may or may not lie in this little masterpiece of Beethoven. Studies reveal that it's most likely that boogie woogie as a style originated in Northeastern Texas, to be more precise in Marshall and Harrison counties. There's little documentation, but it's widely believed that it originated in the 1870s. Huddie Ledbetter grew up in the area and he witnessed the style being played on the piano around 1899.
In the late 19th century the style was named "Fast Western", "Fast Texas" of "Fast Blues" and every Black man in Eastern Texas who could play the piano played it in that rhythm. Many say that that rhythm was inspired on the sound of the train. The two most primitive styles were named, after where they've been heard, the Marshall and the Jefferson, after two nearby towns in Eastern Texas.
As I said - in fact the origins are completely obscure. It's quite sure it originated in the African-American community. Whoever got, for the first time, the idea for the typical left-hand rhythm as an accompaniment must either have been an anonymous musical genius. It's not that likely, cause he must have been able to read notes and have some interest in classical music, but it's not completely impossible that some sheet music of Beethoven has been laying around at that musical genius. So whether or not boogie-woogie originated with Beethoven - we'll never know.
Now one thing is for sure, and that is that even while recording technology was around for some time, it wasn't until the mid-twenties that boogie-woogie was first recorded. About the same time comes the first sheet music with boogie woogie. There have been some recordings using the word boogie in the 1910s but they got nothing to do with what we know now as boogie-woogie. Anyhow the style had been developed quite some time with the first recordings. Maybe the next one is closest to primitive boogie-woogie, but then, adapted by a white band. Listen to that early attempt and pardon me for the sound quality. Here are the Louisiana Five with the Weary Blues.
02 - Louisiana Five - Weary Blues
(jingle)
03 - Jimmy Blythe - Chicago Stomp
04 - Jimmy Blythe - Mr. Freddie Blues
And that unmistakably is the boogie woogie, two very early recordings of it from 1924 and '26 on the Paramount label. You got Jimmy Blythe with the Chicago Stomps and the Mr. Freddie Blues, and in that stage the boogie-woogie still didn't have its name but the style is obvious.
The man who did give the boogie woogie its name is Clarence 'Pinetop' Smith. Smith had been recommended to the influential music producer J. Mayo Williams in 1925 and three years later he moved to Chicago to record. His Pinetop's Boogie Woogie - piano and dance instructions - it was an instant hit and the name for the style stuck. Here it is, on the Vocalion label from 1928 - Pinetop's Boogie Woogie.
05 - Pinetop Smith - Pinetop's Boogie Woogie
06 - Pinetop Smith - Jump Steady Blues
More Pinetop Smith - you got from 1929 on the Vocalion label the Jump Steady Blues. When Clarence Pinetop Smith moved to Chicago in 1928, he lived in the same house as Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis and they had all-night sessions at the house piano - poor neighbors. Smith died in 1929 from a gunshot in a fight in a dance hall, but the influence he had on Ammons and Lewis was tremendous. He left us not even a dozen of tracks and not all of them are boogie woogies.
About the same time was the first recording of Meade Lux Lewis for the Paramount label. Here is his Honky Tonk Train Blues.
07 - Meade Lux Lewis - Honkey Tonk Train Blues
08 - Jimmy Yancey - Beezum Blues
Jimmy Yancey, another pioneer of the boogie woogie piano but unfortunately he never recorded until 1939. He played the clubs and house parties in Chicago and got an influential pianist in the local scene. Yancey was older than Pinetop Smith and by 1915 he had made some fame in Chicago. If he played the boogie woogie that early, I don't know. But it's sure that at some point in the twenties, Chicago had become a hotspot for the boogie woogie.
But during the thirties interest had faded - until 1938. In that year, talent scout and record producer John Hammond organized the From Spirituals to Swing concert in Carnegie Hall where Meade Lux Lewis, Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons pounded the piano. This two-day concert was unique in its kind, a celebration of African American music for a mixed audience. The boogie woogie was well received and it spawned a craze throughout the country.
I'll devote part of today's show to the boogie woogie craze. In fact, the intest for veteran Jimmy Yancey was part of it - be it that his first session, for the obscure Solo Art label, yielded a large number of unissued material - and the Beezum Blues that I just played is one of them. The next one, also Yancey's, did make it to record. Here is the Fives.
09 - Jimmy Yancey - The Fives
10 - Meade Lux Lewis - Bear Cat Crawl
The Bear Cat Crawl of Meade Lux Lewis, recorded just one week after that groundbreaking Sprituals To Swing concert in Carnegie Hall. Lewis had performed there on December 23 and this recording is done on December 30 for the Vocalion label. It was backed with Albert Ammons' Shout For Joy, and in issue number preceded by Pete Johnson who pounded the piano with blues shouter Joe Turner in their - again groundbreaking - Roll 'em Pete - all taken on that same day.
For Turner it was his recording debut - the rolling start of a great career in Rhythm & Blues. It's also got a typical backbeat that was unheard of in the thirties and in style and feeling the years ahead of time. Many call this song the first Rock 'n Roll record. It didn't sell great - perhaps it was too modern to the late thirties audience, when the blues were done backe with an acoustical guitar, a much less noisy piano or a small combo consisting of clarinet and a muted trumpet.
Now we call it one of the milestones of Rhythm & Blues - and for sure it is. It's definitely not the first time I play it, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman, but here it is again. Recorded for Vocalion the day before New Year's eve in 1938 - here is Big Joe Turner and Pete Johnson, with their immortal Roll 'Em Pete.
11 - Joe Turner & Pete Johnson - Roll 'Em Pete
12 - Albert Ammons - Shout For Joy
Shout For Joy - that was Albert Ammons on the piano and this too was recorded on December 30 of '38 for the Vocalion label.
Boogie Woogie - also named the Eight To The Bar - soon crossed over to the white audience and it made for a major hit for Will Bradley - a song covered many times, including the Andrew Sisters. Here is - straight from the 78 on the Columbia label - Beat me daddy eight to the bar.
13 - Will Bradley Orchestra - Beat me daddy eight to the bar
14 - Louis Jordan - Choo Choo Ch' Boogie
The greatest hit ever based on a boogie woogie - actually the greatest Rhythm & Blues hit ever, measured in the number of weeks on number 1, be it, that Louis Jordan shares the honor with Joe Liggins' Honeydripper. This Choo Choo Ch' Boogie lasted 18 weeks on number one of Billboard's Rhythm & Blues hit list and no artist ever since has even come close to that achievement.
Boogie Woogie was here to stay and it would play a major role in the making of Rock 'n Roll - actually, many of the Rock 'n Roll songs are boogie woogies. To illustrate that, we make a jump to 1956 with this classic of Chuck Berry. The boogie woogie figure is done by the bass instead of the piano - and it's just coincidence that we get to the classical composer who may have laid the foundation of the boogie woogie - Beethoven. Here is Chuck Berry with Roll Over Beethoven.
15 - Chuck Berry - Roll Over Beethoven
16 - Camille Howard - X-Temperaneous Boogie
And this X-Temparaneous Boogie of Camille Howard was the purely improvised very last recording of the year 1947 - the last note was played close to midnight of December 31 of that year, the last opportunity to record before the 1948 strike of the American Federation of Musicians. A great closer for today's show that was dedicated to the history of boogie-woogie.
This was a show unlike most of the ones I do on here, the seldomly told story of what was originally a piano style, but defintely not exclusively. I love the boogie-woogie and I could only wish that I could play the piano like that - like the boy in my class in junior high school, every time we had music lessons he jumped at the piano even before the music teacher came in and treated us with a rollicking boogie woogie - his favorite was a boogie woogie version of a Coca-Cola commercial. The music teacher was not pleased with that - he probably preferred Beethoven. But the boy was a talent and as far as I can remember, he never got punished for that so the teacher must have seen that too.
I hope you liked today's history lesson and of course there's always the opportunity to let me know - the email address is rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. Today's story is to be found on my website, and that's easiest found with a web search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. This is show 197 in that long list of episodes that I done up to now. Of course you can also take a peek for what will be on for next week.
Cause as always, there will be more Rhythm & Blues in the next show. So be on the lookout for more Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!