Re: The Boogie

["E. M. Kliman" <info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Quoting Scorcher <scorcher@xxxxxxx>:

> Another tells me there are several distinct bass/rhythm patterns definable
> as a boogie & showed me examples.

Scorch:

I don't know that there is a definitive answer to this, as with so many 
questions about the beginnings of the blues.  I will point out, however, that 
what you are calling "boogie woogie" tends to play an eight to the bar rhythm 
pretty well on the straight up'n'down whereas the "boogie" rhythm popularized 
by John Lee Hooker on the seminal "Boogie Chillun" (what the general public 
thinks of as the rhythm for ZZ Top's "La Grange") has a much different feel 
with accents on the up beats before the flatted third and fourth come in on 
the 3 and 4 downbeat counts of the second measure.  Real boogie woogie 
arguably had its first star with the rise of Albert Ammons, a contemporary of 
Scott Joplin and other ragtime and stride piano professors in the early 20th 
Century.  John Lee Hooker came along with his take on boogie rhythms (and who 
knows where *he* heard it or something like it) in post World War II Detroit.

Do a Google search on "Albert Ammons MIDI" or if you want to find some hair-
raising examples of what real boogie woogie is all about.  There are a few 
excellent websites out there with MIDI files that are transcriptions of 
Ammons' work.  

Tio Ed
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Ed Kliman
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