Re: [Harp-L] boogie woogie history

[Ken Deifik <kenneth.d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> The significance for harmonica players is that boogie woogie appears in 
> harmonica music and this is an easy way to get a quick overview 
> considering that boogie woogie is rather hard to come by these days as 
> live music except at ragtime festivals that often feature stride as well 
> as BW and its characteristic walking bass line.

Fantastic catch.

When I was a little boy in the 50's my uncle and his wife would spend most 
of every weekend with us.  The very first thing my uncle would do was head 
for the piano and knock out some boogie woogie that still sounds fresh in 
my memory.

When the adults would repair to the backyard I'd often stay inside because 
it was one of the few moments of the week that I could listen to whatever 
it was I wanted to hear on the radio.  I'm not exactly sure how it 
happened, but one day while switching around I heard Elvis Presley singing 
Jailhouse Rock and my life changed.

To me it sounded completely of a piece with the boogie woogie that my uncle 
played, and I have never been able to hear that much difference between 
boogie woogie and rock and roll ever since.  The fantastic records of Ella 
Mae Morse with Freddie Slack, from the early 40's, sound like rock and roll 
to me.  So does Bobby Troup's version of his song Route 66, from 1946.  10 
years later Jerry Lee Lewis achieved a very similar feel and nobody 
mistakes that music for anything but R&R.

Though the sound was already around in the 20's, by the late 30's it was 
some of the most popular music in America.  That rock and roll has survived 
as long as it has should be no surprise, it was already amazing audiences 
in the late 30's in a very similar form.

There is an amazing 4 CD set called Bands That Can Boogie Woogie.  You can 
get it at Amazon.  http://is.gd/Om1teg  It shows just how many different 
kinds of bands, Black and White, were rocking it and rolling it long before 
That's Alright Mama came along.

Every musician should have boogie woogie in their background.  (We all do, 
but the more you know of it the harder you'll swing.)

By the way, my uncle was an Auschwitz survivor who made his living in 
America as a traveling salesman. He also happened to be blind.

Everybody loves boogie woogie.  (Except Fats Waller, who is said to have 
detested it.)

K