Boogie-woogie also known as boogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, but had already developed in African-American communities since the 1870s. It was eventually extended from piano to piano duo and trio, guitar, big band, country and western, and gospel. While standard blues traditionally expresses a variety of emotions, boogie-woogie is mainly dance music
Musical scholars and researchers claim that African American piano players would travel up and down the turpentine camps and entertain workers after a long hard day with upbeat blues within bars. This is where boogie-woogie piano music was further refined and variegated.
Boogie-woogie waned in popularity in the 1930s, but enjoyed a resurgence and its greatest acclaim in the 1940s, reaching audiences around the world. Among its most famous acts was the "Boogie-Woogie Trio" of Pete Johnson, Albert Ammons, and Meade "Lux" Lewis. Other popular boogie-woogie pianists of this peak era were Maurice Rocco and Freddie Slack. There were also many very notable women boogie-woogie pianists during this time, including Hadda Brooks, Winifred Atwell, Martha Davis, and Hazel Scott, as well as in later years, such as Katie Webster.
Musical features
Boogie-woogie is characterized by a regular left-hand bass figure, which is transposed following the chord changes.
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Boogie-woogie is not strictly a solo piano style; it can accompany singers and be featured in orchestras and small combos. It is sometimes called "eight to the bar", as much of it is written in common time () time using eighth notes (quavers) (see time signature). The chord progressions are typically based on I–IV–V–I (with many formal variations of it, such as I/i–IV/iv–v/I, as well as chords that lead into these ones).
For the most part, boogie-woogie tunes are twelve-bar blues, although the style has been applied to popular songs such as "Swanee River" and hymns such as "Just a Closer Walk with Thee".
Typical boogie-woogie bassline:
:500px|Typical boogie-woogie bassline on 12 bar blues progression in G
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History
1870s–1930s
Several African terms have been suggested as having some interesting linguistic precursors to "boogie": Among them are the:
- Hausa word "Boog", and
- Mandingo word "Booga" (both of which mean "to beat", as in beating a drum)
- West African word "Bogi" (which means "to dance")
- Bantu term "Mbuki Mvuki" (Mbuki: "to take off in flight"; Mvuki: "to dance wildly, as if to shake off one's clothes").
The African origin of these terms is consistent with the African-American origin of the music.
In sheet music literature prior to 1900, there are at least three examples of the word "boogie" in music titles in the archives of the Library of Congress. In 1901, "Hoogie Boogie" appeared in the title of published sheet music, the first known instance where a redoubling of the word "Boogie" occurs in the title of published music. (In 1880, "The Boogie Man" had occurred as the title of published music.) The first use of "Boogie" in a recording title appears to be a "blue cylinder" recording made by Edison of the "American Quartet" performing "That Syncopated Boogie Boo" in 1913. The Oxford English Dictionary states that the word is a reduplication of boogie, which was used for "rent parties" as early as 1913.
"Boogie" next occurs in the title of Wilbur Sweatman's April 1917 recording of "Boogie Rag". None of these sheet music or audio recording examples contain the musical elements that would identify them as boogie-woogie. The 1919 recordings (two takes) of "Weary Blues" by the Louisiana Five contained the same boogie-woogie bass figure as appears in the 1915 "Weary Blues" sheet music by Artie Matthews. Tennison has recognized these 1919 recordings as the earliest sound recordings which contain a boogie-woogie bass figure.
Blind Lemon Jefferson used the term "Booga Rooga" to refer to a guitar bass figure that he used in "Match Box Blues". Jefferson may have heard the term from Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter, who played frequently with Jefferson. Lead Belly, who was born in Mooringsport, Louisiana, and grew up in Harrison County, Texas, in the community of Leigh, said he first heard boogie-woogie piano in the Caddo Lake area of northeast Texas in 1899. He said it influenced his guitar-playing. Lead Belly also said he heard boogie-woogie piano in the Fannin Street district of Shreveport, Louisiana. Some of the players he heard were Dave Alexander, who recorded for Decca in 1937 as Black Ivory King, and a piano player called Pine Top (not Pine Top Smith, who was not born until 1904, but possibly Pine Top Williams or Pine Top Hill). Lead Belly was among the first guitar-players to adapt the rolling bass of boogie-woogie piano.
Texas, as the state of origin, became reinforced by Jelly Roll Morton, who said he heard the boogie piano style there early in the 20th century, as did Leadbelly and Bunk Johnson, according to Rosetta Reitz.
The first time the modern-day spelling of "boogie-woogie" was used in a title of a published audio recording of music appears to be Pine Top Smith's December 1928 recording titled "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie", a song whose lyrics contain dance instructions to "boogie-woogie".
The earliest documented inquiries into the geographical origin of boogie-woogie occurred in the late 1930s when oral histories from the oldest living Americans of both African and European descent revealed a broad consensus that boogie-woogie piano was first played in Texas in the early 1870s. Additional citations place the origins of boogie-woogie in the Piney Woods of northeast Texas.