Boogie-woogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, developed in African-American communities since the 1870s.[1] It was eventually extended from piano to piano duo and trio, guitar, big band, country and western music, and gospel. While standard blues traditionally expresses a variety of emotions, boogie-woogie is mainly dance music[2] (although not usually played for the competitive dance known as boogie-woogie (dance), a term of convenience in that sport). The genre had a significant influence on rhythm and blues and rock and roll.

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.[5] 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.[6] The Oxford English Dictionary states that the word is a reduplication of boogie, which was used for "rent parties" as early as 1913.

Boogie Woogie

"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".[7] Jefferson may have heard the term from Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter, who played frequently with Jefferson. Lead Belly, who was born in Mooringsport, La., 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.[8] 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",[9] 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.)[8][10] 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.[11]

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".[12]

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.

The first Negroes who played what is called boogie-woogie, or house-rent music, and attracted attention in city slums where other Negroes held jam sessions, were from Texas. And all the Old-time Texans, black or white, are agreed that boogie piano players were first heard in the lumber and turpentine camps, where nobody was at home at all. The style dates from the early 1870s.[1]

According to Tennison, when he interviewed Lee Ree Sullivan in Texarkana in 1986, Sullivan told him that he was familiar with "Fast Western" and "Fast Texas" as terms to refer to boogie-woogie in general, but not to denote the use of any specific bass figure used in boogie-woogie. Sullivan said that "Fast Western" and "Fast Texas" were terms that derived from the Texas Western Railroad Company of Harrison County.[14] The company was chartered on February 16, 1852, and changed its name to "Southern Pacific" in 1856. It built its first track from Marshall, Texas Swanson's Landing at Caddo Lake in 1857.[15] (This Texas-based "Southern Pacific" was not connected to the more well known Southern Pacific originating in San Francisco, California.) The Southern Pacific of Texas was bought by the newly formed Texas and Pacific Railway on March 21, 1872.[16]

A key to identifying the geographical area in which boogie-woogie originated is understanding the relationship of boogie-woogie music with the steam railroad, both in the sense of how the music might have been influenced by sounds associated with the arrival of steam locomotives as well as the cultural impact the sudden emergence of the railroad might have had.

"Although the neighboring states of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Missouri would also produce boogie-woogie players and their boogie-woogie tunes, and despite the fact that Chicago would become known as the center for this music through such pianists as Jimmy Yancey, Albert Ammons, and Meade "Lux" Lewis, Texas was home to an environment that fostered creation of boogie-style: the lumber, cattle, turpentine, and oil industries, all served by an expanding railway system from the northern corner of East Texas to the Gulf Coast and from the Louisiana border to Dallas and West Texas."[17] Alan Lomax wrote: "Anonymous black musicians, longing to grab a train and ride away from their troubles, incorporated the rhythms of the steam locomotive and the moan of their whistles into the new dance music they were playing in jukes and dance halls. Boogie-woogie forever changed piano playing, as ham-handed black piano players transformed the instrument into a polyrhythmic railroad train."[18]

Brothers George Thomas and Hersal Thomas migrated from Texas to Chicago and brought boogie-woogie with them, influencing a number of pianists, including Jimmy Yancey, Meade Lux Lewis, and Albert Ammons.[citation needed] Many elements now recognized as foundational elements of boogie-woogie are present in their 1922 song "The Fives".[citation needed]

In January 2010, John Tennison summarized his research into the origins of boogie-woogie with the conclusion that Marshall, Texas is "the municipality whose boundaries are most likely to encompass or be closest to the point on the map which is the geographic center of gravity for all instances of Boogie Woogie performance between 1870 and 1880".

Tennison states: "Given the account of Elliot Paul, and given that Lead Belly witnessed boogie-woogie in 1899 in the Arklatex; and given the North to South migration of the Thomas family; and given the Texas & Pacific headquarters in Marshall in the early 1870s; and given that Harrison County had the largest slave population in the state of Texas; and given the fact that the best-documented and largest-scale turpentine camps in Texas did not occur until after 1900 in Southeast Texas, it is most probable that boogie-woogie spread from Northeast to Southeast Texas, rather than from Southeast to Northeast Texas, or by having developed diffusely with an even density over all of the Piney Woods of East Texas. It would not be surprising if there was as yet undiscovered evidence of the earliest boogie-woogie performances buried (metaphorically or literally) in Northeast Texas."

On May 13, 2010, the Marshall City Commission enacted an official declaration naming Marshall as the "birthplace" of boogie-woogie music, and embarked on a program to encourage additional historical research and to stimulate interest in and appreciation for the early African-American culture in northeast Texas that played a vital role in creating boogie-woogie music.[22] "Birthplace of Boogie Woogie" was registered by the Marshall Convention and Visitors on June 21, 2011.

A song titled "Tin Roof Blues" was published in 1923 by the Clarence Williams Publishing Company. Compositional credit is given to Richard M. Jones. The Jones composition uses a boogie bass in the introduction with some variation throughout. In February 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.

The first boogie-woogie hit was "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" by Pinetop Smith, recorded in 1928 and first released in 1929. Smith's record was the first boogie-woogie recording to be a commercial hit, and helped establish "boogie-woogie" as the name of the style. It was closely followed by another example of pure boogie-woogie, "Honky Tonk Train Blues" by Meade Lux Lewis, recorded by Paramount Records(1927), first released in March 1930. The performance emulated a railroad trip, perhaps lending credence to the "train theory".

Boogie-woogie gained further public attention in 1938, thanks to the From Spirituals to Swing concert in Carnegie Hall promoted by record producer John Hammond.[2] The concert featured Big Joe Turner and Pete Johnson performing Turner's tribute to Johnson, "Roll 'Em Pete", as well as Meade Lux Lewis performing "Honky Tonk Train Blues" and Albert Ammons playing "Swanee River Boogie". "Roll 'Em Pete" is now considered to be an early rock and roll song.

After the Carnegie Hall concert, it was only natural for swing bands to incorporate the boogie-woogie beat into some of their music. Tommy Dorsey's band recorded an updated version of "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie" in 1938, which (as "Boogie Woogie") became a hit in 1943 and 1945,[23] and was to become the swing era's second best seller, only second to Glenn Miller's "In the Mood". In 1939, at the suggestion of Columbia Records producer John Hammond, Harry James recorded the singles Boo-Woo and Woo-Woo with Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons.[24] Also from 1939, the Will Bradley orchestra had a string of boogie hits such as the original versions of "Beat Me Daddy (Eight To The Bar)" and "Down the Road a Piece", both 1940, and "Scrub Me Mamma With A Boogie Beat", in 1941. That same year, The Andrews Sisters had a top 10 hit single with their recording of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy".

 32749fdeaf