I still have this blacklight poster from the 60's in my garage somewhere...
One of the earliest boogie pieces that I ever heard, was Pinetop's Boogie Woogie, since it was a favorite of a pianist I jammed with when I was first learning to play guitar.
Gene Taylor (Canned Heat, The Blasters, The Fabulous Thunderbirds) performing live at Allunaetrentacinquecirca, Cantù, Italy, on 7th March 2008
A little about Pinetop Smith:
Quote:
On 29 December 1928, Pinetop Smith recorded his influential "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie," one of the first "boogie woogie" style recordings to make a hit, and which cemented the name for the style.
Pine Top talks over the recording, telling how to dance to the number. He said he originated the number at a house-rent party in St. Louis, Missouri. Smith was the first ever to direct "the girl with the red dress on" to "not move a peg" until told to "shake that thing" and "mess around".
Smith was scheduled to make another recording session for Vocalion in 1929, but died from a gunshot wound in a dance-hall fight in Chicago the day before the session. He was only 24 years old when he died.
Sources differ as to whether he was the intended recipient of the bullet. "I saw Pinetop spit blood" was the famous headline in Down Beat magazine.
No photographs of Smith are known to exist.
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Boogie Woogie was a big part of the Swing Jazz sound of the 40's.
Here is "Boogie Woogie" another Pinetop Smith song popularized by big band giants Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey:
ADG