| BOOGIE WOOGIE
A lot of Ulf Sandströms piano playing is influenced by boogie-woogie.
Boogie-woogie was created by strong personalities with love and humour, entertaining in barrelhouses and terpentine camps around the turn of the last century. Many of the masters were never recorded, and many died an early death - it was dangerous and the women went wild - when this happens the men go wild too.
But what is Boogie? Some say "eight to the bar" meaning left hand notes - but in my book boogie lives in any left hand piano pattern that creates a mesmerizing groove allowing right hand fills and vocals to ride on top.
"When you listen to what I'm playing, you got to see in your mind all them gals out there swinging their butts and getting the mes excited. That's what this music is for" (Robert "Fud" Shaw)
"It is primitive and unsophisticated music - music for the rough, uncultured, uneducated and frequencrtly illiterate working man, for the violent and undisciplined law-breaker and wrong-doer, and for the pimp, pander and prostitute."
A Left Hand Like God (Peter Silvester) - Great book!
"An evening of American Negro music shook the stage, the rafters and the audience at Carnegie hall last night. It a a little of everything - and a lot of swing"
New York Times Dec 24 - 1938
"Boogie-woogie piano playing - it relies heavily on what the art calls "the big bass" - had some rousing innings. It needs to be seen as well as heard. Especially as Albert Ammons, Meade "Lux " Lewis and Pete Johnson, all from the west, live their music. They were stirring to the audience individually and collectively. They could barely contain themselves, when the music was under way. And what endurance!"
New York Times Dec 24 - 1938
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