John Steiner sent his taped recollections of his contacts with Albert Ammons and Jimmy Yancey. Through their introductions I was able to make contact with Phil Kiely and Dick Mushlitz, a founding member of the Salty Dogs Jazz Band, both of whom knew the Yanceys and made frequent visits to their apartment. They generously shared their reminiscences with me as well as provided material and photographs from their personal collections. Both of these men were good exponents of boogie-woogie and had met pianists Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson personally. I was fortunate to make contact with Tom Harris from Fort Worth, Texas, who introduced me to Ben Conroy of Austin, Texas.
They also gave moral support during those black moments when I began to doubt the wisdom of my undertaking. All three helped to get the project under way and without their regular tapes and letters, the book would have been stillborn. In the early stages of gathering information about the topic, invaluable help was given by three people: Dan Gunderman, viiĪ pianist and collector from Milwaukee Richard Lindaman from Minnesota, whose intelligent and perceptive comments I came to respect and appreciate as our correspondence continued and, from England, Bob Tomlinson, the record collector supreme, who introduced me to the work of the European pianists. It would have been impossible to begin writing a book on the subject of boogie-woogie without the continuing help and support of many record collectors and pianists actively playing and recording in the boogie-woogie style. Janis, They All Played Ragtime, published by the Jazz Book Club in arrangement with Sidgwick and Jackson, London, 1960). The inspirational element in the title was also provided by Denis and was taken from a description by Eubie Blake of William Turk’s piano playing, that he had a left hand like God (reported in R. In doing so, I was conscious that his musical examples gave an enhanced credibility to the work, as well as adding to the unfolding story. It seemed pointless to ignore the groundwork that Denis had completed, and so, with the encouragement of his widow, I read his notes and found that most of them could be adapted and incorporated into what I had already written. I had already completed about seven chapters when I heard of his death. Sadly, Denis died in 1983 and left behind research notes analyzing some of the recordings of various pianists, a detailed and well-documented chapter on the lumber industry, and the outline of another chapter on nomenclature and definition. We corresponded and sent each other articles and reviews. In 1982, or thereabouts, I learned that Denis Harbinson, a professor of music at University College in Cardiff, was also preparing to write a book on the same subject. The National and Independent Record Companiesīegan writing this book in 1980 because I felt that the story of boogiewoogie, and the myriad piano players who practiced it, had never been satisfactorily written. Part Five: Recording Boogie-Woogie and Appendixes 15 The Parting of the Ways: Rhythm and Blues and Big-Band Boogie Part Two: The Urban Sound of Boogie-Woogie 4 Industries and Centers Supporting Boogie-Woogie in the Southīoogie-Woogie Eras, Musical Influences, and Significant Early Pianists This present edition is dedicated to the memory of Pete Johnson (1904), Meade Lux Lewis (1905), and Albert Ammons (1907) -members of the Boogie-Woogie Trio, the centennial of whose births fell in the period 2004 to 2007.īoogie-Woogie: Early Appearances and Names by Which It Was Known Manufactured in the United States of America. ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Piano music (Boogie-woogie)-History and criticism. Includes bibliographical references, discographical references, and index. The story of boogie-woogie : a left hand like God / Peter J. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Silvester, Peter J. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 Estover Road Plymouth PL6 7PY United Kingdom Copyright © 2009 by Peter J. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. Published in the United States of America by Scarecrow Press, Inc. The Story of Boogie-Woogie A Left Hand Like God