Boogie Woogie music is a fast-paced, instrumental sub-genre of blues that began in the 1870s as a type of dance music in the “barrelhouse” taverns of the Piney Woods region of northeast Texas.
Boogie Woogie piano music is based on a driving left-hand ostinato pattern of swung 8th notes, which is called “eight to the bar” and it is the defining musical characteristic of the boogie sound.
In all, there are dozens of boogie woogie ostinato patterns with various differences, including single-note patterns, double-note patterns, and chordal patterns. Nevertheless, all left-hand boogie ostinatos establish the “eight to the bar” rhythm and serve to outline the harmony.
In the Boogie Woogie style, a pianist’s right hand usually plays catchy, syncopated licks and riffs with occasional special effects such as polyrhythms, punches, tremolos or smash-chord riffs.
When you’re soloing in the Boogie Woogie style, you could conceivably play one Boogie Woogie lick after another. However, it also helpful to break up the licks a bit with some transitional material. One effective tool that Boogie Woogie pianists uses to connect their ideas is the minor blue scale. The C minor blues scale contains the notes C–E♭–F–F♯–G–B♭.
Most Boogie Woogie tunes are played over the form of the 12-bar blues. However, Boogie Woogie compositions can also include intros, endings, turnarounds and breaks.
Early boogie music was known by several other names, including “Fast Western,” “Fast Blues,” “Honky-Tonk” and “Texas Style.”
The city of Marshall, Texas is regarded as the “birthplace of Boogie Woogie.” In fact, the development of Boogie Woogie music has strong ties to the formation of the Texas and Pacific Railway which was chartered by the Texas government in 1870. Indeed, the arrival of the steam locomotive can be heard in the whistle-like tremolos and the driving ostinatos of the Boogie Woogie pianists who developed the style.
Many of the earliest Boogie Woogie pianists who pioneered the development of the musical style in the late 19th century were never recorded. However, oral history from the 1930s indicates that Boogie Woogie pianists were first heard in the lumber and turpentine camps of northeast Texas where many African-Americans worked.
During the first two decades of the 20th century, Boogie Woogie music spread to other American cities along the railroads, including Kansas City, St. Louis and especially Chicago.
The earliest Boogie Woogie solo piano recording is “Chicago Stomps” by Jimmy Blythe (1901–1931). Other prominent early Boogie Woogie pianists include Clarence “Pinetop” Smith (1904–1929), Meade Lux Lewis (1905–1964), Albert Ammons (1907–1949), Pete Johnson (1904–1967) and Jimmy Yancey (1894–1951).
Public interest in Boogie Woogie music peaked in the 1930s and 40s, especially due to the work of music producer and talent scout John Hammond (1910–1987). Hammond took a strong interest in Boogie Woogie music after hearing a recordings Clarence “Pinetop” Smith and Meade Lux Lewis. In 1938, Hammond organized a historic concert at Carnegie Hall which included three famous boogie pianists who became known as the Boogie Woogie Trio: Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis and Pete Johnson.
Even though the popularity of Boogie Woogie music decreased after the 1940s, the genre had strong influence on subsequent rhythm & blues and rock & roll pianists including Fats Domino (1928–2017), Little Richard (1932–2020) and Jerry Lee Lewis (1935–2022).