http://www.boogiewoogie.com/index.php/history/ Boogie Woogie music, its origins, subsequent history and ongoing development by John Tennison en nonjohn@yahoo.com Copyright 2009 2009-03-26T05:10:17+00:00 http://boogiewoogie.com/index.php/history/35_-_leadbelly_adapts_boogie_woogie_bass_line_from_piano_to_guitar/ http://boogiewoogie.com/index.php/history/35_-_leadbelly_adapts_boogie_woogie_bass_line_from_piano_to_guitar/#When:05:10:17Z Leadbelly Adapts Boogie Woogie Bass Line from Piano to Guitar Leadbelly was among the first to adapt the rolling bass of Boogie Woogie to a guitar.  He was born in 1888 (or 1889 depending on the source) and died in 1949. According to “The Story of Boogie Woogie:  A Left Hand Like God,“9 by Peter J. Silvester, with a special contribution from Denis Harbinson, “....between 1872 and 1876, the Texas & Pacific Railroad had been laying track to the west of Shreveport at Marshall and to the north of Shreveport at Texarkana.  In this general area, or in Caddo County, or in Shreveport itself, is where the blues singer and guitarist, Huddie ‘Leadbelly’ Ledbetter, first heard barrelhouse pianists playing boogie-woogie walking basses in 189935 (or 1901, depending on source).“9 On page 17 in his chapter on Boogie Woogie in Just Jazz35, Ernest Borneman notes:   “About 1900, Leadbelly heard an old-time Louisiana pianist named ‘Pine Top’ (not Clarence ‘Pine Top’ Smith) playing Boogie on Fanning Street.” (Borneman misspelled “Fannin” as “Fanning.”)  Leadbelly was so inspired by this piano playing that he imitated Pine Top’s rhythmic piano style on his guitar. Borneman quotes Leadbelly’s comments about Fannin Street’s Pine Top on page 17 of Just Jazz35:   “He played that Boogie Woogie.  That’s what I wanted to play on guitar—that piano bass.  I always wanted to play piano tunes.  I got it out of the barrelhouses on Fannin Street.“35 Note:  The “Pine Top” to which Leadbelly refers was not Clarence “Pine Top” Smith from Alabama who first used the word, “Boogie Woogie” in the title of his Boogie Woogie sound recording.  Clarence “Pine Top” Smith was not born until June 11, 1904. Leadbelly met fellow blues player, Blind Lemon Jefferson, in the Deep Ellum area of Dallas.  For an uncertain period of time, they played together in Dallas.  Deep Ellum developed as a mecca for original music in Dallas as a direct consequence of being at the crossroads of the Texas & Pacific Railroad and the Houston & Texas Central Railroad.  This crossroads was important to the development of blues music in Texas.  Leadbelly relied on the Texas & Pacific Railroad to transport him to Dallas.  Moreover, he has stated that he and Blind Lemon used the T&P to travel to locations where they would perform together.  Specifically, on page 22 of the chapter, “Blind Lemon Jefferson:  That Black Snake Moan:  The Music and Mystery of Blind Lemon Jefferson,” in the book, “Bluesland:  Portraits of Twelve Major American Blues Masters,“28 Alan Govenar wrote of Leadbelly’s recollections about Leadbelly’s and Blind Lemon’s travels on the Texas & Pacific Railroad:  “Leadbelly remarked that they were often able to get free rides on the Texas & Pacific Railroad in exchange for their playing.”28 Leadbelly could be responsible for having taught Blind Lemon Jefferson to play a walking bass line on Jefferson’s guitar.  According to Sammy Price, Jefferson called his walking bass line his “booga-rooga.“40 History of Boogie Woogie 2009-03-26T05:10:17+00:00 http://boogiewoogie.com/index.php/history/34_-_the_first_recording_to_use_a_12-bar_blues_harmonic_progression_with_a_/ http://boogiewoogie.com/index.php/history/34_-_the_first_recording_to_use_a_12-bar_blues_harmonic_progression_with_a_/#When:05:08:57Z The First Recording to Use a 12-Bar Blues Harmonic Progression with a Boogie Woogie Bass Figure In addition to using Boogie-Woogie bass figures with some some degree of inherrent swing, George W. Thomas Jr.‘s “The Rocks,” recorded in February 1923, is said to be the first Boogie Woogie recording to employ a 12-bar blues structure. History of Boogie Woogie 2009-03-26T05:08:57+00:00 http://boogiewoogie.com/index.php/history/33_-_jimmy_blythes_chicago_stomp_the_first_completely_boogie_woogie_recordi/ http://boogiewoogie.com/index.php/history/33_-_jimmy_blythes_chicago_stomp_the_first_completely_boogie_woogie_recordi/#When:05:06:14Z Unlike other early recordings of Boogie Woogie, Blythe’s “Chicago Stomp” is significant in that, after its short introduction, it maintains a Boogie Woogie feel and pulse to the end with no intermittant use of the 2/4 oom-pah pulse heard throughout most Ragtime music. Unlike other early recordings of Boogie Woogie, Blythe’s “Chicago Stomp” is significant in that, after its short introduction, it maintains a Boogie Woogie feel and pulse to the end with no intermittant use of the 2/4 oom-pah pulse heard throughout most Ragtime music.  Interestingly, unlike many other Ragtime pieces (such as Eubie Blake’s “Charleston Rag”), Jimmy Blythe’s piano teacher, Clarence M. Jones played his “Daddy Blues” and his “Doggone Blues” with a distinctive swing pulse that could have influenced Blythe to impart more of a swing to Blythe’s own music.  Blythe recorded “Chicago Stomp” in April of 1924 in Chicago, Illinois, on the Paramount Label, #12207.  Blythe’s “Chicago Stomp” can be regarded as an important contribution to the maturation of Boogie Woogie that occurred in Chicago well before Meade Lux Lews or Pine Top Smith made their recordings, and well before Boogie Woogie became publicly associated with Lewis, Smith, Ammons, Johnson, and Yancey. History of Boogie Woogie 2009-03-06T05:06:14+00:00 http://boogiewoogie.com/index.php/history/32_-_black_swan_records_-_the_record_label_that_recorded_fletcher_henderson/ http://boogiewoogie.com/index.php/history/32_-_black_swan_records_-_the_record_label_that_recorded_fletcher_henderson/#When:05:05:36Z Black Swan Records was the first back-owned record label.  The label was founded by Harry Pace, who was from Georgia.  Before moving to New York to start his record label, Pace had run a music publishing company in Memphis with W. C. Handy. Black Swan Records was the first back-owned record label.  The label was founded by Harry Pace, who was from Georgia.  Before moving to New York to start his record label, Pace had run a music publishing company in Memphis with W. C. Handy.  Fletcher Henderson had worked as a pianist and demonstrator for Handy and Pace’s publishing company.  Thus, Henderson’s exposure to the published African American music of the day would have almost certainly brought Henderson into contact with Artie Matthews’ 1915 sheet music for “The Weary Blues” and with George W. Thomas Jr.‘s 1916 sheet music for “New Orleans Hop Scop Blues.”  This experience would have exposed Fletcher Henderson to the use of the Boogie Woogie broken-octave walking bass line approximately 8 years before Henderson recorded his “Chime Blues” circa March, 1923 on Swan Records.  Thus, the distribution of sheet music to Memphis, Chicago, and New York is a plausible explanation for how Fletcher Henderson came to use such a bass figure in his “Chime Blues.” History of Boogie Woogie 2009-03-05T05:05:36+00:00 http://boogiewoogie.com/index.php/history/31_-_fletcher_hendersons_chime_blues_is_an_early_boogie_woogie_recording/ http://boogiewoogie.com/index.php/history/31_-_fletcher_hendersons_chime_blues_is_an_early_boogie_woogie_recording/#When:03:46:46Z “In early 1923, Fletcher Henderson recorded a pair of piano solos for Black Swan, which were issued on their rare 2100 series.  Chime Blues features a walking bass, and although Henderson was never known as a boogie-woogie pianist, this must be one of the earliest such solos on record (with the possible exception of the mysterious Clay Custer’s [A.K.A. George Thomas] ‘The Rocks’ on OKeh 4809, recorded about this same time).  It would be interesting to know where Henderson picked up this style!” According to one website (http://www.redhotjazz.com/fletcher.html) Henderson’s “Chime Blues” was recorded in “January of 1921” on Black Swan Records.  However, according to historical accounts, Black Swan Records did not make its first recordings until April, 1921.  Moreover, these historical accounts indicate that the first recordings of Black Swan Records did not include Fletcher Henderson’s “Chime Blues.”  Moreover, the most authoritative document on the history of Fletcher Henderson and his music (“Hendersonia”, Jazz Monographs Number 4, 1973, Walter C. Allen) indicates that he recorded “Chime Blues” in “early 1923.”  On Page 44, Hendersonia states” “In early 1923, Fletcher Henderson recorded a pair of piano solos for Black Swan, which were issued on their rare 2100 series.  Chime Blues features a walking bass, and although Henderson was never known as a boogie-woogie pianist, this must be one of the earliest such solos on record (with the possible exception of the mysterious Clay Custer’s [A.K.A. George Thomas] ‘The Rocks’ on OKeh 4809, recorded about this same time).  It would be interesting to know where Henderson picked up this style!” Moreover, on page 548, Hendersonia states, “....one of the earliest known examples of boogie-woogie bass takes place on Fletcher’s rare piano solo of Chime Blues.” Bryan Rust’s authoritative three-volume set titled, “JAZZ AND RAGTIME RECORDS (1897-1942),” Malcolm Shaw, editor, indicates “circa March 1923” as the recording date for Henderson’s “Chime Blues.”  Thus, this authoritative sources places the recording of “Chime Blues” in the month following the recording of “The Rocks,” not in 1921 as the Red Hot Jazz website had indicated.  Of course, the word, “circa,” allows for wiggle room, in that it represents an approximation.  Regardless of the dates of audio recordings, an indisputable fact is that Henderson’s circa March 1923 recording of “Chime Blues” occurred about 8 years after Artie Matthews’ 1915 sheet-music publication of “The Weary Blues, ” and about 7 years after the 1916 sheet-music publication of George W. Thomas’s “New Orleans Hop Scop Blues.” Regardless of exact recording dates, both “The Rocks” and “Chime Blues” deserve recognition as being among the first audio recordings to use Boogie Woogie broken-octave walking bass lines containing an intrinsic swing-pulse in the left hand part.  Moreover, these broken-octave, swung bass lines are qualitatively distinct from the duple-meter feel of the broken-octave bass lines in Joplin’s “Pine Apple Rag” and in Boone’s “Southern Rag Medley 2.” Since Henderson was a demonstrator of the African American sheet music of his day,  Henderson could easily have picked up the idea for the Boogie Woogie swinging broken-octave walking bass line either from this previously published sheet music of Artie Matthews or George Thomas, or by rushing out to emulate the bass line in “The Rocks” shortly after hearing the studio performance or recording of “The Rocks,” as recorded in February of 1923.  However, since George Thomas notated the swing pulse of his 1916 music with grace notes rather than with eighth-note triplets or doted eighth-notes, it seems more likely that Henderson would have modeled a witnessed performance by someone who was playing with an swing-pulse intrinsic to the left hand.  Else Henderson could have ended up with an interpretation that sounded more like Eubie Blake’s grace-noted (AKA “reverse Boogie Woogie”) broken octave bassline as Blake used in his 1917 piano roll recording of Blake’s “Charleston Rag.” Another feature that suggests that Henderson was emulating either “The Weary Blues” or “New Orleans Hop Scop Blues” comes from comes from the fact that “Chime Blues” clearly copies the structure of “The Weary Blues” and “New Orleans Hop Scop Blues.”  Specifically, “Chime Blues” begins with a Ragtime oom-pah pulse, transitions into a Boogie Woogie swinging broken-octave walking bass, and then returns to a Ragtime oom-pah pulse, making the resemblance of “Chime Blues” to the structure of “The Weary Blues” and “New Orleans Hop Scop Blues” unmistakable. Also, both “The Rocks” and “Chime Blues” have rudimentary polyrhythmic interplay between the right and left hands.  Both “Chime Blues” and “The Rocks” pre-date Meade Lux Lewis’s “Honky Tonk Train” and Clarence “Pine-Top” Smiths “Boogie Woogie” recordings. If you are curious to hear “Chime Blues,” go to http://www.redhotjazz.com/fletcher.html.  (I cannot guarantee that this link will always be active.) History of Boogie Woogie 2009-01-20T03:46:46+00:00 http://boogiewoogie.com/index.php/history/30_-_the_earliest_sound_recordings_containing_boogie_woogie_bass_figures/ http://boogiewoogie.com/index.php/history/30_-_the_earliest_sound_recordings_containing_boogie_woogie_bass_figures/#When:05:30:50Z The Earliest Sound Recordings Containing Boogie Woogie Bass Figures “The Rocks” by George & Hersal Thomas (recorded February, 1923) and “The Fives,” (performed by Joseph Samuel’s Tampa Blue Jazz Band) and also written by George & Hersal Thomas (and also recorded February, 1923) are the earliest sound recordings of which I am aware that contain Boogie Woogie bass figures.  Moreover, Fletcher Henderson’s recording of “Chime Blues” on Black Swan Records was recorded at a similar time (circa March,1923) and also contains a Boogie Woogie bass figure. Thus, the February 1923 recordings of “The Rocks” and “The Fives” should be regarded as a 1st-place tie for the earliest sound recording containing a Boogie Woogie bass figure. The first sound recording of which I know of George W. Thomas’s “New Orleans Hop Scop Blues” was also made in 1923 on OKeh Records. The February 1923 recording of “The Rocks” lists “Clay Custer” as the piano player.  While this person is commonly regarded as having been George Thomas, Jr., this conclusion is still uncertain.  Although some have written that “Custer” was the maiden name of George Thomas’s mother, the Oxford Guide to Recorded Blues and Gospel disputes this claim, stating that Custer was not George’s mother’s maiden name. History of Boogie Woogie 2009-01-16T05:30:50+00:00 http://boogiewoogie.com/index.php/history/29_-_u._s._highway_59_from_texarkana_to_houston_to_el_campo_-_the_boogie_wo/ http://boogiewoogie.com/index.php/history/29_-_u._s._highway_59_from_texarkana_to_houston_to_el_campo_-_the_boogie_wo/#When:04:03:17Z U. S. Highway 59 from Texarkana to Houston to El Campo - “The Boogie Woogie Highway” (A.K.A. “The Boogie Woogie Corridor”) U. S. Highway 59 from Texarkana to Houston to El Campo - “The Boogie Woogie Highway” (A.K.A. “The Boogie Woogie Corridor”) The migratory pathway of Leadbelly (from Mooringsport, Louisiana to Dallas, Texas) takes him through Marshall, Texas no later than the time that the Thomas family probably came through Marshall.  Also, Leadbelly was known to have spent some time in the Texarkana area, a town through which the Thomas family almost certainly passed on their migration to Houston, TX.  These correspondences of Leadbelly’s overall east-to-west migration with the Thomas family north-to-south migration, coupled with Thomas’s having said that he based his “Hop Scop Blues” on music being played in East Texas point strongly to Northeast Texas/Northwest Louisiana as the area where we have what appears to be the earliest eyewitness report of Boogie Woogie being played in 1899.35 (Note:  Eubie Blake’s alleged 1896 account is not credible.  See section below.) Specifically, Ernest Borneman notes on page 14 in his chapter on Boogie Woogie (Chapter 2) in the 1957 book, “Just Jazz"35:   “Leadbelly says he heard it first in 1899 in Caddo County on the Texas Border.”35 In reality, there is no “Caddo County.”  However, there is a Caddo “Parish,” the Louisiana equivalent of a “county.”  Moreover, Caddo Parish and Harrison County, Texas straddle the Texas border.  Therefore, the exact location of this Leadbelly’s eyewitness account remains uncertain.  If you give more credence to the word “Caddo,” you might conclude that it was on the Louisiana side of the border.  However, if you give more credence to the words, “county,” and “Texas Border,” you might think it more likely to conclude that Leadbelly heard the music on the Texas side of the border.  One thing is for certain:  The region was culturally unified and the state boundary was defined only by a line of longitude, not by a barrier such as a River.  Thus, locations of Railroads, Roads, and known music venues would be more reliable clues as to which side of the border Leadbelly first heard Boogie Woogie.  Regardless, by 1899, it was almost certainly being played on both sides of the Texas-Louisiana state border. (Note:  For reasons discussed below, I do not believe Eubie Blake’s claim of hearing Boogie Woogie in Baltimore in 1896.) To the extent that the earliest Boogie Woogies were influenced by the same forces that were shaping the right-hand parts in Ragtime, Scott Joplin’s family’s migration from Marshall and/or Linden, Texas to Texarkana suggests the regional presence of influences that almost certainly informed the earliest Boogie Woogie well before 1899.  (Joplin’s father moved the Joplin family to Texarkana so that he could take job with the Texas & Pacific Railroad.)  Indeed, some of the syncopated right-handed parts of Ragtime are virtually indistinguishable to what appears in the right-handed parts of Boogie Woogie.  If it were not for Boogie Woogie having gotten away from the straight, oom-pah pulse of Ragtime, and if it were not for the polyrhythmic interplay between right and left hands in Boogie Woogie, it might have never come to be regarded as a style distinguishable from Ragtime.  The Texas & Pacific tracks between Texarkana and Marshall are still in use by Union Pacific, and parallel Highway 59.  South of Marshall, Highway 59 continues to Houston along the route of what was the Houston, East, and West Texas Railroad.  This route takes Highway 59 through some of the most prominent lumber towns of the late 1800s (including Lufkin & Diboll) where various barrelhouse existed at the lumber camps.  Moreover, lumber baron Arthur Temple (who controlled Diboll) lived in Texarkana and traveled back and forth between Texarkana and Diboll.)  Moreover, George W. Thomas, Jr. brought Boogie Woogie to Houston. From Houston, Highway 59 turns westward towards El Campo, Texas.  As Highway 59 exits Harris County and enters Fort Bend County, it passes by Stafford, the birthplace of Boogie Woogie pianist, Robert Shaw (born 1908).  Stafford is historically important because it was an initial west terminus of the very first railroad in Texas, The Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railroad.  According to the Texas Handbook of History in George C. Werner’s article on “Railroads”:   “Work on this railroad began in 1851, and the first locomotive, named for Sherman [General Sidney Sherman], arrived in late 1852.  The initial twenty-mile segment from Harrisburg (now a part of Houston) and Stafford’s Point (now Stafford) opened by September 7, 1853.  The Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado was not only the first railroad to operate in Texas, it was the second railroad west of the Mississippi River and the oldest component of the present Southern Pacific.”47 Since slavery had not been abolished at the time the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railroad was built, this earliest stretch of Texas railroad was built largely by slave labor.  Moreover, prior to the end of the Civil War, slaves’ access to pianos was limited.  Consequently, piano music at slave-populated railroad camps associated with the construction of this track would have been limited, if present at all.  However, the sound of the early steam locomotives on this line no doubt served as auditory inspiration for music that followed.  Also, even as late as 1910, Fort Bend County had an African American population that rivaled that of Harrison County in Northeast Texas. After traversing Fort Bend County, Highway 59 reaches El Campo, the birthplace of Boogie Woogie great, Little Willie Littlefield, who (along with Amos Milburn of Houston) had a profound influence on Fats Domino, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis.  Moreover, El Campo is located in Wharton County, which, although not as high as Fort Bend County, has historically had one of the highest African American populations in Texas. Thus, for all of these reasons, I call Highway 59 from Texarkana to Houston to El Campo “The Boogie Woogie Highway” or “The Boogie Woogie Corridor.”  It might make sense to include stretches of Highway 59 north of Texarkana or west of El Campo as part of “The Boogie Woogie Corridor.”  However, to do so, I would want to support such a designation by knowledge of Boogie Woogie players or sources of influence north of Texarkana or west of El Campo.  For example, Lee Ree Sullivan of Texarkana reported to me in a1986 interview that his Boogie Woogie mentors had told him that Boogie Woogie was being played at logging and construction camps along the Texarkana and Northern Railroad (later known as the Kansas City Southern Railroad)68.  The first 10 miles of the Texarkana and Northern were constructed in 1885, and run northward from Texarkana to the Red River along present-day Highway 59. Moreover, since Robert Johnson made his first recordings in San Antonio, Texas, and since Louis Jordan was inspired by the Texas and Pacific Railroad presence in El Paso, Texas, I would not want to rule out possible Blues and Boogie Woogie influences west of El Campo.  However, in general, one can visualize a “Boogie Woogie and Blues Gradient” that becomes more intense as one travels from West to East Texas.  (The fact that parts of U. S. Highway 59 are going to become the new Interstate Highway 69 is a fitting metaphor for the libidinal energy associated with Boogie Woogie.) History of Boogie Woogie 2009-01-13T04:03:17+00:00 http://boogiewoogie.com/index.php/history/28_-_eubie_blakes_charleston_rag/ http://boogiewoogie.com/index.php/history/28_-_eubie_blakes_charleston_rag/#When:06:03:05Z Eubie Blake’s “Charleston Rag:” A 1917 Piano Roll with a Non-Swinging, Grace-Noted, Broken-Octave Walking Bass Line Eubie Blake’s “Charleston Rag:” A 1917 Piano Roll with a Non-Swinging, Grace-Noted, Broken-Octave Walking Bass Line One of the earliest Ragtime piano rolls recorded that had a non-oom-pah, broken-octave walking bass line was Eubie Blake’s 1917 piano roll of “Charleston Rag,” copyright August 8, 1917, and recorded as a piano roll in late 1917 in New York, NY on Ampico roll 54174-E.  However, Blake’s walking bass line is not typically regarded as a Boogie Woogie bass line, but rather as a “Reverse-Boogie Bass"58 figure.  That is, Blake plays the lower note of each octave couplet as a grace note, with the 2nd note of each octave pair falling on the down beat, which sounds almost like a progression of unison octaves, rather than being a progression of note pairs in which one note in each pair is in the “swung” syncopated position off of the downbeat that allows for the poly-rhythmic feel, and interplay between left and right hands as heard in Boogie Woogie.  A performance of the “Charleston Rag” piano roll can be heard on the 2003 Biograph album, “The Greatest Ragtime of the Century” and the Biograph album, “Eubie Blake:  Memories of You” CDs. Interestingly, in the 1917 piano roll of “Charleston Rag,” Blake plays his “grace-note” broken-octave walking bass line with accents as if they could have been derived from a literal reading George Thomas’s “New Orleans Hop Scop Blues”, published in 1916.  That is, in Thomas’s original 1916 publication of “New Orleans Hop Scop Blues,” the lower note in each octave pair of the swinging broken-octave walking bass was notated as a grace note, suggesting to the uninformed reader that the lower note in each octave couplet was not supposed to be given the same accent as the higher note an octave up that immediately followed.  Thus, anyone who was giving Thomas’ sheet music a literal reading, and who had not heard “New Orleans Hop Scop Blues” played the way George Thomas intended could have mistakenly thought that the piece was supposed to be performed in the literal “grace-note” fashion as we hear in Eubie Blake’s 1917 piano roll of “Charleston Rag,” and thus would also lack the swing feel so important to Boogie Woogie and Jazz in general. Since Blake’s grace-noted, non-swinging, broken-octave walking bass line would result from a literal reading of the broken-octave bass line in the sheet music of George Thomas’s “New Orleans Hop Scop Blues,” the possibility that Blake was influenced by the 1916 sheet music of “New Orleans Hop Scop Blues” seems plausible.  That is, if east-coast musicians made a literal reading of the grace notes printed in Thomas’s 1916 sheet music, the rhythm would be consistent with the rhythm heard the following year in Blake’s piano roll performance of his “Charleston Rag.”  In 1969, Blake claims to have composed “Charleston Rag” before 1900 and says he says he did not know how to write music at that time.  Given the relatively greater technological sophistication of the east coast United States at the time as compared to locations in the west, it is perplexing that it would have taken Blake over 17 years to find a way to document a walking bass line that just happens to sound like a literal rhythmic reading of George Thomas’s “New Orleans Hop Scop Blues” sheet music that was published in the prior year of 1916.  (For a further discussion on unbelievable claims made by Eubie Blake, see the section on him below.) Because Blake’s grace-noted bass line in Charleston Rag is not a Boogie Woogie bass line, it was instead referred to as a “Reverse Boogie Bass“58 in 1973 by Robert Kimball and William Bolcom in their book, ““Reminiscing with Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake,” in which the authors state the following on page 42:   “One day a neighbor lady called on Emma Blake.  ‘Sister Blake, I heard someone, sounded just like little Hubie, playing at Aggie Shelton’s [a Baltimore brothel] the other night.  And I know it’s little Hubie, Em, because of that wobble-wobble in the left hand.’  The ‘wobble-wobble,’ the sort of reverse boogie bass that is still Eubie Blake’s trademark, is found in his earliest composition, “Charleston Rag”—here it would get him into trouble.“58 The “trouble” to which the authors refer is the fact that this story conveys how Eubie Blake’s mother is said to have discovered that he had been playing at Aggie Shelton’s brothel. History of Boogie Woogie 2009-01-11T06:03:05+00:00 http://boogiewoogie.com/index.php/history/27_-_important_distinctions_between_five_kinds_of_broken-octave_bass_figure/ http://boogiewoogie.com/index.php/history/27_-_important_distinctions_between_five_kinds_of_broken-octave_bass_figure/#When:04:47:33Z What are the necessary and sufficient elements to constitute a broken-octave Boogie Woogie bass line?  Some historians have erroneously referred to ANY broken octave bass line as a Boogie Woogie bass line.  Yet, there are specific reasons why a broken octave bass is NOT sufficient in and of itself to create a Boogie Woogie feel. What are the necessary and sufficient elements to constitute a broken-octave Boogie Woogie bass line?  Some historians have erroneously referred to ANY broken octave bass line as a Boogie Woogie bass line.  Yet, there are specific reasons why a broken octave bass is NOT sufficient in and of itself to create a Boogie Woogie feel.  For example, broken octaves have been used in the keyboard music of Bach and other classical composers, and at least as early as 1908 in the Ragtime music of Scott Joplin.  Although it only occurs for two measures, a broken-octave bass line can be seen on page 6 of Joplin’s “Pine Apple Rag,” first published in 190841.  These broken octaves were played with Ragtime’s typical oom-pah pulse, and are not swung.  Thus, the mere fact of playing in broken octaves was not a breakthrough for Boogie Woogie, nor does the usage of broken-octaves necessarily yield a Boogie Woogie bass line. Above is the cover and page 6 of Scott Joplin’s Pine Apple Rag.  A broken-octave bass line can be seen in the 5th & 6th measures on this page. The images above are taken from the University of Colorado Digital Sheet Music Collection. In Bach’s music and in Ragtime, the broken octaves were not played with an inherent swing pulse.  The breakthrough transitions when the walking quality, ostinato figures, and/or the swing pulse of Boogie Woogie bass figures began to be used.  In contrast, the bass chords in Ragtime frequently changed with each oop-pah.  Such regular chord changes prevented an ostinato effect to be felt as strongly, if at all, and typically, Ragtime players were “striding,” not “walking,” as is more often heard in Boogie Woogie. Even without what I call “Intrinsic Swing Pulse” in the left-hand bass line, a swing pulse can be created in Ragtime by the combination of a non-swinging right hand part (playing the syncopated notes that do not occur on the downbeat) with a non-swinging left hand part (playing the notes that occur on downbeats).  I call the Swing Feel created by this technique an “Interactional Swing Pulse.”  Some Ragtime pieces are played with this effect, but usually the amplitude (loudness) of the straight, oom-pah pulse of the left hand pulse of the left hand in Ragtime competes with the Interactional Swing Pulse, such that the net effect is a performance that does not swing as hard, and thus, still sounds like Ragtime, and is not experienced with as much of a Boogie Woogie feel. To produce the strongest swing feel, the straight oom-pah pulse must be minimized, if not eliminated all together.  To have the strongest swing feel, (unequal) “asymmetric” temporal divisions of 2/3 and 1/3 must be SUPERIMPOSED on top of a equal “symmetric” temporal divisions.  Whether or not notes or rests occur at the various temporal divisions, the net effect of all notes and rests will define where the temporal divisions are located, and will determine whether or not a Swing Pulse is created. With these ideas in mind, broken-octave bass figures can be classified into the following five categories.  Category 5 is unequivocally a Boogie Woogie bass figure.  Category 2 and 4 will be experienced as Boogie Woogie bass figures IF the bass figures have an interactional relationship to the right-hand part, such that a swing feel emerges.  Even with an interactional swing pulse, categories 2 and 4 can be experienced with a Boogie Woogie feel if they have a walking and/or ostinato quality.  if the bass has a “walking” and or “ostinato” quality.  Categories 1 and 3 will not have a Boogie Woogie feel unless played with a walking and/or ostinato features. 1.  Straight Broken-Octave Bass without “Interactional Swing Pulse” - These are non-Boogie-Woogie bass lines.  This type of bass is the oldest of the broken octave bass lines, having been used by Bach, and on occasion by Ragtime composers, such as Scott Joplin.  However, when Joplin used them, they were still written with a “1-2” oom-pah pulse.  That is, if one simply changes the chord of the “pah” note to a single note an octave above the “oom” note, then you have a “broken-octave” bass line.  Yet, such a simple variation is not sufficient to convert an oom-pah pulse into a swinging pulse. 2.  Straight Broken-Octave Bass with “Interactional Swing Pulse” - The Interactional Swing Pulse probably first occurred in Ragtime music.  However, given the competing, incessant oom-pah pulse of the left hand, the magnitude of most Interactional Swing Pulses heard in early Ragtime music was not strong enough to reach a threshold of a Boogie Woogie feel. 3.  Grace-Noted Broken Octave Bass (also called a “Reverse Boogie Bass”58) without “Interactional Swing Pulse” - This is the type of broken-octave bass played by Artie Matthews in his “Pastime Rag No. 1 (A Slow Drag),” published in 1913 by Stark Music Company, St. Louis, MO42.  In Matthews piece, the graced-noted broken octaves occur for 8 measures in the final “Grandioso” section of his piece.  Like Joplin’s earlier “Pine Apple Rag,” I know of no evidence to suggest that the bass line “Pastime Rag. No. 1” was played with a swing pulse.  Later, in 1917, Eubie Blake used a similar grace-noted broke octave in his “Charleston Rag” piano-roll performance, and then much later in his “Eubie’s Boogie,” first recorded in the late 1960s.  Blake’s broken octave bass lines have virtually no inherent swing feel, although he does produce a very slight interactional swing pulse at times.  Instead of sounding like two separate notes, the broken octave couplets in Blake’s basses tend to perceptually fuse together and sound like one musical event that was temporally widened, but with the accents still falling on the downbeats, and lacking an inherent swing feel.  Thus, Blake’s bass lines in “Charleston Rag” and “Eubie’s Boogie” are not Boogie Woogie bass lines.  Although I can appreciate what listeners mean when they say “Reverse Boogie Woogie Bass,” I feel that this term could confuse some into thinking (without having listened to Blake’s recordings) that his bass lines had simply inverted the accents of swinging bass line.  However, his bass lines are NOT inversions of Boogie Woogie bass lines.  Specifically, rather than being located at position the non-downbeat note in swinging broken-octave bass lines, the grace notes of Blake’s broken octaves are much closer to the downbeat note that comes immediately after the grace note.  That, Blake’s temporal divisions of his broken octaves are far from the 2/3-1/3 temporal divisions that create a swing feel. 4.  Grace-Noted Broken Octave Bass with “Interactional Swing Pulse” - As in category 2, a swing pulse can be generated form the interaction between left and right hand parts.  The fact that the left-hand part is grace-noted results in it not competing as much with the Interactional Swing Pulse as in the case of the regularly-spaced oom-pahs of category 2. 5.  Swinging Broken Octave Bass (A.K.A. having “Intrinsic Swing Pulse”) - This type of bass line (first published by George W. Thomas, Jr. in his “New Orleans Hop Scop Blues” in 1916) of a TRUE Boogie Woogie bassline.  Later, such bass lines continued to mature in such pieces as Jimmy Blythe’s “Chicago Stomp” (See section on Jimmie Blythe.) History of Boogie Woogie 2009-01-08T04:47:33+00:00 http://boogiewoogie.com/index.php/history/26_-_another_early_sheet-music_publication_of_a_boogie_woogie_bass_figure/ http://boogiewoogie.com/index.php/history/26_-_another_early_sheet-music_publication_of_a_boogie_woogie_bass_figure/#When:03:15:44Z Another early sheet-music publication of a Boogie Woogie bass figure can be found in 1916 in George Thomas’s “New Orleans Hop Scop Blues.”  Paul Oliver has noted that George Thomas based his “New Orleans Hop Scop Blues” on music that he had heard being played in East Texas. Another early sheet-music publication of a Boogie Woogie bass figure can be found in 1916 in George Thomas’s “New Orleans Hop Scop Blues.”  Paul Oliver has noted that George Thomas based his “New Orleans Hop Scop Blues” on music that he had heard being played in East Texas.5 George W. Thomas, Jr. was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1883.  (According to one account, George Thomas, Jr. died in March of 1930.)  (I don’t know the place of his burial.)  George Thomas, Jr. was the older brother of sister Beulah Thomas (later known as Sippie Wallace) and younger brother Hersal Thomas.  The Thomas siblings often sang in the choir and played at the Shiloh Baptist Church.  Hociel Thomas was the daugther of George W. Thomas, Jr. George Thomas’s sister, Beulah Thomas (AKA Sippie Wallace), was born in 1898 in Houston.  Thus, the Thomas family had arrived in Houston no later than 1898.  Consequently, George Thomas, Jr. likely heard Boogie Woogie music on which he based his “Hop Scop Blues” during the migratory travels of the Thomas family from Little Rock Arkansas to Houston Texas, or possibly from a re-tracing of that pathway after having arrived in Houston.  Such a migratory pathway would have most likely taken the family through Texarkana and Marshall, Texas, the headquarters of the Texas & Pacific Railroad, which had the most dense African American population in Texas.  Moreover, not only did Marshall contain the repair shops for Texas & Pacific Locomotives, the Texas & Pacific Railroad also manufactured its own steam locomotives in Marshall, TX.  Thus, the ostinato, musical sound of the steam locomotives would have been prominent in Texarkana and Marshall .  However, Houston was also developing as the other early railroad hub in Texas. History of Boogie Woogie 2009-01-06T03:15:44+00:00