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Wednesday 6 February 2013

Boogie-Woogie

Boogie-woogie is an African American style of piano-based blues that became popular in the late 1930s and early 1940s.


Boogie Woogie piano playing originated in the lumber and turpentine camps of Texas and in the sporting houses of that state in the early 1870s. Additional citations place the origins of boogie-woogie in the Piney Woods of northeast Texas.

It wasn't called the 'Boogie Woogie' then. George W Thomas was the fellow who used this style and first wrote it down. 

The word 'Boogie' already existed as a slang word for a party. 'Woogie' was then added as a rhyming element.

"New Orleans Hop Scop Blues", published in 1916, is claimed to be the first twelve-bar blues to be written with a boogie-woogie bass line.


The first time the modern-day spelling of "boogie-woogie" was used in a title of a published audio recording of music appears to be Pine Top Smith's December 1928 recording titled, "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie", a song whose lyrics contain dance instructions to "boogie-woogie."

The boogie-woogie fad lasted from the late 1930s into the early 1950s, and made a major contribution to the development of jump blues and ultimately to rock and roll, epitomized by Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Boogie woogie progressions are exactly the same as rock n roll progressions. It is the I-IV-V chord progression that is played at a fast pace.

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