I enjoy all kinds of music: classical, swing, country-western, folk, blues – I even like Scottish bagpipes. But the music I like best is boogie-woogie. You can read about the historical and technical context of the art form here, or you can just dive right in and listen.
The first video shows a performance from 1944 by two of the giants of boogie-woogie, Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons (note, particularly, the close-up of Ammons; every muscle in his face seems to be keeping time). The intro, by the way, is provided by Lena Horne.
The second video represents a reprise of the duo’s style a few decades later by Dr. John and Jools Holland (even down to the formal attire).
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Nice.
ReplyDeleteYou know how in Slaughterhouse V the Tralfamadorians see people as 'time-worms', fetus one end, elderly the other? I'm a bit like that - when you say boogie-woogie I think 'and that leads to Thelonius Monk'. Would you agree that Monk took B/W a step further? Not that is necessarily a good thing, but he hit the mark sometimes - Round About Midnight:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMmeNsmQaFw
Guess I'll always be a Beatnik.
Made my feet happy :-)
ReplyDeleteAs Alaska has been in the news the past week, time to talk of Canada.
Palin forced through a gas pipeline from Alaska to the Rest Of America, except Hawaii) that passes through Canada. OK That's trivial but did you and your readers know, Paco, that we, too, will be having a federal election. It starts on Sunday and we go to the polls on October 14th.
Actually, it's likely to be a feral election. The honest, but minority, Conservative government has thrown its hands up in frustration at being able to achieve much more; also it wants to push the Liberal party to the wall and crush it's measely body into pulp.
Er, sorry, got carried away.
The inept Liberal party opposition leader, Stephane Dion, has constantly bragged they will bring the government down and always ran away when the vote was called. However, as the four opposition parties dominate the parliamntary committees, they keep sinking conervative legislation.
So, why do I say it will become feral? Well, the inept Dijon, who can barely speak Inglish has announced a "Green Shift" plan, ostensibly to fight global warming and, to use an Obamarism, to lower the oceans. It is nothing more than a shift of honest to goodness green money from your wallet to the government coffers. Hey, I know, lets run an election on a huge tax increase.
Clearly, it will not fly; so the Liberal party, which is virtualy bankrupt, will resort to the tried and true technique of accusing Conservative Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, of being scary and having a hidden agenda.
The Liberal party consider itself the Natural Ruling Party of Canada. They just cannot understand that they are not currently, like, you know, ruling. Dijon's leadership was a mistake and half the party wants Dijon to lose so they can get a new leader.
To be continued ...
Bruce: Thelonius Monk was great!
ReplyDeleteWimpy: Interesting stuff, Wimpy. Do, indeed, keep us up to speed.
I wish you well in your election, Wimpy. Here in Aust it's hard to imagine just how difficult Canadian politics must be, with such linguistic and cultural divisions. I guess various groups are more easily distinguished and predictable. Here in Aust everyone talks like a conservative but often votes like a lefty, the only real electorally significant division here is gender.
ReplyDeleteGood stuff, paco!
ReplyDelete