boogie-woogie
A driving piano style built on repetitive left-hand bass patterns, originating in African American communities.
In Depth
Boogie-woogie uses rolling, repetitive left-hand bass figures, typically eighth notes in a shuffle rhythm, over twelve-bar blues progressions. The right hand plays riffs, trills, and melodic improvisations. The style emerged in the 1870s among African American pianists in lumber and railroad camps. Boogie-woogie experienced a massive craze in the late 1930s and directly influenced rock and roll piano playing through artists like Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis.
The boogie-woogie craze of 1938-1939 was so intense that Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, and Meade Lux Lewis played a historic concert at Carnegie Hall that sold out in hours.