Mary Lou and Boogie Woogie Too

by Jessica Kennedy



“A fast, rolling bass, giving the piece an undercurrent of tremendous power."


These were the words said by African American historian E. Simms Cambell to describe the pulse and flow of boogie woogie music. Its soulful groove, full of chromatic runs, trills, and grace notes still thrills and makes bodies sway and feet tap. It’s been around since the dawn of jazz music, made popular and well loved by artists like Mary Lou Williams, and is ultimately swinging around people’s ears to this day. Who knew that it all started in shabbily fabricated barrelhouses?

Before boogie woogie music was branded into music history, strands of its elements started out as “barrelhouse piano.” This type of music sounded like rowdy, inebriated piano music, like you’d hear at a boisterous saloon. It was most often sung and played by turpentine workers, who were classified as nasty-tempered people who knew how to beat out good music while doing intense physical labor. A lot of the feel and texture to this type of music was inspired by the roaring locomotives that would thunder through the turpentine and lumber camps.

It was not until musician George Thomas reprinted and published “New Orleans Hop Scop Blues” in 1916 that the term “boogie woogie” became well known and well loved in America. From then on out, boogie woogie became commonly recognized by multiple different names and in various other music types, such as stride, swing, jazz, and rockabilly. No matter where it is found, boogie woogie music always has a rumbling bass line with bouncing and pulsing treble line at rapid or lackadaisical tempos.

Mary Lou Williams was an avid music prodigy, and has been described as “an important swing pianist, with a lightly rocking, legato manner based on subtly varied stride and boogie-woogie bass patterns.” Through her manipulation and personal twists of boogie woogie music along with other jazz genres, Williams has become one of the most significant female influences in American jazz. Her jazzy touches were even brought into the Catholic Church, where she composed multiple spirituals with a slight boogie woogie feel to them. She composed various blues/boogie woogie pieces for other musicians like Andy Kirk and Duke Ellington. All in all, Williams had touched jazz and boogie woogie music like no other composer had, and her influence still echoes today, especially through modern jazz groups, such as the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra. Through these bands and America’s memories of exceptional jazz, Williams’ music will last forever.







http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrLVBFjvwcI     - Mary Lou Williams performing "Hesitation Boogie"

References:

http://www.bowofo.org/

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-20715647.html

http://nonjohn.com/History%20of%20Boogie%20Woogie.htm

http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_williams_mary_lou.htm