BLP 1209

Albert Ammons/Pete Johnson - Boogie Woogie Classics

Released - 1983

Recording and Session Information

probably WMGM Radio Station, NYC, January 6, 1939
Albert Ammons, piano.

tk.5 (441-5) Boogie Woogie Stomp
tk.6 (GM535-6) Chicago In Mind
tk.7 (1007) Suitcase Blues
tk.8 (442-8) Boogie Woogie Blues

probably WMGM Radio Station, NYC, January 6, 1939
Albert Ammons, piano.

tk.14 (1014) Bass Goin' Crazy
Albert Ammons, Meade "Lux" Lewis, piano.

tk.17 (GM537-17) Two And Fews

Reeves Sound Studios, NYC, December 19, 1939
Pete Johnson, piano; Ulysses Livingston, guitar #1,2,4,5; Abe Bolar, bass #1,2,4,5.

RS653-1 Vine St. Bustle
RS655-3 Some Day Blues
RS658-6 Holler Stomp
RS659-7 Barrelhouse Breakdown
RS660-8 Kansas City Farewell
RS662-10 You Don't Know My Mind

Track Listing

Side One
Artist	Title	Author	Recording Date
Albert Ammons	Boogie Woogie Stomp	Ammons	January 6 1939
Albert Ammons	Boogie Woogie Blues	Ammons	January 6 1939
Albert Ammons	Bass Going Crazy	Ammons	January 6 1939
Albert Ammons And Meade Lux Lewis	Twos And Fews	Ammons-Lewis	January 6 1939
Albert Ammons	Chicago In Mind	Ammons	January 6 1939
Albert Ammons	Suitcase Blues	Hersal Thomas	January 6 1939
Side Two
Pete Johnson	Holler Stomp	Johnson	December 19 1939
Pete Johnson Kansas	City Farewell	Johnson	December 19 1939
Pete Johnson	Vine Street Bustle	Johnson	December 19 1939
Pete Johnson	Barrelhouse Breakdown	Johnson	December 19 1939
Pete Johnson	Some Day Blues	Johnson	December 19 1939
Pete Johnson	You Don't Know My Mind	Johnson	December 19 1939

Liner Notes

Boogie Woogie is perhaps the richest of all piano styles, at least when expounded by two masters like Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson. No other style permits such perfect equilibrium between left and right hand, building up to an irresistible rhythmic climax. This album features some of the highlights of Boogie Woogie, and even what I consider the greatest masterpiece of them all; Ammons' "Boogie Woogie Stomp". I would contend that it ranks among the all-time piano-master-pieces, all styles confounded, including Classical (I'm sure John-Sebastian Bach would have "shouted for joy" if could have heard it!). "Shout for Joy" is the title Albert Ammons gave to a similar number he had recorded the previous week.

Boogie Woogie came up around 1929 as a particular way of playing the Blues, characterised by a "rolling bass" eight notes to the bar. In that year, several hitherto unknown pianists like Pinetop Smith, Meade Lux Lewis, Cow Cow Davenport; Montana Taylor, Charlie Spand and Romeo Nelson recorded some stunning piano pieces for what was then called the "Race Series" (today, we'd say the Black market). * Being released in the midst of the Depression, the records were commercial flops. So much so that the discouraged artists gave up music altogether and tried to make a living by other means.

It took nearly ten years for record collector and promoter John Hammond (father of blues-singer John Hammond, Jr.) to locate Meade Lux Lewis, by then attendant in a gas station, and persuade him to join Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson to perform before New York audiences. An engagement at Café Society proved an overnight success, soon to be followed by a concert at Carnegie Hall and several record sessions (including those featured on this album). Ammons and Johnson also joined Lena Horne for a movie short titled "Boogie Woogie Dream", an impressive visual as well as aural testimony by the two great pianists.

But again, this new Boogie Wave somehow fizzled out: many less dedicated but commercially successful pianists added Boogie Woogie numbers to their repertoire, with the result that Boogie soon became synonymous with monotonous and repetitive. Ammons, Johnson and Lewis each went their own way and continued performing, but they soon drifted from the limelight.

The stylistic impact of Boogie Woogie however never quite faded out. Any pianist closely involved with the Blues likes to make use of the rolling basses of Boogie Woogie. Count Basie, Milt Buckner, Amos Milburn, Fats Domino, Memphis Slim are but a few of the names that come to mind. Each one in his own way has repeatedly proved his mastery of the idiom. There may not be many fully devoted disciples, but for one, France's Jean-Paul Amouroux more than holds his own.

The limitation of Boogie Woogie is of course its close ties with the harmonic structure of the Blues. Ammons first and later on Fats Domino extended the Boogie style to folk and jazz standards (Blueberry Hill, My Blue Heaven, etc.), but somehow pure Boogie style sounds best when applied to the Blues. Both Ammons and Johnson resented being tagged as pure Boogie pianists; pointing out that they could just as well play the traditional repertoire. Perhaps they overlooked that in the Boogie field they were really beyond competition.

Albert Ammons (1907-1949) was mostly active in the Chicago area (in 1928 he lived in the same boarding-house as Pinetop Smith and Meade Lux Lewis). He received his training from William Barbee, a pianist in the Earl Hines vein, and played in several jazz bands (including his own) before being discovered by John Hammond. His son, Gene Ammons, became one of the leading tenor sax stars of the post-war years. Albert Ammons final and impressive testimony on wax is a january-1949 session with Lionel Hampton's Orchestra, featuring a brillant version of Amos Milburn's "Chicken Shack Boogie".

Pete Johnson (1904-1967) was raised in an orphanage and started messing with the piano at the age of 22 and picking up gigs around Kansas City. This is where he teamed up with Big Joe Turner who in 1938 became the vocal adjunct to the famous Boogie Woogie Trio. Unlike Ammons who stayed mostly in Chicago, Pete Johnson traveled quite a bit (mostly in the company of Joe Turner) and has left us a wealth of records on various labels. In 1958 he came to Europe with Norman Grantz' Jazz At The Philharmonic, but already his health was giving him trouble. He finally settled in Buffalo where he suffered a fatal stroke in 1967.

KURT MOHR

• Jimmy Yancey, credited by most Boogie pianists as their main influence, had already dropped out of music by that time. He wasn't rediscovered until 1940, when he was finally given the chance to record a series of unforgettable piano solos.