Chapter  2: Genres and styles

American culture in northeast Texas that played a vital role in creating boogie-woogie music.

     Amongst the many pianists who have been exponents of this genre, there are only a few who have had a lasting influence on the music scene. Perhaps the most well known boogie-woogie pianist is Albert Ammons. His "Boogie Woogie Stomp" released in 1936 was a pivotal recording, not just for boogie-woogie but for music. Some of the flattened sevenths in the right hand riffs are similar to licks used by early rock and roll guitarists.

     In 1939 country artists began playing boogie-woogie when Johnny Barfield recorded "Boogie Woogie". "Cow Cow Boogie" was written for, but not used in, the 1942 movie "Ride 'em Cowboy". This song by Benny Carter, Gene DePaul, and Don Raye successfully combined boogie-woogie and Western, or cowboy music. The lyrics leave no doubt that it was a Western boogie-woogie. It sold over a million records in its original release by Ella Mae Morse and Freddie Slack, and has now been recorded many times.

Chicago Blues

     The Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois, by taking the basic acoustic guitar and harmonica-based Delta blues, making the harmonica louder with a microphone and an instrument amplifier, and adding electrically amplified guitar, amplified bass guitar, drums, piano and sometimes saxophone and trumpet. The music developed in the first half of the twentieth century as a result of the Great Migration (African American), when Black workers moved from the South into the industrial cities of the North such as Chicago.

     Originally, the Chicago blues was street corner-based music. But after the music quickly gained popularity, it became a giant commercial enterprise. Soon the new style of music reached out and touched Europe, which led many famous English rock n' roll bands to get their inspiration from the Chicago blues.

At first, the blues clubs in Chicago were filled with black performers, and the music itself was aimed for black audiences. Most of the blues clubs were on the far south side of Chicago, so white people did not visit them. Later, however, more and more white audiences visited the clubs and listened to the music. This caused clubs to open up on the north side. In addition, more white men started playing the blues after it became popular.

     Chicago blues has a more extended palette of notes than the standard six-note blues scale; often, notes from the major scale and dominant 9th chords are added, which gives the music a more of a "jazz feel" while remaining in the confines of the blues genre. Chicago blues is also known for its heavy rolling bass.