Brian Less: Honkey Cat

Got this from the Twitter.  Brian plays piano for Taylor Hicks.  This is a nice Honky Tonk version of the Elton John original. 

Pinetop Perkins RIP

Sad news, the great Pinetop Perkins has died.  Pinetop was one of the last of the Chicago Boogie Woogie piano players.  Below is an obit from Bob Corritore, but I did want to add one story of my own.  I was lucky to have met Pinetop one snowy night in Des Moines Iowa.   Pinetop was headlining a show at Connie's Lounge with the Soul Searchers.  Pinetop was late due to the storm, so I was fortunate enough to get a chance to play with the Soul Searchers while we waited for him to arrive.  Once he was got to the bar I was able to sit down next to him and talk awhile.  He was an amazingly nice old man, (probably in his late 70s then) and he complimented my piano playing, which he was probably just being nice, but it really meant a lot to me back then!  When Pinetop finally got warmed up he got up to the piano and blew the doors off the place.  That was the first time that I realized that bluemen only get better with age.  Unlike popular music, where you are washed up once past 30.  You are only getting started in the  blues when you hit 50.  The blues unlike any other medium honors its elder blues players with a reverence like no other.  Certainly older players get recognition in Jazz, and Country, but the blues still see you as a vital contributor to the music.  God bless you Pinetop and may you, Otis, Sunnyland, Memphis Slim, and Lafayette jam away for all eternity.

From Bob Corritore

March 21, 2011

• RIP Pinetop Perkins July 7, 1915 to March 21, 2011. Nobody can live forever, but for a period of time in his long life of 97 years, the legendary Pinetop Perkins made us think it was possible. It is with tears that we say goodbye to one of the most loved and highly respected blues musicians of our time. Pinetop Perkins died today of heart failure at his home in Austin, Texas. We know that Pinetop led a rich and happy life, and that he understood the simple pleasures, which he enjoyed everyday. Pinetop Perkins was born in Belzoni, Mississippi. He began his career as a guitarist, but then injured the tendons in his left arm in a fight with a choir-girl in Helena, Arkansas. Unable to play guitar, Pinetop switched to the piano. He got his moniker from playing the popular "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie", a 1928 hit by pianist Pinetop Smith.Pinetop accompanied Sonny Boy Williamson II on the Helena based radio program King Biscuit Time on KFFA. He worked with Robert Nighthawk, accompanying him on the 1950 Aristocrat recording of "Jackson Town Gal". In the 1950s, Perkins joined Earl Hooker's band and began touring, stopping to record "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" at Sam Phillips' studio in Memphis, Tennessee. Pinetop was a major influence on the young Ike Turner, whom he taught piano. Pinetop joined the Muddy Waters Band in 1969, replacingOtis Spann, and playing in the band for over a decade. It is from his time with Muddy that Pinetop became a well known name in the blues. Pinetop would leave Muddy's band with other band members to form The Legendary Blues Band before restarting his solo career. Along the way, Pinetop was helped by the confident direction provided by manager Patricia Morgan, who was a tireless and diplomatic advocate. Pinetop won three Grammy Awards, and so many Handy Awards that he gracefully took himself out of the running by changing the piano category award to his namesake. Though he rose to the highest of stature, Pinetop was always very accessible and appeared on numerous albums, and projects. He remained active, healthy and happy until the end, even with a daily habit of cigarettes, and McDonald's (double mac with cheese, medium sprite, and an apple pie). He spent his 97th birthday flying to Spain to play a blues festival, and this year he won his third Grammy for "Best Traditional Blues album" for Joined At The Hip, his collaboration with Willie "Big Eyes" Smith on the Telarc label. We should also mention Barry Nowlin,Michael Freeman, Bob Margolin, Hugh Southard of Blue Mountain Artists, Onnie Heaney, Little Frank Krakowski, Bob Stroger, Diunna Greenleaf, and Pete Carlson for their support roles in Pinetop's life. We will miss Pinetop's distinctive voice and his elegant, interactive piano style. He has touched all of us with his charm, his talent, and his loving approach to life. Though we hate to say goodbye, we have to be thankful for the great joy that he brought us. God bless you Pinetop. To see some great photos of Pinetop Perkins click here, and here
  
  UPDATE FROM BOB CORRITORE
  
  
  
  

  Pinetop Perkins obit correction and funeral information. Please note that in our Pinetop Perkins obituary we listed the wrong birth year. Pinetop was born in 1913, not 1915 as we mistakenly stated. Pinetop's funeral information is as follows:

   

  Visitation
  Sunday, March 27, 2011 - 3:00pm - 5:00pm
  Cook-Walden Funeral Home
  6100 North Lamar Blvd., Austin, Texas 78752
  512-454-5611
  
  Funeral Service
  Monday, March 28, 2011 -  5:00pm
  Colonial Chapel of Cook-Walden Funeral Home
  6100 North Lamar Blvd., Austin, Texas 78752
  512-454-5611

  Celebration of LifeMonday, March 28, 2011 - 8:00PM
  Antone's Blues Club
  213 W 5th St
  Austin, TX  78701

   

  Burial services will be on Saturday, April 2, 2011 in Clarksdale, MS.
  Details are still being finalized.

Mitch Woods: Shake Rattle And Roll

I was watching my new digital cable TV, and on the blues channel I heard Mitch woods. It was cool, because I had forgotten about Mitch. I saw Mitch years, and years ago at Connie's Lounge in Des Moines, back when both me and Mitch were younger and skinner:-) I remember that night well. Mitch tore it up that night. I thought that I could boogie before I saw Mitch, after I saw Mitch, I went back home and started practicing all over again! I did give Mitch a cassette of my music, and he was cool to take it, whether he listened to it or not, I'll never know, but I have always appreciated the time he spent with me talking about piano playing.

Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, And Fats Domino: Piano Jam

Paul Shaffer tries to direct traffic with three of the best piano players in Rock and Roll history, Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Fats Domnio, with Ron Wood on guitar. I think Steve Jordan is playing the drums. Shaffer certainly had his work cut out for him trying to keep three great piano players jamming at the same time without walking on top of each other! YIKES! Pretty awesome stuff.

Daniel Paterock: Super Haste

A very good boogie piano player by the name of Daniel Paterock. This is rocking!

Meade Lux Lewis: Honky Tonk Train

One of my favorite piano players, and an infuence on all of us who like to play boogie Piano! Mr. Meade Lux Lewis!

Honky Tonk Train - Maede Lux Lewis
Uploaded by boberwig

Champion Jack Dupree: PInetops Boogie

Great Boogie Woogie Piano by Champion Jack Dupree.

Champion Jack Dupree - Pinetop's Boogie Woogie
Uploaded by Delta_Mike

Jason Williams: It Ill Be Me

Jason D Williams, the alleged illigitmate son of Jerry Lee Lewis. You must admit they piano a lot alike, and they sing and talk a lot a like. I met him over 10 years ago. during about a 2 year period I opened up for him at least 5 times. Needless to say I never let him touch my keyboard, because dude could really destroy a piano:-)

Jason D. Williams - It Ill Be Me
Uploaded by rockinbart

Chase Garret Update!

Iowa's own young phenom on the piano Chase Garret is performing at the Ark in Ann Arbor Michigan on April 4th and 5th. He is also scheduled to perform at the 11th annual Blues and Boogies Woogie Summit in New Port Kentucky in November. This kid is the real deal, and I should know! I can Boogie, but this kid smokes me! I bow to his greatness:-) Check him out on this great youtube video I found of him playing Honey Dripper.

Artist Of The Week: Pinetop Perkins

Pinetop Perkins is one of the last of the Muddy Waters band still performing. Perkins has made a name of his own over the last 30 years. One of the nicest people you will ever meet. I had the opportunity to sit in with the Soul Searchers when they opened for Pinetop many years ago in Des Moines. It was a great opportunity to talk to the master and to watch his hands as he played. To watch the videos look for the Youtube videos located on the left side of the blog.

Pinetop Perkins: Wee Wee Hours

Here is a better video of Daryl Davis warming up the ivories for Pinetop Perkins. Although the video says that Pinetop was late, I know from the experience of opening up for him, that he likes take his time getting up on stage to play. When you are 90 years old you can pretty much do whatever you want!!:-) When Pinetop was a spry 80 year old I had the pleasure of sitting in with the Soul Searchers while we waited for Pinetop to take my place. Pinetop sat in the audience for a couple of songs and after each one I looked at him and pointed to the piano, and he just smiled and pointed back! Finally after the third song he finally got up and strode to the piano and then lit into a boogie woogie that rocked the house!!!

Daryl Davis: Beat Me Daddy 8 To The Bar

This is not the greatest video, but Daryl Davis is one of the best Boogie Woogie piano players around. Furthermore this guy has done more to make the world a better place through music than any other person I know. Check out his website HERE.

Martha Davis: Martha's Boogie

Martha Davis was One of the most underrated blues pianists, and without a doubt little known among the public(at least the current blues fans). This lady could play the blues! She probably has one of the fastest right hands I have heard! Also she was hilarious. In this clip she plays it straight, but on other videos of hers, I have seen she does a comedy routine while playing!! This is great stuff! CHECK IT OUT!!!

Martha Davis - Martha's Boogie
Uploaded by nighttripper

More On Blues And Boogie In Detroit.

An interesting interview with the founder of the Motor City Blues and Boogie Woogie Festival. American Music Research Foundation president Ron Harwood talks about Boogie Woogie. Its difference from the blues, and the rise and fall of the art form. It is interesting to read, and I realize that I need to study the topic a little more, since I assumed that Boogie Woogie was part of blues. Harwood, an ethnomusicologist, states that:

Boogie-woogie, first recorded in the 1920s, was a progenitor of rock 'n' roll and eventually was surpassed by the popular musical form. "People stopped calling it boogie-woogie in the late '40s and early '50s because it sort of had gone past its prime, and the eight-to-the-bar rhythm was changing from a piano left hand to an electric bass," says Harwood. "In the mid-'40s after the war, blacks came back from the war, and some of the newer forms of jazz were beginning, and jazz became a black intellectual music. And when that happened it became taboo for black artists to play boogie-woogie. It died very quickly.

"Boogie is meaningful to me because we needed to get guys like Sugar Chile Robinson interviewed. Because it became such a taboo music, a lot of these boogie players just retired, or went to playing lounge music. A lot of them toured in vaudeville. They backed up blues musicians like Muddy Waters. Pinetop Perkins was Muddy's piano player and he was essentially a boogie player.

"So we're just trying to catch these boogie guys, pay justice to that music, understand that it was the foundation of rock 'n' roll."

To read the article in total from the Detroit Free Press, Click HERE.

Marcia Ball: Play With Your Poodle

Marcia Ball can really boogie woogie! This is a jumping song!!

Chase Garrett - Cincinnati Boogie

This is an Iowa kid who knows how to boogie! I really like the kids chops! He also has a great bass player, Nick Lloyd. I remember Nick when he was playing solo delta guitar at my jam at the Raccoon River Brewery. Way to go guys! You do Iowa proud!!

Rob Rio: Rocket 88

Some nice boogie woogie piano playing from Rob Rio.

Amos Milburn: Down The Road A Piece

Found another Amos Milburn video. This one is a nice boogie woogie piano song.

Artist Of The Week: Otis Spann

Artist of the week is the great Otis Spann. Otis influenced my piano playing more than any other bluesman. His strong left hand, and speedy right hand make him one of the greats. Furthermore, he could play more than boogie. He played most of his career with Muddy Waters, and was Muddy's first call piano player. Otis also recorded a few albums on his own. perhaps the most famous was recorded in England with Muddy's band backing him up, and a guest appearance by a very young Eric Clapton. Otis died young he was 40 years old when he died of Liver failure in 1970. The videos are on the Google video bar located on the side of the blog. Sometimes the videos vary, but right now at least the first three are Otis.

Otis Spann: The Blues Don't Love Anyone

Otis Spann with Willie Dixon and SP Leary. The master of Chicago Boogie Woogie piano!