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BOOGIE WOOGIE !!

       Originally called Barrelhouse. Boogie Woogie was more of a Piano musical style (C,G,A,G) than a dance with Pinetop Smith writing the first official Boogie Woogie song in 1928. However, there were main parts of the music style as far back as 1900.

   If there is such a dance, it is known as swing dancing (any style) usually called "Jump Swing" done to faster Blues or Boogie-Woogie music, hence the term "Let's Boogie" (Move Out, Go, Get it in Gear) as well as the term "boogie" meaning: let loose, don't hold back, get down etc. Boogie Woogie Music is not always fast however and can be danced to this slower form, usually among the West Coast Swing Dancers.

   'Eight to the Bar' is basically a double boogie Woogie, these Piano Keys ARE HIT TWICE, such as (Cx2,Gx2,Ax2,Gx2).

Country Boogie basically are the piano keys: C,G,E,G (can be done eight to the bar also) a shuffle rhythm can also be applied.

    In 1938 The Cotton Club Revue featured Cab Calloway and the Whitey's Lindy Hoppers. Cab sang and the Hoppers danced to the song "A Lesson In Jive" and it is said the Boogie-Woogie dance formed from this. Not all Boogie Woogie is fast however, some Boogie-Woogie beats have an excellent feel for slower swing music with a BOOGIE WOOGIE beat. West Coast Swing, Hollywood style and Jitterbug were all Boogie Woogie dances when the music became fast. Movements would sometimes consist of Jumps, Stomps, Flying Feet, Hops etc. The movements are not sloppy but tight and clean considering the speed at times. The boogie Woogie has a definite distinctive 8 beat rhythm that makes you want to swing.

    Rockabilly style was a fusion of Blues and Boogie Woogie by white singers or musicians such as Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis etc.

     Today the Europeans have a dance they call 'Boogie Woogie' , It is in the Le Roc / Ceroc / Jive family of swing dances (It is not Lindy Hop!.) It works on the East Coast Swing / Jive basic of 1-2-3a4-5a6. There are two styles:
1) Floorwork (no aerials)
2) Acrobatic (Gymnastic-Lifts etc.) [This style will probably eventually be the dancesport usage in the Olympics].

Birth Place

Creation Date

Creator

Dance Type

New Orleans

c.1910

George W. Thomas

Swing

Sheet Music Covers

Music Titles

1912 - That Syncopated Boogie Boo

1911 - New Orleans Hop Scop Blues (Thomas)

The Shine Boogie

1927 - Honky Tonk Train Blues (Lewis)

1949 - Be Bop Boogie

1928 - Pinetop's Boogie Woogie

1941 - Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Co. B.

1953 - Boogie Woogie Maxixe

Various Posters

1990s - Boogie and Beethoven

Boarding House Blues

1940 - Boogie Woogie on St. Louis Blues

Buck and Bubbles

Bumble Bee Boogie

Dirtie Gertie from Harlem USA

1940s - Cow Cow Boogie

Follow The Boys

Jump, Jive and Wail

House Rent Party

Minuet Boogie (Pete Johnson)

Juke Joint

Pitch a Boogie Woogie

Royal Crown Revue

$ Boogie Woogie Trio I (CD)

Swingers

Swing Kids

Beware - Louis Jordan

Night Clubs

Theaters

Locations

All Swing Nightclubs/ Ballrooms

1938 - Carnegie Hall

n/a

Cotton Club

Palomar Ballroom

Savoy Ballroom

Films (*Music only / no dancing)

Television

Ballets / Stage

1936 - Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (Film Short)

1989 - Black and Blue

1942 - Boogie Woogie Dream*

1942 - Cow Cow Boogie* (Dandridge)

1942 - Spirit Of Boogie-Woogie

$1944 - Pin Up Girl

1945 - Scotch Boogie

Publications

1945 - T.G. Boogie Woogie

n/a

1947 - No More Mr. Ghost (Cecil Grant)

1947 - Queen Of The Boogie

1948 - Boogie Woogie Blues*

$1948 - Melody Time (Animated)

1948 - Pitch a Boogie Woogie

Groovie Movie

$1967 -Jungle Book

$1979 - Roller Boogie (Disco Skate)

$1997 - Boogie Nights (Disco)

1930-39 - 20th Century News Reel (32:10)

Other Related Dances of the time...

Bug

East Coast Swing

Jump Swing

Push

Carolina Shag

Flying Lindy

Lindy (Hop)

Rock and Roll

Ceroc / Leroc

Jitterbug

Mess Around

The Slop

Double Shuffle Speed Swing 

Jive

New Yorker

West Coast Swing

Dancers, Choreographers etc.

Political

Books, Magazine Articles on the dance...

Title

Author

Date Published

Publisher

Encyclopedia Of Jazz

Feather, Leonard

1955

Horizon Press

Musicians

Singers

Poets / Writers

$ Albert Ammons (1907-1949)

Andrew Sisters

$ Clarence Williams (1893-1965)

$ Count Basie (1904-1984)

$ Cow Cow Davenport (1894-1955)

$ Fats Waller (1904-1943)

George W. Thomas (c.1910)

$ Jimmy E. Yancey (1898-1951)

$ Louis Jordan (1908-1975)

$ Louis Prima (1911-1978)

$ Meade Lux Lewis (c.1927)

$ Pete Johnson (1904-1967)

Clarence 'Pinetop' Smith (1904-1929)

Misc. Research Words that may be related ... to help your searches

8 to the bar

Blue Note

Honky-tonk

Rockabilly

12 Bar Blues

Cathouse

Hop

Shine

45's rpm records

Double Boogie

Juke Joint

Stomp

American Bandstand

Field Hollers

Jump Blues

Stride Piano

Barrelhouse

Gin Mills

Rent-Party

Western Swing

Other...

Some Lyrics from a popular Boogie Woogie Big Band Song (Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B)

He was a famous trumpet man from old Chicago wayyyyyyy!,
He had a boogie style that no one else could play,
He was the top man at- his- craft,
But then his number came up and he was gone with the draft,
He's in the army now, a-blowin' reveille,
He's the boogie-woogie bugle boy of Company B............

They made him blow a bugle for his Uncle Sammmmm,
It really brought him down, because he couldn't jam,
The Captain seemed to understand,
Because the next day the Cap' went out and drafted a band,
And now the company jumps ... ... when he plays reveille,
He's the boogie-woogie bugle boy of Company B..............