Albert Ammons - Shout For Joy (1938)

Albert Ammons (Sept.23,1907 - Dec.2,1949) was an American pianist.
He was the king of boogie-woogie, a bluesy jazz style that swept the United States from the late 1930s into the mid 1940s.

Born Albert C. Ammons in Chicago, Illinois, his parents were pianists, and he had learned to play by the age of ten. He also played percussion in the drum and bugle corps as a teenager, and was soon performing with bands on the Chicago club scene.

After World War I, he became interested in the blues, and learned by listening to Chicago pianists Hersal Thomas and the brothers Jimmy Yancey and Alonzo Yancey.

Ammons started his own band at the Club De Lisa in 1934, and remained at the club for the next two years. During that time he played with a five piece unit that included Guy Kelly, Dalbert Bright, Jimmy Hoskins, and Israel Crosby. Ammons also recorded as Albert Ammons's Rhythm Kings for Decca Records in 1936.

The Rhythm Kings' version of "Swanee River Boogie" would sell a million copies. Despite this success, he moved from Chicago to New York, where he teamed up with another pianist, Pete Johnson. The two performed regularly at the Café Society, and were occasionally joined by Meade Lux Lewis, and performed with other noted jazz artists such as Benny Goodman and Harry James.

In 1938, Ammons appeared at Carnegie Hall with Johnson and Lewis, an event that helped launch the boogie-woogie craze. Record producer Alfred Lion attended John H. Hammond's From Spirituals to Swing concert of December 23, 1938, which had introduced Ammons and Lewis. Two weeks later, he started the Blue Note Records by recording nine Ammons solos, eight by Lewis, and a pair of duets, a one-day session in a rented studio. Recorded as a sideman with Sippie Wallace in the 1940s, Ammons even cut a session with his son, the tenor saxophonist, Gene Ammons.

Ammons played himself in the movie, Boogie-Woogie Dream (1944), with Lena Horne, and Pete Johnson. Although the boogie-woogie fad began to die down in 1945, following World War II, Ammons had no difficulty securing work. He continued to tour as a solo artist during this time, and between 1946 and 1949 recorded for Mercury Records, his last sides, with bassist Israel Crosby.

Ammons's last triumph came when he played at President Harry S. Truman's inauguration in 1949, the same year as his own death.

Ammons died in February 1949 in Chicago. He was interred at the Lincoln Cemetery, at Kedzie Avenue in Blue Island, Worth Township, Cook County, Illinois.


Albert Ammons - Shout For Joy (1938)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Albert
• Ammons
• 1938
• 30's
• 40's
• boogie-woogie

[widdyhabb]

Boogie-Woogie forever!

[pugmire1]

Thanks for posting this. The great Albert Ammons in all his majestic glory. That driving left hand is the best there ever was. The guy could have lifted a piano with one hand.

Now can someone post the greatest piano blues number ever recorded: Albert's 'Chicago On My Mind'?

[stevepipkin]

Fats Domino said one morning he woke up and he was a Rock and Roll celebrity, but still playing the same music as the night before.

[hyzercreek]

@freakyhead20 Chuck Berry didn't. He said "You can call it rock or rhythm or even puck, it's all just boogie woogie as far as I'm connected to it." That's not an exact quote it's only from memory. He said it in his autobiography. But Chuck Berry said he played boogie woogie, that's good enough for me.

[freakyhead20]

@hyzercreek I see a difference in rock n roll and boogie woogie...sorry I disagree its not the same

[hyzercreek]

@DaviTrombela84 You are correct. There is no difference.

[DaviTrombela84]

I still don't get the significant difference betwen boogie woogie and the 50's rock'n roll. I am sorry if I am just being ignorant, but to me, Little Richard is pretty much doing this same style, with vocals, and Chuck Berry is basically doing a guitar version of the same thing.

[John55son]

Just spent 45 minutes tooling through A. Ammons, Meade, Pine Top Smith, Pete Johnson, Doctor John. In my next life, I want to come back as a boogie woogie piano player of the first water. Outrageous!

[taza55]

marvelous, many thanks

[05Toamasina1938]

Albert CLARENCE AMMONS

read the book by Christopher I. Page