Boogie Woogie Red (October 18, 1925 – July 2, 1992)
was an American
Detroit blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afric ...
,
boogie-woogie
Boogie-woogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, developed in African-American communities since 1870s.Paul, Elliot, ''That Crazy American Music'' (1957), Chapter 10, p. 229. It was eventually extended from pia ...
and
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...
pianist, singer and songwriter.
At different times he worked with
Sonny Boy Williamson I
John Lee Curtis "Sonny Boy" Williamson (March 30, 1914 – June 1, 1948) was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter. He is often regarded as the pioneer of the blues harp as a solo instrument. He played on hundreds of re ...
,
Washboard Willie
William Paden Hensley (July 24, 1906 or 1909 – August 24, 1991), known as Washboard Willie, was an American Detroit blues musician, who specialised in playing the washboard. He recorded tracks including "A Fool on a Mule in the Middle of The ...
,
Baby Boy Warren
Baby Boy Warren (August 13, 1919 – July 1, 1977) was an American blues singer and guitarist who was a leading figure on the Detroit blues scene in the 1950s.
Early life
He was born Robert Henry Warren in Lake Providence, Louisiana, in 1919, a ...
,
Lonnie Johnson,
Tampa Red
Hudson Whittaker (born Hudson Woodbridge; January 8, 1903March 19, 1981), known as Tampa Red, was a Chicago blues musician.
His distinctive single-string slide guitar style, songwriting and bottleneck technique influenced other Chicago blues g ...
,
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often ...
and
Memphis Slim
John Len Chatman (September 3, 1915 – February 24, 1988), known professionally as Memphis Slim, was an American blues pianist, singer, and composer. He led a series of bands that, reflecting the popular appeal of jump blues, included saxoph ...
.
Biography
He was born Vernon Harrison in
Rayville, Louisiana
Rayville is a town in and the parish seat of Richland Parish in northeastern Louisiana, United States. The population, which is 69 percent African American, was 4,234 at the 2000 census, but it had declined by nearly 13 percent in 2010 to 3,695.
...
,
and moved to
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
in 1927.
In his adolescence, he began performing in local clubs and worked alongside
Sonny Boy Williamson I
John Lee Curtis "Sonny Boy" Williamson (March 30, 1914 – June 1, 1948) was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter. He is often regarded as the pioneer of the blues harp as a solo instrument. He played on hundreds of re ...
,
Baby Boy Warren
Baby Boy Warren (August 13, 1919 – July 1, 1977) was an American blues singer and guitarist who was a leading figure on the Detroit blues scene in the 1950s.
Early life
He was born Robert Henry Warren in Lake Providence, Louisiana, in 1919, a ...
and
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often ...
.
In the mid-1970s, Boogie Woogie Red played solo piano at the Blind Pig, a small bar in
Ann Arbor, Michigan. He recorded his own albums in 1974 and 1977 and toured Europe in that decade.
Red appeared on
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced t ...
's ''
Old Grey Whistle Test
''The Old Grey Whistle Test'' (sometimes abbreviated to ''Whistle Test'' or ''OGWT'') is a British television music show. The show was devised by BBC producer Rowan Ayers, commissioned by David Attenborough and aired on BBC2 from 1971 to 1988. ...
'' in May 1973.
He died in July 1992, at the age of 66, in Detroit.
Discography
*''Live at the Blind Pig'' (1974),
Blind Pig Records
Blind Pig Records is an American blues independent record label.
Blind Pig was formed in 1977 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, by Jerry Del Giudice, owner of the Blind Pig Cafe, and his friend Edward Chmelewski. The label is now based in San Francisco. ...
*''Red Hot'' (1977), Blind Pig Records
See also
*
List of boogie woogie musicians
Boogie woogie musicians are those artists who are primarily recognized as writing, performing, and recording boogie woogie music.
A
*Rob Agerbeek (born 1937), Indonesian-born Dutch boogie-woogie and early jazz pianist
* Dave Alexander (1938-20 ...
*
List of Detroit blues musicians
References
External links
Mini biography and photograph at Blindpigrecords.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Red, Boogie Woogie
1925 births
1992 deaths
American blues pianists
American male pianists
American blues singers
American jazz pianists
Songwriters from Louisiana
Boogie-woogie pianists
Detroit blues musicians
20th-century American singers
Blues musicians from Louisiana
20th-century American pianists
Singers from Louisiana
People from Rayville, Louisiana
Jazz musicians from Louisiana
20th-century American male singers
American male jazz musicians
Blind Pig Records artists
American male songwriters