Lakeport >> In logging camps workers had to find music they could hear over the surrounding racket, so they turned to the loudest instrument they could find: the piano. It was played where everyone gathered to dance and have a good time. “Boogie woogie was a loud style of music,” explained musician Wendy DeWitt, one of the Queens of Boogie Woogie, a group performing at the Soper Reese Theatre in Lakeport tomorrow night. “So the piano was the original instrument that really had a big voice and a big presence.”
Then in the 40s the music hit it big, dominating American popular music, especially during the war years. “It just took off,” DeWitt said. “It was just the beginning of the insanity … All of the big bands started doing boogie woogie songs because it was so huge. There were boogie woogie schools all over the country. It was crazy.”
Boogie woogie music is created through the contrasting sounds made by the even left hand and the syncopated right. “While the left hand is keeping a very steady to the bar beat, the right hand is playing rhythms like crazy,” DeWitt explained, pausing to demonstrate, pounding out a smooth rhythm with her left hand, then switching to play a varying tune with her right.
In addition to it’s overwhelming decibel level, the genre is highly energetic and entertaining. “Boogie woogy is typically more on the upside,” DeWitt said. “If you slow it down you get blues.”
Many different genres are connected to the music. Elements of rock and roll, blues and even rap can be traced back to the popular 1940s music. “And because it’s an improvisational music, it’s also tied in with jazz,” added DeWitt. “Even the music today, so much of it is based on the roots of boogie woogie.”
Over time, the music faded from the forefront of popular culture. But for the past 15 years, the Queens of Boogie Woogie have been making sure people know the genre is still alive and kicking. “Part of the mission is to also just spread the word of boogie woogie,” DeWitt said. “It’s out there and there’s a lot of people playing it and it’s a really entertaining, energetic, fun grooving show.”
Along with DeWitt the other members are Deanna Bogart, Lady Bianca and Sue Palmer, but sometimes the musician line up changes. “It’s a revolving cast. There’s always four of us. There’s a group that we always pick the four from,” said DeWitt. “It’s almost more of a concept than an act but it’s to highlight women who play boogie woogie piano and there aren’t very many of us.”
DeWitt had the idea for the Queens of Boggie Woggie when she came across a story about Sue Palmer in Keyboard Magazine. “I thought, ‘You know, I want to meet her. I don’t know any other women who play boogie woogie,’” DeWitt recalled. The two players came together, and the Queens were born.
DeWitt’s love of boogie woogie began when she was a young girl, living across the street from a bar where musicians regularly performed. Her father’s friend, Tommy Thompson, a guitarist in the Western Swing Hall of Fame, turned her onto the genre when she was 10. “I lived in the apartment … across the street from a bar where Tommy played the piano and I would sit on the balcony and listen.”
She was attracted to the beat of the music. “You can do anything with the rhythm in boogie woogie,” DeWitt explained. “It just looked like so much fun. I said, ‘Tom teach me how to do that. I want to learn how to play boogie woogie.’”
Each of the musicians performing Friday is successful in their own right. DeWitt has toured with Hank Ballard and was an International Blues Challenge finalist. Sue Palmer, an original member of the group, was given the Key to the City of San Diego and won an award for best independently produced album. Lady Bianca, on her third year with the Queens, toured all over the world with the likes of Frank Zappa and Smokey Robinson. Deanna Bogart, back with the group for the second time, has won three consecutive Blues Music Awards. With the four musicians coming together, the show is one not to be missed.
During the show, each artist will perform a solo, followed by a duo section. Then it will end with all four musicians playing at the same time. It sounds chaotic, but DeWitt said it “makes sense.”
Though the show is based in boogie woogie, the Queens touch on blues and gospel as well. “In the course of the show we cover a little bit of ground,” DeWitt said. “There’s the emotional thing as well at the party thing, so it’s a very satisfying show.”
DeWitt said people are in for one of a kind performances Friday night. “It’s a unique experience and inspiring and it will make you feel good,” she said. “It’s one of America’s great roots music. What we found is that when people hear about it and come out to shows they really have a great time.”
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
Cutline 1: Deanna Bogart
Cutline 2: Lady Bianca
Cutline 3: Sue Palmer
Cutline 4: Wendy DeWitt
