Pete Johnson - Pete's Lonesome Blues (2008)

Tracklist

01. Minuet Boogie
02. Zero Hours
03. Mutiny In the Doghouse
04. 1946 Stomp
05. Answer to the Boogie
06. Hollywood Boogie
07. Mr. Freddy Blues
08. Backroom Blues
09. Central Avenue Drag
10. Bottomland Boogie
11. Pete Kay Boogie
12. Light Out Mood
13. Rock It Boogie
14. Mr. Drums Meets Mr. Piano
15. Wiley's Boogie
16. Pete's Lonesome Blues
17. 66 Stomp
18. Kaycee Feeling
19. Dive Bomber
20. Yancy Street Boogie

Pete Johnson was one of the three great boogie-woogie pianists (along with Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis) whose sudden prominence in the late '30s helped make the style very popular. Originally a drummer, Johnson switched to piano in 1922. He was part of the Kansas City scene in the 1920s and '30s, often accompanying singer Big Joe Turner. Producer John Hammond discovered him in 1936 and got him to play at the Famous Door in New York. After taking part in Hammond's 1938 Spirituals to Swing Carnegie Hall concert in 1938, Johnson started recording regularly and appeared on an occasional basis with Ammons and Lewis as the Boogie Woogie Trio. He also backed Turner on some classic records. Johnson recorded often in the 1940s and spent much of 1947-1949 based in Los Angeles. He moved to Buffalo in 1950 and, other than an appearance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, he was in obscurity for much of the decade. A stroke later in 1958 left him partly paralyzed. Johnson made one final appearance at John Hammond's January 1967 Spirituals to Swing concert, playing the right hand on a version of "Roll 'Em Pete" two months before his death.

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