The Blues (2003): Season 1, Episode 7 - Piano Blues - full transcript
Once I had a pretty little girl
I lose my baby, ain't that sad?
Once I had a pretty little girl
I lose my baby, ain't that sad?
You know you can't spend
What you ain't got
You can't lose
What you ain't never had
Well you know you can't spend
What you ain't got
You can't lose
What you ain't never had
The piano is the most
important musical instrument.
George Bernard Shaw wrote...
its invention was to music what
the printing press was to poetry.
Bartholomeu Christophory,
an Italian...
invented the piano
at the beginning of the 18th century.
Evolving from the harpsichord...
the piano emerged at the dawn
of the industrial revolution.
With some 20,000 parts, the piano
has been able to produce a sound...
that inspired the likes of Bach,
Mozart, Beethoven.
The piano has continued to remain...
one of the most valued
musical instruments to this day.
At the beginning of the 20th century
the piano began to make its way...
to the roots of American music.
Becoming one of the key instruments
in playing the blues.
Piano blues could be heard
in the saloons, lumber camps, brothels...
churches, honkey talks, all the way
down the Mississippi to Louisiana...
Alabama and Texas.
Soon it settled in New Orleans...
quickly spreading to Chicago and
Harlem and Kansas City.
From the 1920s to the present...
Piano blues has remained
a steadfast foundation...
and the fountain
of American music.
It has embraced boogie woogie,
jump blues, stried, gospel blues...
the Spanish tinge, rhythm and blues,
urban blues and all kinds of jazz.
Many piano players have made
their deep mark in the blues...
and this is their story.
- Hey, Ray.
- Hey.
What's up?
- How you doing?
- Here's to you old amigo...
and all the good times.
- That's right, you got it, brother.
- And here's to all those women.
- Here's to all the women.
- That we been through.
So set 'em up my amigo.
Oh, man.
What got you interested in music.
How'd you start?
When I was three years old...
there was a man living
next door.
And he had like
a little Jones' store, you know...
where you buy carrots, candy,
bread and stuff like that.
This small village town in Florida.
Well, anyway...
when I was three,
I don't know why but...
every time when
he'd start to practice...
I was... I couldn't help myself,
I had to stop and listen.
And he would play
that boogie woogie.
You know, and I just loved it.
And I would jump on the stew
and he...
and he would say...
No, no, no, no, no...
and every time, every time,
I mean...
I don't care if I was playing
with my buddies. Whatever I was doing...
when he played that piano
I would stop in my tracks.
- And so eventually...
- He taught you something.
What he did. You don't hit the piano
with your full fists son.
I'm gonna teach you how to play
a melody with one finger.
That's how he did it, I started.
Like that. That's how I got started.
And I was fascinated.
I could hit a key and make a sound.
I was very impressed.
Hey mama
Don't you treat me wrong
Come and love your daddy
All night long
Come and love your daddy
All night long
When you see me in misery
Come on baby
See about me
Now yeah, all right yeah
Come on baby
See about me
See the girl
With the red dress on
She can put it down
All night long
All night long
Now yeah
Tell your mama
Tell your pa
I'm gonna send you back
To Arkansas
That's really how I got started.
This guy was practicing.
You know, the thing is Clint,
it shows you about people though.
He could've said 'Get away from me
kid don't you see I'm practicing'.
And I would've had to go.
Cause I was taught to mind old people.
But he didn't say that.
He musta saw...
I guess he felt that any kid that was
willing to give up his playing time...
to come to listen to him,
he must love music.
I think that's what
he must have thought.
Do you remember his name?
Wally Pitman.
I'll never forget...
- Wally Pitman?
- Yeah, Wally Pitman.
- And he was a boogie piano player.
- That's right.
Those guys were great.
It's funny...
Almost every piano player I talked to
started out that way...
with something like that.
Because that was the intriguing music.
Either that or a lot of them
get it in church.
- That's right.
- Gospel players that play like that.
- I grew up with.
- Meade Lux Lewis
- Oh, we said it at the same time.
- The same time.
And Albert Ammons.
Pete Johnson and all those guys.
Pete Johnson, Sears cash played
the hell out of the boogie woogie.
- Different styles. Different kinds.
- Yeah.
Going up.
A little bit higher,
a little bit higher.
Hold it. Hold it.
As time went on.
You know as I said...
he started me out picking
out a little melody...
with one, two finger.
I became so interested...
in the sound that I was creating myself.
I was so fascinated with that.
And then as time went on...
he was able to tell me now...
you know, you got two hands.
Well, you have to learn
how to use the other hand.
The man was so nice to me.
The reason I appreciated him
so much 'cause...
as I became a grown man...
I realized the one thing
that impressed me...
was that he didn't throw me out.
He didn't say
'I'm practicing, get away from here'.
He could've said that
but he didn't.
Now kids starting out they do blues.
Because it's the easiest.
It's the easiest thing to play.
You play two notes.
- That's it.
- Two keys.
But then you got interested
in Tatum of course.
Well, you know, as time goes on
you start listening to these guys.
You know being in this village
I listened to a lot of blues.
There are people like Tamper Red,
Lux Lewis.
- I listened to those guys too.
- Big Joe Turner.
Oh, I've been
Oh, look at me
Oh, you been relieved
Before somebody start to cry
Everybody prays
Lord Almighty
Might be running free to you
California rain
Take it down, take it down
Make that same theme
Take it down
Jay is playing.
The thing was with me.
I just loved the music.
If it sounded good it was
all right with me.
And of course,
in the south in those days...
you had two kinds of music.
You had blues in your
own neighborhood...
and if you turned on the radio
you got country and western.
- That's it.
- Yeah, right.
My mom would let me stay up
on Saturday.
That's the only time I could stay up
past 9 o'clock on Saturday night.
Because I loved
the Grand Ole Opry.
- I mean, I was fascinated.
- The Grand Ole Opry.
- The Rymann Auditorium.
- That's right. You got it.
We filmed in there one time.
Kind of a classical place.
Is all about
If you got yourself
That's what the blues
Is all about
You know you can't get
The famous men around me
And I pray my woman
Is steppin' out
Yeah, you gotta live
Yes, oh Lord
So with this whole documentary were doing
is sort of the history of the blues...
with how it started and trying
to find people like yourself.
How did they get interested in and
a lot of people say out of the church...
and a lot of people say boogie woogie
like what you're saying or some little...
some kind of tunes.
But see in the neighborhood I was in,
I mean, that's what you heard...
you know, you hear the blues
all the time. Muddy Waters.
- We had T Bone Walker.
- Yes. There you go.
- Joe Houston.
- C'mon. Well, You know what's going on.
In fact, I was talking to Joe Adams
out there...
and I said I used to listen to you
on the air all the time...
when I was going to college
down here.
When I first came to California
in 1949...
he was the king...
anywhere you went in the city,
I don't care where it was...
the gas station, grocery store,
wherever...
you'd go you heard him on the radio
from 12 to 3. No way I'd forget that.
I'm drifting and drifting
Like a ship out on the sea
Well I'm drifting and drifting
Like a ship out on the sea
Well I ain't got nobody
In this world to care for me
But the blues was something
that was just there...
and of course my mom was a Baptist
so I went to church...
all the revival meetings,
and BYPU.
And the Sunday morning
service and Sunday night service...
and revival meeting.
People love that music.
I love that music.
I used to go to them even,
if I wasn't a member of the church...
I would go and sit in the back.
In those days
they didn't have no instruments.
They just walk in and they...
and the chorus sang...
- Hey
- Huh
- Ho
- Ho
- Hey
- Huh
- Ho
- Ho
- Hey
- Huh
It's all right
You know it's all right
Baby it's all right
It's all right
You know it's all right
You know it's all right
- Hey
- Huh
- Ho
- Ho
- Hey
- Huh
- Ho
- Ho
- Hey
- Huh
Baby shake that thing
Baby shake that thing
Baby shake that thing
Baby shake that thing
Shake it, baby
Baby shake that thing
- Hey
- Huh
- Ho
- Ho
- Hey
- Huh
- Ho
- Huh
Make me feel so good
Make me feel so good
Make me feel so good
Make me feel so good
Make me feel so good
Then one more time
Then one more time
Oh one more,
One more time, baby
Say it one more time
Say it one more time
One more time
One more time
Take me home
Take me home
Said I wanna go home
Baby it's all right
Bless your heart.
Sit down, Dave, and I'll just ask you
a little bit about the blues.
The origin, in your mind,
how did you get interested in it...
and who influenced you
when you were a young guy?
You know,
the spirituals and the blues...
are all kind of connected.
And I had a friend
from New Orleans...
and she, when there was trouble
she would say "Lord, Lord...
what will tomorrow bring.
Today...
I felt a narrow stinging
in the womb so deep...
my eyes refuse to weep.
And this is the blues spiritual.
Beautiful.
Who was your biggest influence
when you were young? What piano player?
Well, when I was a kid going
to school, college...
I got a chance
to be intermission pianist...
for a great pianist,
a woman named Cleo Brown.
She's the one that gave me a note
to introduce me to Art Tatum...
the greatest pianist, one of
the greatest musicians we've ever had.
Dave Brubeck told a great story about
Cleo Brown. Did you know Cleo Brown?
- No.
- Cleo Brown turned him onto art.
And once he heard Art Tatum
and of course...
everybody else like Pat Swoller...
everybody else said
that's God right there.
That's right. You get it.
But at least it was true, man.
You just couldn't believe.
Piano got 88 keys and
he ain't got but 10 fingers.
But he made it sound like
there were two people playing.
Like two people playing.
And sometimes he would have
his beer with him.
And when he's drinking a sip of beer
he would use his left hand...
and you wouldn't know
the difference.
Didn't make no difference.
We were joking about it
the other day...
saying he had the fastest
left hand in the west.
That's right.
But my God.
You just sit back and listen
to Art Tatum...
and you just don't believe
what you hear.
I find that pretty impressive to me.
And the closest person that
I've heard to him is Oscar Peterson.
- Oscar can play.
- Oscar can play.
Motherfucker can play his ass off.
Can we use motherfucker on the air.
Of course we can.
Play us one of your earliest
blues things if you want.
What you grew up with,
something that influenced you.
- Beautiful. Tell me about Nat.
- Nat Cole was my man.
He was a great player.
And a lot of people don't know that.
They know him for his singing.
- He was a great player.
- That's right, you got it.
That's what I wanted
to be as a kid coming up.
I wanted to sing...
and play the little tasty things
behind my singing like he does.
That's why I tried to imitate him.
Eat Nat King Cole,
slept Nate King Cole...
drink Nat Cole.
Well, those early records
of his too where he played.
Later on he became such
a big singing star with Nelson Riddle.
That's why a lot of people
don't know he can play.
But I knew he could play...
because I heard him when
he had his first group.
And his stuff, the way he put it
together with the guitar...
and himself and the piano.
It is better
To be on the shelf
Be just like a hermit
Living in a cave
You don't get much love
But do you save
It is better
To be by yourself
There's a story that's told
By this man, mate
With a change
And I see you gig
He works all day
And come home at night
Stare at little bit dippy
All she wants to do is fight
So it's better to be
By yourself, boy
It's better to be
By yourself, man
So it's better to be
By yourself, boy
Real tasty stuff.
Nat Cole don't fool yourself
my friend he can play...
- He can play.
- And with feeling.
It's not running up and down
the keyboard. It's playing with feeling.
And knowing what you're doing.
Baby let me hold your hand
'Till I make you understand
Oh, baby
Please let me hold your hand
I wanna you to know, girl
And make you understand
Yeah, yeah.
Thank you, Raymond.
Piano players out of new Orleans
have been continuous contributors...
to the world of the blues...
from it's first hero,
Jolly Row Morton...
Professor Longhair,
Fats Domino, Dr. John...
the celebratory sound emanating
from new Orleans...
is a joy to behold.
Right on, very nice, Mac.
Tell me who was your first influence?
Well, when I was a little weed...
my aunt Audrey taught me
how to play the Texas boogie.
- The Texas boogie?
- A little kid I used to do that.
- Two hands.
- I put the whole thing together later.
I tell you the guy I like
was Pete Johnson...
his old records
with Joe Turner stuff like that.
Rolling Pete.
I like that, what was it?
Barney Brown.
That's the one I can remember.
I liked...
Iocal artist in New Orleans
like Jake and Jack Dupree.
I loved him he played
the junkie blues.
It was kind...
you know, of all them local cats
would be doing.
That whole little style of that
was a whole part of New Orleans...
and it was a cat play the very
same thing with whole other day...
and I got to hear those cats
as a kid.
That's what made me what
to be a guitar player.
There was a cat used to play
the junkie blues. Like...
Them styles it was all like
the same thing.
But why did you want to be
a guitar player?
I heard so many bad piano players.
I just decided I'll never get a job
playing music, as a piano player.
There was so many cats that were...
Like I said,
there was Jack Dupree...
there was Hughie Smith,
he got famous for doing...
that rock Rollin and boogie woogie
all that stuff later...
when I first met him he was playing
the blues all that bad stuff.
- By bad you mean good.
- I mean seriously hip stuff.
Bad meaning good.
The thing was, Professor Long Hair
was one of my all time.
He goes back.
As a kid I got to meet him a little...
because my father
wasn't selling records...
but doing fixings, pa systems
and stuff round town.
We'd used take old pianos
like this one.
They couldn't really put 'em together
so they set 'em out on the street.
Trash pick em up,
but we'd drag 'em in the house...
or in the alleys
in different places.
I learned how to fix pianos this way.
Different player...
get handles off of one piano
and put 'em in the other...
get the little pad that make
the action down here.
If it wouldn't work I'd tie a chord
string or three in it...
and bring it to the next notch where
the action would work to get it to work.
I'd play. Some keys work
and some keys didn't...
just with a broken piano
in the house it taught me a lot.
This is how
I started cross chording...
if one key didn't play it didn't matter
to me I'd find other key to skip to.
Tipitina tipa tipa
Tipitina, little mama
Tipitina tipa tipa
Tipitina, little mama
Who was your influence
beside your uncle.
Was it all in your family,
your aunt and uncle?
To start with...
and then I grew up
in blues country...
and I had piano players
in my family.
So first, my grandmother
who played ragtime piano...
was an influence on me.
She had a pile of ten pan alley
sheet music...
so I got hear a lot of that.
My aunt played beautiful piano
a certain amount of boogie woogie.
So as I started
exploring piano really...
professor Longhair and the New Orleans
sound playing...
but he in particular because
he was such an innovator...
he invented and created
that polyrhythmic style that...
that so many of us do and carried on
through Dr. John and James Bleeker...
and now
a whole other generation.
Well give us a little shot.
Play us something.
Well,
my favorite 'fess kind of stuff.
I got my red beans cooking
I got my red beans cooking
I got my red beans cooking
I got my red beans cooking
I got my red beans cooking
Then when they get done
Won't give me some?
Fabulous.
Yeah fabulous, that was fabulous.
Fats Domino. He was bad.
He was playing stuff that made
him famous and he was playing the blues.
They call me
Call me the Fat Man
Cause I weigh two hundred pounds
All the girls they love me
Cause I know my way around
I was standing, was standing
On the corner
Of Rampart and Canal
I was watching, watching
Watching those people go
I'm going, going away
And I'm going to stay
Cause we be in this fast life
Can't stand this
Fats Domino is amazing.
One time we took him out...
on the plains of the Grand Tetons
in Wyoming...
and we put a huge grand piano
out there...
and had Fats Domino play and so he
started playing one of these things...
I Wanna Walk You Home,
one of these songs...
and all of a sudden everyone stopped
and I look over the side of the hill...
and there were ten elk and
they were all sitting there...
with their heads titled like this.
And as soon as he stopped,
they left.
They were fascinated.
- Everybody likes the blues.
- No critics there.
My own gimme.
Me got fire, me can't put out
Firewater gonna make me shout
Going down and get my squaw
And may come well in a car
Me big chief, me feeling good
Me gonna do everything me could
Me big chief, me got my day
Ain't that the way some say
Getting on down the 6th Avenue
Small boy running in a battle field
Me whole tribe having fun
Is it going the whole night long?
You can shake it, you can break it
Hang it on the wall
Throw it up in the little kitchen
In a little ball
You can mess around
Mess around
Do what you want
where and when you feel like
Everybody is doing the mess around
Thank you.
My name is Willy.
- Willy.
- Willy Perkins.
We started calling me Pinetop.
Where do you think the blues sort
of evolved from?
What do you think the beginning
did it out of gospel, out of churches?
I tell you I think what muddy
said about it...
if the blues had a baby
they'd name it be rock 'n roll.
Two things that give the man
the blues.
You ain't got no bread
and love sick.
That's two blues in one.
I agree with you there, Muddy.
I would do the same thing
like because I know...
If time ain't get no better
Up the road I'm going
The blues is like a doctor...
it can heal you...
and it can pull you down some.
Where do we all get
our blues from...
mostly, is our beautiful ladies.
Let me sing a song.
In the 1950 an urban blues sound
came together in Chicago.
Men like Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf
electrified the music...
that had been brought up
from the Delta.
Contributing to this life force
of deep blues...
were piano players like Otis Spann.
Let me tell you something now.
One day
I'm gonna miss again
And I say
Ain't nothing to say gal
Ain't nobody's business
You hear me?
What I do
Me and my baby
We fought and fight
Just the next morning
Are we lovin' right
Ain't nobody's business
If I do
All lie
To save a notion
Call a gal
Dropping older
Ain't nobody's business
If I do
I give up trying
To find my red rooster
I'm telling you
I've been waiting him
If you see my little red rooster
Please drive him home
Dogs start barking
And hounds begin to howl
If you see my little red rooster
Drive him home
Well there was a lady who lived
up the street from me called...
her name was White
and I got a lot of influence from her.
Cause I couldn't play the blues
in my daddy's house.
See my mother was in church and
my dad was the deacon of the church...
and I couldn't play no blues. I had
to go to her house to play the blues.
- Sneak out.
- I got a few whoopings behind it too.
I was supposed to be in school
but I wasn't. I was playing the blues.
You know the blues
Don't like nobody
You know the blues
Don't like nobody
But you can find the blues, baby
Only for a dollar a bottle
You know the blues
Hates everybody
You know the blues, baby
Hates everybody
But you can find the blues, baby
Only for a dollar a bottle
Never for a baby would I
Knock down this soul
Cause she wants me no more
Cause I had the blues
It don't like nobody
You know the blues
You know the blues
Blues don't like nobody
I'm going
Only this morning 'bout
Four o'clock
Stopped by her house
Feeling really low
Cause the blues
And the blues don't like nobody
You know the blues
You know the blues
Blues don't like nobody
You know the blues
Hates everybody
You know the blues
Hates everybody
You know the blues
You know the blues
The blues don't like nobody
You know the blues
You know the blues
The blues don't like nobody
Today is very much
influenced by blues and...
but then before that it seems like
music and rock 'n roll...
is getting less complicated...
while blues had more gospel
and soul in it.
I never draw
any difference between...
blues and any of that stuff.
I thought it was all related first
cousin, second cousin, third cousin.
All those jump blues guys
they all sort of like rockers...
- Joe Houston all those guys.
- Those jump rockers...
they would once in a while would veer off
and go off into what we call jazz.
That's what we called jazz back then.
They'd go into jazz, jazz, jazz.
Then so that way I never
did know what it meant...
to say this was that,
that was that.
Everybody trying to play everything.
I just made it one thing.
This was the blues.
Well it can be fast blues, slow blues,
that was the only difference I knew...
slow, fast.
What's the tempo your playing
it in and let it go.
Right.
This is very beautiful.
Hello little girl
Don't you remember me?
Hello, hello, little girl
Don't you remember me?
A lot of time
It's been so long
But I had a little break
You see
Well, I'm doing alright
Well, I found a little cupid doll
Yes, I'm doing alright
Yes, I found a little cupid doll
When she loses three flags
Then she sends me with a smile
Well, she calls me her lover
Yes, and her beggar too
Well, she calls me her lover
Yes, and her beggar too
Now ain't you sorry little girl
That my new little girl ain't you
Very good.
Beautiful...
- thanks very much, Jay.
- Thank you.
Thanks for talking a little bit about
your life and the blues.
That was splendid...
"She called me her lover,
she called me her beggar too."
I know those words,
I've used them many times.
Piano blues embraces
all modes of jazz.
The solitary player of the night club,
the sophistication of Duke Ellington...
and the energy of beep bob.
The blues is the basis of everything.
So Pete,
tell me how you started out.
My father brought home these records
of like Meade Lux and Albert Ammons...
and that turned me on immediately.
It seems like I had a natural
ability to improvise...
for some odd reason, like a gift.
People say how to play jazz.
I say well...
you want to learn
how to play your instrument...
and then if your fingers go there,
whatever you hear comes out.
Did you learn by reading
or by imitating?
Well I imitated the records
and then I took piano lessons.
I've always felt
that jazz and blues...
were a true American art form...
maybe the only real original
American art form we have.
I just have always been fascinated
with the music...
I grew up listening to that
rather than pop tunes.
My mom thought I was kind of crazy.
But it's her fault.
Because she brought home a bunch
of Fat Swaller records and said...
This is what I call real piano playing
and I thought well that's the way it is.
I'd tried to play stride piano
but it didn't come out...
it didn't come out very stridy...
so I kinda played
a three cord beat thing.
But I've always been interested in it
and later on jazz, beep bob.
Society sort of dictates
what people start playing.
Like Beep bop in the 40s
came out of...
people searching
for something...
something new or some new way
to go after things.
You had to open up some doors.
Everybody is like,
if your listening to some of the things.
That little thing.
There something else in soft peanut.
There was something in there...
if you are listen at it
and slow it down a little bit...
if forget, I can't think of it right now.
But it's like it...
really sounds like something
Louis Armstrong played way back...
in the game like
one of them Call thing.
Beside that famous
melody of that piece.
You heard, I mean,
you heard...
to me it took something like that...
and he took it to a whole other place
and kept rolling stuff like that.
My first time I heard
Thelonius Monk record...
I thought he was local cat.
I almost turned that off.
I didn't know
Monk was from Carolina.
You just heard music and it
reminded me of stuff I heard.
Well, everybody is influenced
from somewhere.
Back when we did that very last record
he did. And he said so you know...
play me some old, this old tune.
Old cousin Joe's song...
a guy from new Orleans. A guy he always
recording with from new Orleans...
all these bebop cats.
I thought he was jibbing...
the fact is I remembered
this line of this song...
I didn't know the words,
and it ended with...
If you get your hands
On some money
You can buy everything
You can get
If you get your hands
On some money
You can buy everything
You can get
You know
You can't take it with you
I ain't never seen no armored car
Follow a funeral yeah
That line never seen an armored
car follow a funeral yeah...
was all that Art remembered
of the song.
You want to play a little of
Pinetop's boogie for us.
I can't play it like I used to
because...
I got stabbed in this arm
here and I can't get the base...
rolling like I want.
I can't play it like I used to
and I didn't even get stabbed.
I used to play that thing.
Give us just a little taste.
Very good.
- It was nice.
- Thank you.
This guy is wonderful.
He's still got it.
Beautiful.
Playing the blues evokes joy,
sorrow happiness...
despair and truth in
a timeless fashion.
Hey mama
Don't you treat me wrong
Come and love your daddy
All night long
Tell me what'd I say
Tell me what'd I say, baby
- Thank you, Ray.
- That's alright, man.
Even patriotic songs
can become the blues.
Oh beautiful
For heroes proved
In
Liberating strife
Who more than self
Their country loved
And mercy more
Than life, life
What am I singing about tonight?
This America
Sweet America
May God thy gold refine
Till all success
Be nobleness
And
Every gain divined
And you know,
when I was a little boy...
I remember we used to sing it
like this...
Oh beautiful
For spacious skies
For
Amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties
Above
Above the fruited plain
Listen to me now
America
America
God
Done shed his grace on thee
Yes He did
And He crowned thy good
Oh don't you remember?
Singing brotherhood
From
Sea
To
Shining sea
You know, I wish I had somebody
to help me sing this.
America
Oh America
My God
He shed
His grace on me
I love you America, cause He
He crowned thy good
He told me he would
With brotherhood
From
Sea
To
Shining sea
Yeah, listen
I wanna thank you, Lord
I lose my baby, ain't that sad?
Once I had a pretty little girl
I lose my baby, ain't that sad?
You know you can't spend
What you ain't got
You can't lose
What you ain't never had
Well you know you can't spend
What you ain't got
You can't lose
What you ain't never had
The piano is the most
important musical instrument.
George Bernard Shaw wrote...
its invention was to music what
the printing press was to poetry.
Bartholomeu Christophory,
an Italian...
invented the piano
at the beginning of the 18th century.
Evolving from the harpsichord...
the piano emerged at the dawn
of the industrial revolution.
With some 20,000 parts, the piano
has been able to produce a sound...
that inspired the likes of Bach,
Mozart, Beethoven.
The piano has continued to remain...
one of the most valued
musical instruments to this day.
At the beginning of the 20th century
the piano began to make its way...
to the roots of American music.
Becoming one of the key instruments
in playing the blues.
Piano blues could be heard
in the saloons, lumber camps, brothels...
churches, honkey talks, all the way
down the Mississippi to Louisiana...
Alabama and Texas.
Soon it settled in New Orleans...
quickly spreading to Chicago and
Harlem and Kansas City.
From the 1920s to the present...
Piano blues has remained
a steadfast foundation...
and the fountain
of American music.
It has embraced boogie woogie,
jump blues, stried, gospel blues...
the Spanish tinge, rhythm and blues,
urban blues and all kinds of jazz.
Many piano players have made
their deep mark in the blues...
and this is their story.
- Hey, Ray.
- Hey.
What's up?
- How you doing?
- Here's to you old amigo...
and all the good times.
- That's right, you got it, brother.
- And here's to all those women.
- Here's to all the women.
- That we been through.
So set 'em up my amigo.
Oh, man.
What got you interested in music.
How'd you start?
When I was three years old...
there was a man living
next door.
And he had like
a little Jones' store, you know...
where you buy carrots, candy,
bread and stuff like that.
This small village town in Florida.
Well, anyway...
when I was three,
I don't know why but...
every time when
he'd start to practice...
I was... I couldn't help myself,
I had to stop and listen.
And he would play
that boogie woogie.
You know, and I just loved it.
And I would jump on the stew
and he...
and he would say...
No, no, no, no, no...
and every time, every time,
I mean...
I don't care if I was playing
with my buddies. Whatever I was doing...
when he played that piano
I would stop in my tracks.
- And so eventually...
- He taught you something.
What he did. You don't hit the piano
with your full fists son.
I'm gonna teach you how to play
a melody with one finger.
That's how he did it, I started.
Like that. That's how I got started.
And I was fascinated.
I could hit a key and make a sound.
I was very impressed.
Hey mama
Don't you treat me wrong
Come and love your daddy
All night long
Come and love your daddy
All night long
When you see me in misery
Come on baby
See about me
Now yeah, all right yeah
Come on baby
See about me
See the girl
With the red dress on
She can put it down
All night long
All night long
Now yeah
Tell your mama
Tell your pa
I'm gonna send you back
To Arkansas
That's really how I got started.
This guy was practicing.
You know, the thing is Clint,
it shows you about people though.
He could've said 'Get away from me
kid don't you see I'm practicing'.
And I would've had to go.
Cause I was taught to mind old people.
But he didn't say that.
He musta saw...
I guess he felt that any kid that was
willing to give up his playing time...
to come to listen to him,
he must love music.
I think that's what
he must have thought.
Do you remember his name?
Wally Pitman.
I'll never forget...
- Wally Pitman?
- Yeah, Wally Pitman.
- And he was a boogie piano player.
- That's right.
Those guys were great.
It's funny...
Almost every piano player I talked to
started out that way...
with something like that.
Because that was the intriguing music.
Either that or a lot of them
get it in church.
- That's right.
- Gospel players that play like that.
- I grew up with.
- Meade Lux Lewis
- Oh, we said it at the same time.
- The same time.
And Albert Ammons.
Pete Johnson and all those guys.
Pete Johnson, Sears cash played
the hell out of the boogie woogie.
- Different styles. Different kinds.
- Yeah.
Going up.
A little bit higher,
a little bit higher.
Hold it. Hold it.
As time went on.
You know as I said...
he started me out picking
out a little melody...
with one, two finger.
I became so interested...
in the sound that I was creating myself.
I was so fascinated with that.
And then as time went on...
he was able to tell me now...
you know, you got two hands.
Well, you have to learn
how to use the other hand.
The man was so nice to me.
The reason I appreciated him
so much 'cause...
as I became a grown man...
I realized the one thing
that impressed me...
was that he didn't throw me out.
He didn't say
'I'm practicing, get away from here'.
He could've said that
but he didn't.
Now kids starting out they do blues.
Because it's the easiest.
It's the easiest thing to play.
You play two notes.
- That's it.
- Two keys.
But then you got interested
in Tatum of course.
Well, you know, as time goes on
you start listening to these guys.
You know being in this village
I listened to a lot of blues.
There are people like Tamper Red,
Lux Lewis.
- I listened to those guys too.
- Big Joe Turner.
Oh, I've been
Oh, look at me
Oh, you been relieved
Before somebody start to cry
Everybody prays
Lord Almighty
Might be running free to you
California rain
Take it down, take it down
Make that same theme
Take it down
Jay is playing.
The thing was with me.
I just loved the music.
If it sounded good it was
all right with me.
And of course,
in the south in those days...
you had two kinds of music.
You had blues in your
own neighborhood...
and if you turned on the radio
you got country and western.
- That's it.
- Yeah, right.
My mom would let me stay up
on Saturday.
That's the only time I could stay up
past 9 o'clock on Saturday night.
Because I loved
the Grand Ole Opry.
- I mean, I was fascinated.
- The Grand Ole Opry.
- The Rymann Auditorium.
- That's right. You got it.
We filmed in there one time.
Kind of a classical place.
Is all about
If you got yourself
That's what the blues
Is all about
You know you can't get
The famous men around me
And I pray my woman
Is steppin' out
Yeah, you gotta live
Yes, oh Lord
So with this whole documentary were doing
is sort of the history of the blues...
with how it started and trying
to find people like yourself.
How did they get interested in and
a lot of people say out of the church...
and a lot of people say boogie woogie
like what you're saying or some little...
some kind of tunes.
But see in the neighborhood I was in,
I mean, that's what you heard...
you know, you hear the blues
all the time. Muddy Waters.
- We had T Bone Walker.
- Yes. There you go.
- Joe Houston.
- C'mon. Well, You know what's going on.
In fact, I was talking to Joe Adams
out there...
and I said I used to listen to you
on the air all the time...
when I was going to college
down here.
When I first came to California
in 1949...
he was the king...
anywhere you went in the city,
I don't care where it was...
the gas station, grocery store,
wherever...
you'd go you heard him on the radio
from 12 to 3. No way I'd forget that.
I'm drifting and drifting
Like a ship out on the sea
Well I'm drifting and drifting
Like a ship out on the sea
Well I ain't got nobody
In this world to care for me
But the blues was something
that was just there...
and of course my mom was a Baptist
so I went to church...
all the revival meetings,
and BYPU.
And the Sunday morning
service and Sunday night service...
and revival meeting.
People love that music.
I love that music.
I used to go to them even,
if I wasn't a member of the church...
I would go and sit in the back.
In those days
they didn't have no instruments.
They just walk in and they...
and the chorus sang...
- Hey
- Huh
- Ho
- Ho
- Hey
- Huh
- Ho
- Ho
- Hey
- Huh
It's all right
You know it's all right
Baby it's all right
It's all right
You know it's all right
You know it's all right
- Hey
- Huh
- Ho
- Ho
- Hey
- Huh
- Ho
- Ho
- Hey
- Huh
Baby shake that thing
Baby shake that thing
Baby shake that thing
Baby shake that thing
Shake it, baby
Baby shake that thing
- Hey
- Huh
- Ho
- Ho
- Hey
- Huh
- Ho
- Huh
Make me feel so good
Make me feel so good
Make me feel so good
Make me feel so good
Make me feel so good
Then one more time
Then one more time
Oh one more,
One more time, baby
Say it one more time
Say it one more time
One more time
One more time
Take me home
Take me home
Said I wanna go home
Baby it's all right
Bless your heart.
Sit down, Dave, and I'll just ask you
a little bit about the blues.
The origin, in your mind,
how did you get interested in it...
and who influenced you
when you were a young guy?
You know,
the spirituals and the blues...
are all kind of connected.
And I had a friend
from New Orleans...
and she, when there was trouble
she would say "Lord, Lord...
what will tomorrow bring.
Today...
I felt a narrow stinging
in the womb so deep...
my eyes refuse to weep.
And this is the blues spiritual.
Beautiful.
Who was your biggest influence
when you were young? What piano player?
Well, when I was a kid going
to school, college...
I got a chance
to be intermission pianist...
for a great pianist,
a woman named Cleo Brown.
She's the one that gave me a note
to introduce me to Art Tatum...
the greatest pianist, one of
the greatest musicians we've ever had.
Dave Brubeck told a great story about
Cleo Brown. Did you know Cleo Brown?
- No.
- Cleo Brown turned him onto art.
And once he heard Art Tatum
and of course...
everybody else like Pat Swoller...
everybody else said
that's God right there.
That's right. You get it.
But at least it was true, man.
You just couldn't believe.
Piano got 88 keys and
he ain't got but 10 fingers.
But he made it sound like
there were two people playing.
Like two people playing.
And sometimes he would have
his beer with him.
And when he's drinking a sip of beer
he would use his left hand...
and you wouldn't know
the difference.
Didn't make no difference.
We were joking about it
the other day...
saying he had the fastest
left hand in the west.
That's right.
But my God.
You just sit back and listen
to Art Tatum...
and you just don't believe
what you hear.
I find that pretty impressive to me.
And the closest person that
I've heard to him is Oscar Peterson.
- Oscar can play.
- Oscar can play.
Motherfucker can play his ass off.
Can we use motherfucker on the air.
Of course we can.
Play us one of your earliest
blues things if you want.
What you grew up with,
something that influenced you.
- Beautiful. Tell me about Nat.
- Nat Cole was my man.
He was a great player.
And a lot of people don't know that.
They know him for his singing.
- He was a great player.
- That's right, you got it.
That's what I wanted
to be as a kid coming up.
I wanted to sing...
and play the little tasty things
behind my singing like he does.
That's why I tried to imitate him.
Eat Nat King Cole,
slept Nate King Cole...
drink Nat Cole.
Well, those early records
of his too where he played.
Later on he became such
a big singing star with Nelson Riddle.
That's why a lot of people
don't know he can play.
But I knew he could play...
because I heard him when
he had his first group.
And his stuff, the way he put it
together with the guitar...
and himself and the piano.
It is better
To be on the shelf
Be just like a hermit
Living in a cave
You don't get much love
But do you save
It is better
To be by yourself
There's a story that's told
By this man, mate
With a change
And I see you gig
He works all day
And come home at night
Stare at little bit dippy
All she wants to do is fight
So it's better to be
By yourself, boy
It's better to be
By yourself, man
So it's better to be
By yourself, boy
Real tasty stuff.
Nat Cole don't fool yourself
my friend he can play...
- He can play.
- And with feeling.
It's not running up and down
the keyboard. It's playing with feeling.
And knowing what you're doing.
Baby let me hold your hand
'Till I make you understand
Oh, baby
Please let me hold your hand
I wanna you to know, girl
And make you understand
Yeah, yeah.
Thank you, Raymond.
Piano players out of new Orleans
have been continuous contributors...
to the world of the blues...
from it's first hero,
Jolly Row Morton...
Professor Longhair,
Fats Domino, Dr. John...
the celebratory sound emanating
from new Orleans...
is a joy to behold.
Right on, very nice, Mac.
Tell me who was your first influence?
Well, when I was a little weed...
my aunt Audrey taught me
how to play the Texas boogie.
- The Texas boogie?
- A little kid I used to do that.
- Two hands.
- I put the whole thing together later.
I tell you the guy I like
was Pete Johnson...
his old records
with Joe Turner stuff like that.
Rolling Pete.
I like that, what was it?
Barney Brown.
That's the one I can remember.
I liked...
Iocal artist in New Orleans
like Jake and Jack Dupree.
I loved him he played
the junkie blues.
It was kind...
you know, of all them local cats
would be doing.
That whole little style of that
was a whole part of New Orleans...
and it was a cat play the very
same thing with whole other day...
and I got to hear those cats
as a kid.
That's what made me what
to be a guitar player.
There was a cat used to play
the junkie blues. Like...
Them styles it was all like
the same thing.
But why did you want to be
a guitar player?
I heard so many bad piano players.
I just decided I'll never get a job
playing music, as a piano player.
There was so many cats that were...
Like I said,
there was Jack Dupree...
there was Hughie Smith,
he got famous for doing...
that rock Rollin and boogie woogie
all that stuff later...
when I first met him he was playing
the blues all that bad stuff.
- By bad you mean good.
- I mean seriously hip stuff.
Bad meaning good.
The thing was, Professor Long Hair
was one of my all time.
He goes back.
As a kid I got to meet him a little...
because my father
wasn't selling records...
but doing fixings, pa systems
and stuff round town.
We'd used take old pianos
like this one.
They couldn't really put 'em together
so they set 'em out on the street.
Trash pick em up,
but we'd drag 'em in the house...
or in the alleys
in different places.
I learned how to fix pianos this way.
Different player...
get handles off of one piano
and put 'em in the other...
get the little pad that make
the action down here.
If it wouldn't work I'd tie a chord
string or three in it...
and bring it to the next notch where
the action would work to get it to work.
I'd play. Some keys work
and some keys didn't...
just with a broken piano
in the house it taught me a lot.
This is how
I started cross chording...
if one key didn't play it didn't matter
to me I'd find other key to skip to.
Tipitina tipa tipa
Tipitina, little mama
Tipitina tipa tipa
Tipitina, little mama
Who was your influence
beside your uncle.
Was it all in your family,
your aunt and uncle?
To start with...
and then I grew up
in blues country...
and I had piano players
in my family.
So first, my grandmother
who played ragtime piano...
was an influence on me.
She had a pile of ten pan alley
sheet music...
so I got hear a lot of that.
My aunt played beautiful piano
a certain amount of boogie woogie.
So as I started
exploring piano really...
professor Longhair and the New Orleans
sound playing...
but he in particular because
he was such an innovator...
he invented and created
that polyrhythmic style that...
that so many of us do and carried on
through Dr. John and James Bleeker...
and now
a whole other generation.
Well give us a little shot.
Play us something.
Well,
my favorite 'fess kind of stuff.
I got my red beans cooking
I got my red beans cooking
I got my red beans cooking
I got my red beans cooking
I got my red beans cooking
Then when they get done
Won't give me some?
Fabulous.
Yeah fabulous, that was fabulous.
Fats Domino. He was bad.
He was playing stuff that made
him famous and he was playing the blues.
They call me
Call me the Fat Man
Cause I weigh two hundred pounds
All the girls they love me
Cause I know my way around
I was standing, was standing
On the corner
Of Rampart and Canal
I was watching, watching
Watching those people go
I'm going, going away
And I'm going to stay
Cause we be in this fast life
Can't stand this
Fats Domino is amazing.
One time we took him out...
on the plains of the Grand Tetons
in Wyoming...
and we put a huge grand piano
out there...
and had Fats Domino play and so he
started playing one of these things...
I Wanna Walk You Home,
one of these songs...
and all of a sudden everyone stopped
and I look over the side of the hill...
and there were ten elk and
they were all sitting there...
with their heads titled like this.
And as soon as he stopped,
they left.
They were fascinated.
- Everybody likes the blues.
- No critics there.
My own gimme.
Me got fire, me can't put out
Firewater gonna make me shout
Going down and get my squaw
And may come well in a car
Me big chief, me feeling good
Me gonna do everything me could
Me big chief, me got my day
Ain't that the way some say
Getting on down the 6th Avenue
Small boy running in a battle field
Me whole tribe having fun
Is it going the whole night long?
You can shake it, you can break it
Hang it on the wall
Throw it up in the little kitchen
In a little ball
You can mess around
Mess around
Do what you want
where and when you feel like
Everybody is doing the mess around
Thank you.
My name is Willy.
- Willy.
- Willy Perkins.
We started calling me Pinetop.
Where do you think the blues sort
of evolved from?
What do you think the beginning
did it out of gospel, out of churches?
I tell you I think what muddy
said about it...
if the blues had a baby
they'd name it be rock 'n roll.
Two things that give the man
the blues.
You ain't got no bread
and love sick.
That's two blues in one.
I agree with you there, Muddy.
I would do the same thing
like because I know...
If time ain't get no better
Up the road I'm going
The blues is like a doctor...
it can heal you...
and it can pull you down some.
Where do we all get
our blues from...
mostly, is our beautiful ladies.
Let me sing a song.
In the 1950 an urban blues sound
came together in Chicago.
Men like Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf
electrified the music...
that had been brought up
from the Delta.
Contributing to this life force
of deep blues...
were piano players like Otis Spann.
Let me tell you something now.
One day
I'm gonna miss again
And I say
Ain't nothing to say gal
Ain't nobody's business
You hear me?
What I do
Me and my baby
We fought and fight
Just the next morning
Are we lovin' right
Ain't nobody's business
If I do
All lie
To save a notion
Call a gal
Dropping older
Ain't nobody's business
If I do
I give up trying
To find my red rooster
I'm telling you
I've been waiting him
If you see my little red rooster
Please drive him home
Dogs start barking
And hounds begin to howl
If you see my little red rooster
Drive him home
Well there was a lady who lived
up the street from me called...
her name was White
and I got a lot of influence from her.
Cause I couldn't play the blues
in my daddy's house.
See my mother was in church and
my dad was the deacon of the church...
and I couldn't play no blues. I had
to go to her house to play the blues.
- Sneak out.
- I got a few whoopings behind it too.
I was supposed to be in school
but I wasn't. I was playing the blues.
You know the blues
Don't like nobody
You know the blues
Don't like nobody
But you can find the blues, baby
Only for a dollar a bottle
You know the blues
Hates everybody
You know the blues, baby
Hates everybody
But you can find the blues, baby
Only for a dollar a bottle
Never for a baby would I
Knock down this soul
Cause she wants me no more
Cause I had the blues
It don't like nobody
You know the blues
You know the blues
Blues don't like nobody
I'm going
Only this morning 'bout
Four o'clock
Stopped by her house
Feeling really low
Cause the blues
And the blues don't like nobody
You know the blues
You know the blues
Blues don't like nobody
You know the blues
Hates everybody
You know the blues
Hates everybody
You know the blues
You know the blues
The blues don't like nobody
You know the blues
You know the blues
The blues don't like nobody
Today is very much
influenced by blues and...
but then before that it seems like
music and rock 'n roll...
is getting less complicated...
while blues had more gospel
and soul in it.
I never draw
any difference between...
blues and any of that stuff.
I thought it was all related first
cousin, second cousin, third cousin.
All those jump blues guys
they all sort of like rockers...
- Joe Houston all those guys.
- Those jump rockers...
they would once in a while would veer off
and go off into what we call jazz.
That's what we called jazz back then.
They'd go into jazz, jazz, jazz.
Then so that way I never
did know what it meant...
to say this was that,
that was that.
Everybody trying to play everything.
I just made it one thing.
This was the blues.
Well it can be fast blues, slow blues,
that was the only difference I knew...
slow, fast.
What's the tempo your playing
it in and let it go.
Right.
This is very beautiful.
Hello little girl
Don't you remember me?
Hello, hello, little girl
Don't you remember me?
A lot of time
It's been so long
But I had a little break
You see
Well, I'm doing alright
Well, I found a little cupid doll
Yes, I'm doing alright
Yes, I found a little cupid doll
When she loses three flags
Then she sends me with a smile
Well, she calls me her lover
Yes, and her beggar too
Well, she calls me her lover
Yes, and her beggar too
Now ain't you sorry little girl
That my new little girl ain't you
Very good.
Beautiful...
- thanks very much, Jay.
- Thank you.
Thanks for talking a little bit about
your life and the blues.
That was splendid...
"She called me her lover,
she called me her beggar too."
I know those words,
I've used them many times.
Piano blues embraces
all modes of jazz.
The solitary player of the night club,
the sophistication of Duke Ellington...
and the energy of beep bob.
The blues is the basis of everything.
So Pete,
tell me how you started out.
My father brought home these records
of like Meade Lux and Albert Ammons...
and that turned me on immediately.
It seems like I had a natural
ability to improvise...
for some odd reason, like a gift.
People say how to play jazz.
I say well...
you want to learn
how to play your instrument...
and then if your fingers go there,
whatever you hear comes out.
Did you learn by reading
or by imitating?
Well I imitated the records
and then I took piano lessons.
I've always felt
that jazz and blues...
were a true American art form...
maybe the only real original
American art form we have.
I just have always been fascinated
with the music...
I grew up listening to that
rather than pop tunes.
My mom thought I was kind of crazy.
But it's her fault.
Because she brought home a bunch
of Fat Swaller records and said...
This is what I call real piano playing
and I thought well that's the way it is.
I'd tried to play stride piano
but it didn't come out...
it didn't come out very stridy...
so I kinda played
a three cord beat thing.
But I've always been interested in it
and later on jazz, beep bob.
Society sort of dictates
what people start playing.
Like Beep bop in the 40s
came out of...
people searching
for something...
something new or some new way
to go after things.
You had to open up some doors.
Everybody is like,
if your listening to some of the things.
That little thing.
There something else in soft peanut.
There was something in there...
if you are listen at it
and slow it down a little bit...
if forget, I can't think of it right now.
But it's like it...
really sounds like something
Louis Armstrong played way back...
in the game like
one of them Call thing.
Beside that famous
melody of that piece.
You heard, I mean,
you heard...
to me it took something like that...
and he took it to a whole other place
and kept rolling stuff like that.
My first time I heard
Thelonius Monk record...
I thought he was local cat.
I almost turned that off.
I didn't know
Monk was from Carolina.
You just heard music and it
reminded me of stuff I heard.
Well, everybody is influenced
from somewhere.
Back when we did that very last record
he did. And he said so you know...
play me some old, this old tune.
Old cousin Joe's song...
a guy from new Orleans. A guy he always
recording with from new Orleans...
all these bebop cats.
I thought he was jibbing...
the fact is I remembered
this line of this song...
I didn't know the words,
and it ended with...
If you get your hands
On some money
You can buy everything
You can get
If you get your hands
On some money
You can buy everything
You can get
You know
You can't take it with you
I ain't never seen no armored car
Follow a funeral yeah
That line never seen an armored
car follow a funeral yeah...
was all that Art remembered
of the song.
You want to play a little of
Pinetop's boogie for us.
I can't play it like I used to
because...
I got stabbed in this arm
here and I can't get the base...
rolling like I want.
I can't play it like I used to
and I didn't even get stabbed.
I used to play that thing.
Give us just a little taste.
Very good.
- It was nice.
- Thank you.
This guy is wonderful.
He's still got it.
Beautiful.
Playing the blues evokes joy,
sorrow happiness...
despair and truth in
a timeless fashion.
Hey mama
Don't you treat me wrong
Come and love your daddy
All night long
Tell me what'd I say
Tell me what'd I say, baby
- Thank you, Ray.
- That's alright, man.
Even patriotic songs
can become the blues.
Oh beautiful
For heroes proved
In
Liberating strife
Who more than self
Their country loved
And mercy more
Than life, life
What am I singing about tonight?
This America
Sweet America
May God thy gold refine
Till all success
Be nobleness
And
Every gain divined
And you know,
when I was a little boy...
I remember we used to sing it
like this...
Oh beautiful
For spacious skies
For
Amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties
Above
Above the fruited plain
Listen to me now
America
America
God
Done shed his grace on thee
Yes He did
And He crowned thy good
Oh don't you remember?
Singing brotherhood
From
Sea
To
Shining sea
You know, I wish I had somebody
to help me sing this.
America
Oh America
My God
He shed
His grace on me
I love you America, cause He
He crowned thy good
He told me he would
With brotherhood
From
Sea
To
Shining sea
Yeah, listen
I wanna thank you, Lord