96 today and still making music.
“Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie” is one of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. It was recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis more than 50 years ago.
By this time, Pinetop had developed his own unmistakable sound. His right hand plays horn lines while his left kicks out bass lines and lots of bottom. It was Pinetop, along with Pete Johnson, Meade Lux Lewis, Albert Ammons, and Little Brother Montgomery, who provided the basic format and ideas from which countless swing bands derived their sound – whole horn sections playing out what Pinetop’s right hand was playing. Although Pinetop never played swing, it was his brand of boogie-woogie that came to structure swing and, eventually, rock ‘n’ roll.
Pinetop will be appearing in August at the New York City Rockin’ the River Cruise. In October he will be at the Arkansas Blues & Heritage Fesitval.