World’s 2nd rock & roll record: Roll ‘Em Pete by Big Joe Turner with Pete Johnson in 1938

World’s 2nd rock & roll record: Roll ‘Em Pete by Big Joe Turner with Pete Johnson in 1938

A young Big Joe Turner BluesMuse 12  If  Albert Ammon’s ‘Boogie Woogie Stomp’ was the world’s first rock & roll record in 1936, what was the second? Allow me to put forward ‘Roll ‘Em Pete’, another rollicking piano-based boogie woogie, this one released in 1938. The Pete doing the rolling was 34-year old Pete Johnson,…

Was ‘Boogie Woogie Stomp’ the world’s first rock & roll record in 1936?

Was ‘Boogie Woogie Stomp’ the world’s first rock & roll record in 1936?

BluesMuse10 Fifty eight years ago this May, Bill Hayley’s 12-bar blues, ‘Rock Around The Clock’, turned the world onto rock & roll. While many people claim Ike Turner’s ‘Rocket 88’ was the first rock & roll record in 1951, I’d like to put forward an innovative black pianist from Chicago called Albert Ammons who first…

How smart were those early black blues pioneers?

How smart were those early black blues pioneers?

BluesMuse9. Another misconception about the blues is that African Americans in the genre’s early days had no education. The great W. C. Handy, who virtually single-handedly standardized the blues into its modern 12-bar format between 1912 and 1920, had a teaching degree. Handy’s publishing partner, Harry Pace, who went on to found the African-American-owned Black…