: How I Got My Boogie
So how did this academic, bookish, Nice Jewish Boy from suburban New Jersey turn into a boogie boogie pianist? I hear you ask.
Let me take you back in time, far back, to a simpler time – the 1950s . . .
I grew up surrounded by classical music – my father was a composer of what is now called contemporary classical music. I took piano lessons as a kid starting at age six and played all the usual stuff – Bach, Mozart, Chopin, what not. I knew virtually nothing about popular music. I was vaguely aware that there was some guy Elvis who sang a song about a hound dog, but that was pretty much it.
When I was in the 8th grade, my folks moved from Passaic to Clifton and I started hanging out with a different, faster crowd. “What do you mean Eric, you don’t know who the Coasters are? Hey , this song is really cool – Little Eva doing The Locomotion”. I got a little transistor radio with my Bar Mitzvah money and started listening to Big Dan Ingram on WABC-AM. So when the Beatles & Rolling Stones came along in 64 & 65 I was primed.
Now comes summer of 1965 – just before my senior year of high school. In July and early August I went to Stevens Institute as part of a summer program sponsored by The National Science Foundation where I learned computer programming; but I had most of August to just hang. One afternoon I was rummaging through my father’s record collection and I stumbled across a beat up LP titled “Boogie Woogie and Jump”. I put it on and…. Something happened. The music sounded vaguely like rock & roll but there was something deeper and rawer going on. These guys were singing in strange accents about houses in Memphis and “I Got a Brownskin Gal”. And then came on a solo piano piece – Honky Tonk Train by Meade Lux Lewis. I was transfixed. It was like the guy was talking directly to me. Each time the pattern came around it was as if Meade Luz Lewis was saying to me “Hey Eric, you think that last verse was cool, now listen to this one”. Time stood still. The afternoon sun shone through the blinds, and the dust particles slowly moving in time with the music. I played it over and over, then went to the piano and started to figure out what this guy was doing.
Later that afternoon my father walked in the door from his job as Senior Librarian at the Julius Forster Public Library in Passaic and was stunned. His pimply faced, skinny little geeky son was channeling the spirit of a long dead black bluesman from the 1920s.
I still have that record. Using my new found technical prowess, I’ve attached a digitized version of my scratchy old record. If you want, this is now available on CD – do a web search on Smithsonian Folkways Archival, Jazz Volume 10, Boogie Woogie and Jump.
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June 7, Friday, 7:00-9:00ish PM – Jump, Shuffle, and Moan, Ruthie’s BBQ, 64 1/2 Chestnut Ave, Montclair (973) 509-1134
Jump, Shuffle, and Moan is Rob Signorile’s “big band” – we got 6 smoking pieces squeezing into that little space on the veranda. If it rains, Rob & I will move inside and play as a duo (or maybe a trio – but then Rob will have to make a Sophie’s choice amongst the other guys). BYO and chow down on Eric Kaplan’s great BBQ.
www.ruthiesbbq.com/
June 8, Saturday, 8-9:30 PM – Lunatic Fringe, Glen Ridge Community Center @ The Glen Ridge Train Station, 228 Ridgewood Avenue (corner of Bloomfield Avenue), Glen Ridge, NJ Reservations: (973) 429-1527
This is the last show of the season, which means it’s your last chance to get a really good laugh until the fall.
http://www.lunaticfringeimprov.com
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53938723078&ref=ts
June 14, Friday, 7:00-9:00ish PM – Kevin Kiley, Ruthie’s BBQ, 64 1/2 Chestnut Ave, Montclair (973) 509-1134
Kevin & I played together a few months back after a year’s layoff; and we looked at each other and said “How does that one go”. Not that it mattered much. Kevin was in fine voice – he would sound great mumbling the phone book.
http://www.ruthiesbbq.com/
http://www.kevinkiley.com/
June 22, Saturday, 9:00 PM-1:00ish – Better Off Dead at The Great Notch Inn, Route 46, Little Falls (973) 256-7742
As long as the weather is good you will likely see a plethora of motorcycles out in front of “Da Notch”, although I’m not sure if plethora is the right word here. I did a quick search and the preferred term may be a cavalcade of bikes. Either way, it’s the day after the summer solstice; so come out and celebrate.
http://www.betteroffdead.com/home.htm/
http://www.agreatertown.com/little_falls_nj/great_notch_inn_new_jerseys_rockin_roadhouse_00089580