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My Early Boogie Woogie Piano Music

 

Note: The following music files are Windows Media Player WMA (Windows Media Audio) files. In order to hear these properly, you should install the latest Media Player. Download it HERE.

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The following two samples are me playing on my Kurzweil electronic keyboard recently. I connected the line input of my computer to the line output of my Kurzweil K2500X electronic keyboard. Technically, it works great. Now, if my piano playing were only a little better. . .

Click file name to play files one at a time Size, Time Comments
Kurzweil Sample6 79k,    26 sec This was my very first computer recording and web posting.
More Boogie
308k, 1:44 min 
  




Ancient personal history:

In 1944 I was 18 and going to radio school in the Navy in Houston, Texas. I would go to the USO (United Service Organization) to play the piano. A nice lady came in to record service men's messages home. It recorded on 7" acetate discs at 78 RPM which lasted maybe two minutes. We hauled her recorder up to the second floor where I could play Boogie Woogie on the piano there and make some recordings. After decades of kicking around the house and many playings later, there's not much left to them.

Anyway, here's what I sounded like, some 65 years ago (as of 2009) just out of high school. Some of the records are quite noisy.

A009 Houston Boogie 365k, 2:01 min In the Navy, 1944, in a Houston USO.
A008 Houston Blues 380k, 2:06 min, Some skips 
A002 More Houston Boogie 256k, 1:25 min,  Low level, Noisy

After the WAR, I went back to Kansas City, where I made these Boogie Woogie recordings in the late 40's.

A010 House Boogie 400k, 2:13 min These old acetate records are my entire surviving collection.
A012 House Blues 435k, 2:25 min  
A015 Boogie Tests (x3) 330k, 1:50 min, Noisy.
A004 Allan's Blues 297k, 1:38 min Track has hum.
A016 Snippet 51k, 16 sec, Noodling on my Chickering grand - had great bass.

"Stride" piano, my house, late 40's. Can't you just see the little old ladies dancing. . .

A006 Sunny Side of the Street 336k, 2:01 min. My high school buddy Jim Miller on drums. You can hardly hear him.
A007 It Might as Well Be Spring 407k, 2:14 min,  Sloppy, Rushy.
A011 Stardust 387k, 2:09 min Just practicing.

This brings us to the end of my historical records, so to speak.

Next step, real piano in real time. (Actually, the Kurzweil samples were that.)

Stay tuned.

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