From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Tue Jun 11, 2002  1:13 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Pinetop Smith
 
PINETOP SMITH

Born Clarence Smith, 11 June 1904, Troy, Alabama
Died 15 March 1929, Chicago, Illinois

In his short life of less than twenty-five years, Pinetop Smith laid the
foundations of the modern boogie-woogie piano style. He showed an
interest in the piano from an early age and, having mastered the
rudiments, he began performing in public in Birmingham, where he
grew up. In 1920 he moved to Pittsburgh, where he sought employment
as a vaudeville entertainer. This ambition was quickly realized as Smith
was engaged to appear in a number of travelling road shows, touring on
the TOBA circuit with Ma Rainey and others (TOBA = Theatre Owners'
Booking Association, aka 'Tough On Black Asses'). Although essentially
a pianist, he acquired other vaudeville skills and was equally adept as a
tapdancer, singer and comedian. Around 1925 he met Cow Cow Davenport
who taught him how to compose songs. In 1928 Pinetop settled in Chicago
and recorded "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie"/"Pine Top's Blues" in December
of that year. This was the first song to use the words boogie woogie in its
title. Six more sides for the Vocalion label were recorded during that same
session, including "I'm Sober Now" and "Jump Steady Blues". Three months
later, in March 1929, Pinetop was killed by a stray bullet in a dance-hall
shoot-out.
Smith was an influence on Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons. The latter
transformed "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" into "Boogie Woogie Stomp" in 1935.
Scores of artists have recorded "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie", often known as
just "Boogie Woogie". The most successful was the version by the Tommy
Dorsey Orchestra for Victor, recorded in 1938, and reissued in 1943 during
the recording ban. The Clark Sisters did a harmony vocal version for Dot in
1958 based on the Dorsey arrangement.

Further reading, Peter J. Silvester, A Left Hand Like God : A History of Boogie
Woogie Piano. London : Quartet, 1988 ; New York : Da Capo, 1989.