St Louis Blues as performed by Albert Ammons

Here is the amazing Albert Ammons in a rather uncharacteristic non-"boogie bass" mode, performing the W.C. Handy classic, St. Louis Blues.

Before discovering Fats Waller, I came across this performance of Ammons' at a young age and have been spellbound ever since. It was the first piece of piano music that I ever felt compelled to transcribe, which I attempted all too primitively at the time. Then, I got hold of a tape recorder with a variable playback speed at which point all its "treasures" were revealed, showing the amazing ingenuity of this player. For me, this performance more than any other, shows Ammons at the peak of his creative powers.

While Ammons was more famous for being one of the top 3 boogie-woogie pianists of his day (along with Pete Johnson and Meade Lux Lewis) here he displays a more typical 10th stride left-hand style (one that he apparently learned from Hersal Thomas in his early development) but which still alternates to a 10th-infused boogie figure throughout the performance. As per Eubie Blakes' reference to the pianist William Turk of his day, Ammons possessed a "left hand like God", with its relentless power, momentum and independence, featuring forward and backward tenth triads, a tenth-incorporated boogie bass pattern with a devilish reverse syncopation accenting the end of each pattern, complemented by a virtuosically expressive right hand, delivering fluid melodic lines with crushed bluesy inflexions executed evenly and smoothly in perfect timing and swing. There is a lot to enjoy in Peter SIlvester's book "A Left Hand Like God", where you can learn much more about this amazing pianist and his boogie-woogie colleagues.

As is often the case in transcribing such rhythmically free-flowing playing, the final result is rather difficult to read and nearly impossible to replicate literally. Of course, Sibelius plays it back perfectly and in these videos I try to replicate the original performance as closely as possible. Obviously, Ammons wasn't thinking semiquaver triplets and the start and stop of a glissando as he was playing. It all swung forth spontaneously and organically, so the rhythmic notations are to be interpreted very loosely.

Most importantly, listen to the original performance and understand the feel of Ammons' playing to fully grasp the transcription. Feel is of utmost importance!

Here is the original performance:

https://youtu.be/oVjUwvggqaQ?si=yUGHlF60n9M2rKzt

#albertammons #boogiewoogiepiano #stlouisblues

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