Another African-American substyle is boogie-woogie, usually featuring piano as the dominant instrument. It also has a strong beat, using jazz elements as the point of departure. This music emanated from the lumber camps of east Texas, and it's a slow heavily syncopated style of blues piano. Now boogie-woogie piano is at the root of rock and roll. Here's an example, Pine Top's Boogie Woogie performed by Clarence, Pine Top Smith in 1928. [MUSIC] Big Joe Turner was a famous jazz singer who performed with dozens of bands, and famous artists in lots of different styles of music, big band and some other stuff as well as boogie woogie. This is a tune he did with Pete Johnson in 1938 called Roll'Em Pete. [MUSIC] >> Now as for the white influences around the fringes of rock and roll, there were big band swing. That's one of them. It was the white man's jazz, if you will. It had very complex structure and large horn sections, strong rhythmic parts that include pounding drums. These were four crisscross with anywhere between 20 and 40 musicians and usually at least one featured singer, often more. They were grand scaled jazz ensambles, the descendants of the symphony orchestras of the 18th and 19th century. Big Band featured great musicianship, even though the bands were large. Benny Goodman was a clarinet player who had his own orchestra, featuring Gene Krupa, one of the greatest drummers ever. In this clip they do Sing, Sing, Sing in a video from 1937. [MUSIC] >> Jump blues is yet another style of music. It had jazz and blues roots as well. Very up tempo, kind of similar to boogie-woogie but usually featuring a horn section. This style of music is one of the most important direct predecessors of rock and roll. It emerged during the economic belt tightening of World War II. Swing bands were forced to down size because it was just too expensive to travel with such a large orchestra. So they cut it down to a rhythm section and one or two soloists. They compensated for the smaller group by playing harder, faster, wilder versions of the swing jazz hits, they'd become known for. Lyrics were typically risque. They also began incorporating some blues, which was just making end roads into urban areas like Chicago. From this music evolved what has come to be known as R&B, one of the main stylistic influences on rock and roll. Jump Blues was less interested in swinging the beat than hitting it hard. Then country musicians latched onto the style, and guess what emerged, rockabilly. Well Louis Jordan was one of the greatest practitioners of jump blues as evidenced by this tune Choo-Choo-Ch-Boogie from 1946. >> [MUSIC] >> I hope you are able to hear how much more the music is sounding like rock and roll as we reach the late 1940s. Some people say this song by Wynonie Harris in 1948 was the first rock and roll record. I can't honestly say cuz there are a lot of candidates, but it's a reasonable assertion. We will hear some of the other candidates though in the next few weeks. And notice, we're back to suggestive lyrics with Good Rocking Tonight. And we're also back to the recurring theme of linear evolution as you'll see in a moment. Here's Wynonie Harris. [MUSIC] Elvis covered the song in 1956. [MUSIC] >> Well, you could hear the rockabilly influence in that cover of the song, but here are some more. Paul McCartney covered it in 1991. [MUSIC] >> And a nearly identical but not exactly identical song was released by Roy Brown, another jump blues artist in 1948. His version was called Rockin' At Midnight. [MUSIC] And that song was covered by Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant in a band they called the Honey Drippers on a EP that was released in 1984. [MUSIC] >> Louis Prima was an artist who rode the trends during his career. He started with a seven piece New Orleans style jazz band in the 1920s. Followed that with swing combo in the 1930s, a big band in the 40s, a Vegas lounge act in the 50s, and even a pop rock band in the 1960s. He did I'm a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody in 1956. [MUSIC] >> Yes, that's the same David Lee Roth you think it is. Louis Prima, one last song and a cover, one more cover from him. Louis Prima also did Jump Jive an' Wail in 1956. [MUSIC] >> And that tune, jump blues tune was covered by Brian Setzer's orchestra, during the swing revival of the late 1990s. Setzer, by the way, is an amazing guitar player. [MUSIC] >> When we come back we'll talk about some other early influences on rock and roll.
