Boogie Woogie

Wow! Glad you alerted me to this Rufus isn't she great?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBYDzsTdT30

She's brilliant - you have to have strong arms and hands to play like that.
The only one I can think of is:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8of3uhG1tCI

Is it my eyes, or in some of the shots is she playing notes without the piano keys being pressed down as the notes are heard? I have tried slowing down the video but I can't decide whether I see it or not.
The shots I mean are from a lower viewpoint so that you see the ends of the keys.

Winifred Atwell - www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJagAMtp6AE Black and white rag

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbdarK4zc0k

(Blight of the fumble-bee)

Look up Boogie Woogie Piano Tommy Johnson on You Tube.
He's the best I've ever heard.

Elegran, I noticed the same thing. She didn't appear to be pressing the keys. I wonder if this is a feature of an electronic piano, though I have no experience of them and don't know if the keys have to be touched rather than pressed. Someone here must know about these things!

She's brilliant - you have to have strong arms and hands to play like that
Fennel; Agreed! Not being a pianist, my eyes were mesmerised by the speed at which her fingers flew over the keys. As far as I could tell, she didn't hit a wrong note and I'll never fathom how B.W. pianists can memorise scores and play them so fast without it all sounding a mess of random notes.

can't decide whether I see it or not
Elegran; don't worry about it!
Just sit back, relax, shut your eyes and listen to the music, or jump up and jive around your kitchen to the beat; whatever turns you on. I know my preference.

I've listened to it properly and there's definitely some electronic rhythm going on supporting her playing.
I once had an electronic piano, and you can programme in various rhythm backings, play the main theme yourself. Sometime sounds like a soloist with a a small orchestra.
There's also something called a pianola which my grandparents had. You fix it into the piano mechanism and choose a tune. Then just sit there and pedal and the keys go down by themselves.
As I said you have to be strong to play this kind of music (and even moreso for classical.)
There was a style called stride piano which shows this. I loved Fats Waller, an expert:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIFoAwJPtm4

ps well spotted Elegran.

None of that backing rhythm with Tommy Johnson!
Piano tone is far less tinny too.
Anyone found him yet?

Fennel In the shots from the left, the keys go up and down in time with the music as she presses them, and the movement is reflected in the shiny surface behind them. In the shots from below her right elbow, you can't see the keys moving at all, and there are no reflections. A separate piece of video has been shot from the right, and edited into the other bit, synchronised with the sound.

Anyone found him yet?
Yes, but not my style!; tinny free or not! Thanks for contributing and like all good threads it leads you up all sorts of interesting diversions; e.g. Ladyva (again) playing on the concourse at Paris airport and the Rock and Roll piano police, on duty in full uniform in a shopping mall, playing a BW duet.! It's all marvellous and I could watch for hours.

Yes he's good showergel .
I've been looking up boogie woogie and it's more the dance than the music. A bit like lindyhop. And based on Afro-American 12 bar blues ( which I tried to master when I had a piano [sad})
One of my favourite clips:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI5l5KvlUQ8

Thanks Fennel
I studied music and did piano but could never master 12 bar blues and Boogie Woogie.
I’ve listened to others and never found anything quite as mesmerising as that Tommy Johnson clip.

Looking at them dancing is unbelievable isn’t it?

[

I wish I was still as fit as that!

Me too!

I wish I was still as fit as that!
Fennel; Congratulations if you were ever as fit as that! . What happened?
Exhausted right now having just watched "Champions Boogie Woogie Laroquebrou 2009 and 2017 in colour! on You-tube. It's almost hypnotic! And there's heaps more to come. Wish I was a bit younger!

How fabulous Rufus 2
I’ll be watching that later
If only...
My body won’t move to order anymore...one side is particularly awkward but I am having physio
Fingers crossed but I would never have been able to do Boogie Woogie.
Would you?
They are gifted.

Have you been watching BBC 2 Young Dancer?

I was never quite as agile as that. The nearest I got was dancing with one of my husband's brothers who was very 'mobile' to say the least . He kept swinging me out, catching me again and spinning me around.
That was the last time I danced with him. My husband has the proverbial 2 left feet.
Reminds me of anothe Fats Waller one:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=in1eK3x1PBI&t=65s

Have you been watching BBC 2 Young Dancer?
Showergel; Didn't know it existed and so never tried it from here in OZ, but now I've found it thanks for your prompt, Google and the Internet. It's incredible what info. is available; it's simply knowing where to look. I'm now hooked into a permanent cycle of seeking Boogie-Woogie videos then using You-tube downloader. To think I never gave BW a second glance until Ladyva appeared. No fool like an old fool! OoRoo

In the shots from the left, the keys go up and down in time with the music as she presses them
Can't say I noticed! I just sit back, shut my eyes and let the music flow over me. Your analysis reminds me of school teachers of long ago who killed any interest in Shakespeare by having us dissect minuscule parts of his plays. It took ages to repair the damage.
We should have been learning to play the piano; it would have proved very profitable later in life playing BW!

It was not a destructive "analysis" Rufus It was an attempt to explain just WHY my first impression was that she was miming to a recording. I went back and watched it again and decided that the shots from her left were done while she was playing, and the shots from her right were taken afterwards and superimposed on the video (with her miming for this part, because editing in the sound as well as the movement would have been more complicated).

If it had been true that she had mimed it all, then all those people (including you) who praised her wonderful playing were being swicked and she wasn't playing at all, just acting. Closing your eyes and just listening to the music is fine - but if you do that you don't need to see a real person playing, do you? You could just have listened to the same recording that she was miming to, and she could have been any passing girl with no musical ability at all.