Bob Seeley & "Boogie" Bob Baldori
Detroit, Michigan and Lansing, Michigan
Boogie Woogie Music

Critics and fellow musicians have called Bob Seeley (left in photo) “the best boogie-woogie player on the planet.” It is often said that a good boogie-woogie player sounds like there are two pianists playing at once; of Seeley, it has been said that he “often sounds like there are three pianists in pitched boogie battle.”
              Seeley, who has played thousands of gigs in cities around the world, has stayed close to his Detroit hometown: he has been a fixture at Charley's Crab in Troy, Michigan since the restaurant opened in the 1970s. His introduction to boogie woogie music came early in life. While still a teenager studying at the Detroit Institute of Musical Arts, Bob Seeley would ride his bike to Baker's Bar (pre Baker's Keyboard Lounge) and listen in at the back door to Fat Waller protégé Pat Flowers. At the once ubiquitous boogie clubs in Detroit, Seeley heard other greats like Art Tatum and Eubie Blake, the latter who became both a friend and fan of Seeley's.   Perhaps his most conspicuous influence, however, was Meade “Lux” Lewis, who was considered largely responsible for igniting the boogie-woogie craze during World War II.   Seeley first met the maestro during a Detroit gig in the late 1940s.   Their friendship flourished and when Lewis would play concerts in Detroit, he often invited Seeley to perform through the intermissions.
              The term boogie-woogie itself started as black slang.   Detroit's infamous strip of black clubs on Hastings Street had no small part in shaping the word's definition: music historian Peter Silvester has said that “boogie-woogie is used to mean either dancing or music in the city of Detroit.”   The more contemporary concept of boogie-woogie is most often traced to a form of playing piano that was born in Southern barrelhouses--rough-cut bars with a small dance floor and a piano player who could go all night.   The music that Seeley plays five nights a week in the swank confines of Charley's Crab is derived from those barrelhouse entertainers, players who were rarely captured on recordings.

              Meanwhile, Lansing resident “Boogie” Bob Baldori started his career in the late sixties in Detroit with his group, The Woolies, which had the national hit “Who Do You Love?”   Like Seeley, Baldori has played venues all over the United States.   In addition, he has recorded, engineered, and produced albums as well as wrote and starred in the musical “I'm Almost Famous” which premiered at Lansing's Boarshead Theater.   For years he has backed up Chuck Berry, recording two albums with the rock and roll great.

Links
http://boog.com/
http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=4386

Return to Music and Dance page

Go to Next Artist- Bill Stevens