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Arthur Migliazza | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1980 (age 42–43) Hyattsville, Maryland |
| Genres | Jazz, blues, ragtime, boogie woogie |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instrument(s) | Piano |
| Years active | 1993–present |
| Website | arthurmigliazza |
Arthur Migliazza (born 1980) is an American blues and boogie woogie pianist. [1] [2]
Arthur Migliazza began studying classical piano at age nine in Washington, D.C., but soon switched to playing blues at age 10 when exposed to it by his teacher. [3] At age 11, Migliazza moved to [[Tucson, Arizona],] with his family and played his first professional show at age 13 at the Tucson Blues Festival, opening for Little Milton. [3] [4]
Migliazza's most notable teachers growing up were Judy Luis-Watson, Ann Rabson, Mark Braun and Henry Butler. [5] Many of his interactions with these teachers were not on a regular basis, but rather by correspondence. [6] From 1991 to 2001, Migliazza also attended Augusta Blues Week in Elkins, West Virginia, for one week every summer. [7] It was there that he befriended and learned from other blues musicians such as Cephas & Wiggins, John Jackson, Steve James, Del Rey, and Saffire – The Uppity Blues Women. [8]
Throughout junior high and high school, Migliazza worked as a solo musician and as part of a piano and drums duo called The Blues Kats, mostly performing at Tucson social events and retirement homes. [9] [10] In 1996 the duo released its first and only album, Funja, [11] and in 1997 the duo was a runner-up in the Tucson Area Music Awards for best blues act. [12]
After graduating, Migliazza moved to Hiroshima, Japan to teach English for a year under the JET Programme. [13] [14]
Migliazza began teaching private piano lessons at age 15 and has also appeared on the faculty at Augusta Blues Week in Elkins, West Virginia, and Centrum Blues Week in Port Townsend, Washington, many times since 2001. [5] In 2015, Hal Leonard published Migliazza's signature "8-Lick" teaching method in a book called How to Play Boogie Woogie Piano. [15] [16] The success of this book prompted Migliazza to author an article for wikihow also called How To Play Boogie Woogie Piano and start the first online school for boogie woogie piano instruction called School of Boogie. [17]
Migliazza is most known for his solo performances, which blend virtuoso piano playing with historic storytelling and anecdotes. [18] He continues to perform around the US and internationally as a solo act. [19]
His first band was the Blues Kats, formed in 1994 in Tucson, Arizona, with drummer Joe Martinez and they released an album in 1997 called Funja.
From 2007 to 2011, Migliazza produced an annual dueling boogie woogie piano event in Tucson, called The Booginator with Eric-Jan Overbeek [ nl ] (aka Mr. Boogie Woogie). [20] [21] [22]
In 2011, Migliazza teamed up with former Chuck Berry piano player Bob Baldori, to perform Baldori's original stage play about the history of Boogie Woogie music called Boogie Stomp!. This led to the release of an album together, Disturbing the Peace in 2018 under the name 'The Boogie Kings'. The duo enjoyed many US and international tours, including two sold-out tours of Russia on behalf of the US Embassy, and two extended Off-Broadway runs in New York City, in 2014 and 2015. [23] [24]
While living in Seattle in 2013, Migliazza performed with the rockabilly group The Dusty 45s. [25]
In 2016, an unpublished original work of Migliazza called "Gimme Attention" was adapted to the J-pop style by the Japanese pop star Kazumi Morohoshi, and released as a signal. Migliazza performed with Morohoshi on stage at Zepp Tokyo for Morohoshi's birthday concert and release of the single. [26] [27]
Boogie-woogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, developed in African-American communities since the 1870s. It was eventually extended from piano to piano duo and trio, guitar, big band, country and western music, and gospel. While standard blues traditionally expresses a variety of emotions, boogie-woogie is mainly dance music. The genre had a significant influence on rhythm and blues and rock and roll.
Anderson Meade Lewis, known as Meade Lux Lewis, was an American pianist and composer, remembered for his playing in the boogie-woogie style. His best-known work, "Honky Tonk Train Blues", has been recorded by many artists.
Albert Clifton Ammons was an American pianist and player of boogie-woogie, a blues style popular from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s.
Pete Johnson was an American boogie-woogie and jazz pianist.
Marcia Ball is an American blues singer and pianist raised in Vinton, Louisiana.
Boogie is a repetitive, swung note or shuffle rhythm, "groove" or pattern used in blues which was originally played on the piano in boogie-woogie music. The characteristic rhythm and feel of the boogie was then adapted to guitar, double bass, and other instruments. The earliest recorded boogie-woogie song was in 1916. By the 1930s, Swing bands such as Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey and Louis Jordan all had boogie hits. By the 1950s, boogie became incorporated into the emerging rockabilly and rock and roll styles. In the late 1980s and the early 1990s country bands released country boogies. Today, the term "boogie" usually refers to dancing to pop, disco, or rock music.
"Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" is a World War II jump blues song written by Don Raye and Hughie Prince which was introduced by The Andrews Sisters in the Abbott and Costello comedy film, Buck Privates (1941). The Andrews Sisters' Decca recording reached number six on the U.S. pop singles chart in the spring of 1941 when the film was in release. The song is ranked No. 6 on Songs of the Century. Bette Midler's 1972 recording of the song also reached the top ten on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
Clarence Lofton, credited as Cripple Clarence Lofton, was an American boogie-woogie pianist and singer born in Tennessee.
Bob Baldori, also known as "Boogie Bob", is an American rock, blues, boogie musician and attorney. He plays the guitar, harmonica and piano.
James Louis Blythe was an American jazz and boogie-woogie pianist and composer. Blythe is known to have recorded as many as 300 piano rolls, and his song "Chicago Stomp" is considered one of the earliest examples of boogie-woogie music to be recorded.
Arthur "Montana" Taylor was an American boogie-woogie and piano blues pianist, best known for his recordings in the 1940s, and regarded as the leading exponent of the "barrelhouse" style of playing.
Joseph L. "Big Joe" Duskin was an American blues and boogie-woogie pianist. He is best known for his debut album, Cincinnati Stomp (1978), and the tracks "Well, Well Baby" and "I Met a Girl Named Martha".
Walter Roland was an American blues, boogie-woogie and jazz pianist, guitarist and singer, noted for his association with Lucille Bogan, Josh White and Sonny Scott. The music journalist Gérard Herzhaft stated that Roland was "a great piano player... as comfortable in boogie-woogies as in slow blues," adding that "Roland – with his manner of playing and his singing – was direct and rural."
Caroline Dahl is an American pianist and composer of boogie-woogie and American roots music.
Rob Hoeke was a Dutch singer, pianist, composer and songwriter most famous for his renditions in the field of Boogie-woogie releasing over 20 albums. Besides that he played and recorded in a musical variety of styles ranging from Blues, Soul, Rock and Rhythm & Blues.
Night Leaves is an album by pianist Jaki Byard and cellist David Eyges.
Abie "Boogaloo" Ames was an American blues and jazz pianist.
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Willie Egan was an American rhythm and blues and boogie-woogie pianist, singer, and songwriter. He recorded a string of singles in the mid- to late-1950s, using his "boogie-woogie-tinged R&B" styling to critical, but no real commercial, success. Egan wrote most of his own material, and enjoyed a resurgence of interest in Europe in the early 1980s. Pop historians tend to concur that his lack of tangible success in the 1950s, was down to a combination of lack of national promotion, scarce airplay and poor management. A continual mis-spelling of his own name was a further distraction; even his best remembered track, "Wear Your Black Dress", appeared on a single's B-side.