Original subtitles

Once I had a pretty little girl

I lose my baby, ain't that sad?

Once I had a pretty little girl

I lose my baby, ain't that sad?

You know you can't spend What you ain't got

You can't lose What you ain't never had

Well you know you can't spend What you ain't got

You can't lose What you ain't never had

The piano is the most important musical instrument.

George Bernard Shaw wrote...

its invention was to music what the printing press was to poetry.

Bartholomeu Christophory, an Italian...

invented the piano at the beginning of the 18th century.

Evolving from the harpsichord...

the piano emerged at the dawn of the industrial revolution.

With some 20,000 parts, the piano has been able to produce a sound...

that inspired the likes of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven.

The piano has continued to remain...

one of the most valued musical instruments to this day.

At the beginning of the 20th century the piano began to make its way...

to the roots of American music.

Becoming one of the key instruments in playing the blues.

Piano blues could be heard in the saloons, lumber camps, brothels...

churches, honkey talks, all the way down the Mississippi to Louisiana...

Alabama and Texas.

Soon it settled in New Orleans...

quickly spreading to Chicago and Harlem and Kansas City.

From the 1920s to the present...

Piano blues has remained a steadfast foundation...

and the fountain of American music.

It has embraced boogie woogie, jump blues, stried, gospel blues...

the Spanish tinge, rhythm and blues, urban blues and all kinds of jazz.

Many piano players have made their deep mark in the blues...

and this is their story.

- Hey, Ray. - Hey.

What's up?

- How you doing? - Here's to you old amigo...

and all the good times.

- That's right, you got it, brother. - And here's to all those women.

- Here's to all the women. - That we been through.

So set 'em up my amigo.

Oh, man.

What got you interested in music. How'd you start?

When I was three years old...

there was a man living next door.

And he had like a little Jones' store, you know...

where you buy carrots, candy, bread and stuff like that.

This small village town in Florida. Well, anyway...

when I was three, I don't know why but...

every time when he'd start to practice...

I was... I couldn't help myself, I had to stop and listen.

And he would play that boogie woogie.

You know, and I just loved it.

And I would jump on the stew and he...

and he would say... No, no, no, no, no...

and every time, every time, I mean...

I don't care if I was playing with my buddies. Whatever I was doing...

when he played that piano I would stop in my tracks.

- And so eventually... - He taught you something.

What he did. You don't hit the piano with your full fists son.

I'm gonna teach you how to play a melody with one finger.

That's how he did it, I started.

Like that. That's how I got started. And I was fascinated.

I could hit a key and make a sound.

I was very impressed.

Hey mama Don't you treat me wrong

Come and love your daddy All night long

Come and love your daddy All night long

When you see me in misery

Come on baby See about me

Now yeah, all right yeah

Come on baby See about me

See the girl With the red dress on

She can put it down All night long

All night long Now yeah

Tell your mama Tell your pa

I'm gonna send you back To Arkansas

That's really how I got started.

This guy was practicing.

You know, the thing is Clint, it shows you about people though.

He could've said 'Get away from me kid don't you see I'm practicing'.

And I would've had to go. Cause I was taught to mind old people.

But he didn't say that. He musta saw...

I guess he felt that any kid that was willing to give up his playing time...

to come to listen to him, he must love music.

I think that's what he must have thought.

Do you remember his name?

Wally Pitman. I'll never forget...

- Wally Pitman? - Yeah, Wally Pitman.

- And he was a boogie piano player. - That's right.

Those guys were great. It's funny...

Almost every piano player I talked to started out that way...

with something like that. Because that was the intriguing music.

Either that or a lot of them get it in church.

- That's right. - Gospel players that play like that.

- I grew up with. - Meade Lux Lewis

- Oh, we said it at the same time. - The same time.

And Albert Ammons. Pete Johnson and all those guys.

Pete Johnson, Sears cash played the hell out of the boogie woogie.

- Different styles. Different kinds. - Yeah.

Going up.

A little bit higher, a little bit higher.

Hold it. Hold it.

As time went on. You know as I said...

he started me out picking out a little melody...

with one, two finger. I became so interested...

in the sound that I was creating myself. I was so fascinated with that.

And then as time went on...

he was able to tell me now...

you know, you got two hands.

Well, you have to learn how to use the other hand.

The man was so nice to me.

The reason I appreciated him so much 'cause...

as I became a grown man...

I realized the one thing that impressed me...

was that he didn't throw me out.

He didn't say 'I'm practicing, get away from here'.

He could've said that but he didn't.

Now kids starting out they do blues. Because it's the easiest.

It's the easiest thing to play. You play two notes.

- That's it. - Two keys.

But then you got interested in Tatum of course.

Well, you know, as time goes on you start listening to these guys.

You know being in this village I listened to a lot of blues.

There are people like Tamper Red, Lux Lewis.

- I listened to those guys too. - Big Joe Turner.

Oh, I've been

Oh, look at me

Oh, you been relieved

Before somebody start to cry

Everybody prays

Lord Almighty

Might be running free to you

California rain

Take it down, take it down

Make that same theme Take it down

Jay is playing.

The thing was with me. I just loved the music.

If it sounded good it was all right with me.

And of course, in the south in those days...

you had two kinds of music.

You had blues in your own neighborhood...

and if you turned on the radio you got country and western.

- That's it. - Yeah, right.

My mom would let me stay up on Saturday.

That's the only time I could stay up past 9 o'clock on Saturday night.

Because I loved the Grand Ole Opry.

- I mean, I was fascinated. - The Grand Ole Opry.

- The Rymann Auditorium. - That's right. You got it.

We filmed in there one time. Kind of a classical place.

Is all about

If you got yourself

That's what the blues Is all about

You know you can't get The famous men around me

And I pray my woman Is steppin' out

Yeah, you gotta live

Yes, oh Lord

So with this whole documentary were doing is sort of the history of the blues...

with how it started and trying to find people like yourself.

How did they get interested in and a lot of people say out of the church...

and a lot of people say boogie woogie like what you're saying or some little...

some kind of tunes.

But see in the neighborhood I was in, I mean, that's what you heard...

you know, you hear the blues all the time. Muddy Waters.

- We had T Bone Walker. - Yes. There you go.

- Joe Houston. - C'mon. Well, You know what's going on.

In fact, I was talking to Joe Adams out there...

and I said I used to listen to you on the air all the time...

when I was going to college down here.

When I first came to California in 1949...

he was the king...

anywhere you went in the city, I don't care where it was...

the gas station, grocery store, wherever...

you'd go you heard him on the radio from 12 to 3. No way I'd forget that.

I'm drifting and drifting

Like a ship out on the sea

Well I'm drifting and drifting

Like a ship out on the sea

Well I ain't got nobody

In this world to care for me

But the blues was something that was just there...

and of course my mom was a Baptist so I went to church...

all the revival meetings, and BYPU.

And the Sunday morning service and Sunday night service...

and revival meeting.

People love that music. I love that music.

I used to go to them even, if I wasn't a member of the church...

I would go and sit in the back.

In those days they didn't have no instruments.

They just walk in and they...

and the chorus sang...

- Hey - Huh

- Ho - Ho

- Hey - Huh

- Ho - Ho

- Hey - Huh

It's all right

You know it's all right

Baby it's all right

It's all right

You know it's all right

You know it's all right

- Hey - Huh

- Ho - Ho

- Hey - Huh

- Ho - Ho

- Hey - Huh

Baby shake that thing

Baby shake that thing

Baby shake that thing

Baby shake that thing

Shake it, baby

Baby shake that thing

- Hey - Huh

- Ho - Ho

- Hey - Huh

- Ho - Huh

Make me feel so good

Make me feel so good

Make me feel so good

Make me feel so good

Make me feel so good

Then one more time

Then one more time

Oh one more, One more time, baby

Say it one more time Say it one more time

One more time One more time

Take me home

Take me home

Said I wanna go home

Baby it's all right

Bless your heart.

Sit down, Dave, and I'll just ask you a little bit about the blues.

The origin, in your mind, how did you get interested in it...

and who influenced you when you were a young guy?

You know, the spirituals and the blues...

are all kind of connected.

And I had a friend from New Orleans...

and she, when there was trouble she would say "Lord, Lord...

what will tomorrow bring. Today...

I felt a narrow stinging in the womb so deep...

my eyes refuse to weep.

And this is the blues spiritual.

Beautiful.

Who was your biggest influence when you were young? What piano player?

Well, when I was a kid going to school, college...

I got a chance to be intermission pianist...

for a great pianist, a woman named Cleo Brown.

She's the one that gave me a note to introduce me to Art Tatum...

the greatest pianist, one of the greatest musicians we've ever had.

Dave Brubeck told a great story about Cleo Brown. Did you know Cleo Brown?

- No. - Cleo Brown turned him onto art.

And once he heard Art Tatum and of course...

everybody else like Pat Swoller...

everybody else said that's God right there.

That's right. You get it. But at least it was true, man.

You just couldn't believe.

Piano got 88 keys and he ain't got but 10 fingers.

But he made it sound like there were two people playing.

Like two people playing.

And sometimes he would have his beer with him.

And when he's drinking a sip of beer he would use his left hand...

and you wouldn't know the difference.

Didn't make no difference.

We were joking about it the other day...

saying he had the fastest left hand in the west.

That's right.

But my God.

You just sit back and listen to Art Tatum...

and you just don't believe what you hear.

I find that pretty impressive to me.

And the closest person that I've heard to him is Oscar Peterson.

- Oscar can play. - Oscar can play.

Motherfucker can play his ass off.

Can we use motherfucker on the air.

Of course we can.

Play us one of your earliest blues things if you want.

What you grew up with, something that influenced you.

- Beautiful. Tell me about Nat. - Nat Cole was my man.

He was a great player.

And a lot of people don't know that. They know him for his singing.

- He was a great player. - That's right, you got it.

That's what I wanted to be as a kid coming up.

I wanted to sing...

and play the little tasty things behind my singing like he does.

That's why I tried to imitate him.

Eat Nat King Cole, slept Nate King Cole...

drink Nat Cole.

Well, those early records of his too where he played.

Later on he became such a big singing star with Nelson Riddle.

That's why a lot of people don't know he can play.

But I knew he could play...

because I heard him when he had his first group.

And his stuff, the way he put it together with the guitar...

and himself and the piano.

It is better

To be on the shelf

Be just like a hermit Living in a cave

You don't get much love But do you save

It is better

To be by yourself

There's a story that's told By this man, mate

With a change And I see you gig

He works all day And come home at night

Stare at little bit dippy All she wants to do is fight

So it's better to be By yourself, boy

It's better to be By yourself, man

So it's better to be By yourself, boy

Real tasty stuff.

Nat Cole don't fool yourself my friend he can play...

- He can play. - And with feeling.

It's not running up and down the keyboard. It's playing with feeling.

And knowing what you're doing.

Baby let me hold your hand

'Till I make you understand

Oh, baby

Please let me hold your hand

I wanna you to know, girl

And make you understand

Yeah, yeah. Thank you, Raymond.

Piano players out of new Orleans have been continuous contributors...

to the world of the blues...

from it's first hero, Jolly Row Morton...

Professor Longhair, Fats Domino, Dr. John...

the celebratory sound emanating from new Orleans...

is a joy to behold.

Right on, very nice, Mac. Tell me who was your first influence?

Well, when I was a little weed...

my aunt Audrey taught me how to play the Texas boogie.

- The Texas boogie? - A little kid I used to do that.

- Two hands. - I put the whole thing together later.

I tell you the guy I like was Pete Johnson...

his old records with Joe Turner stuff like that.

Rolling Pete.

I like that, what was it? Barney Brown.

That's the one I can remember. I liked...

Iocal artist in New Orleans like Jake and Jack Dupree.

I loved him he played the junkie blues.

It was kind...

you know, of all them local cats would be doing.

That whole little style of that was a whole part of New Orleans...

and it was a cat play the very same thing with whole other day...

and I got to hear those cats as a kid.

That's what made me what to be a guitar player.

There was a cat used to play the junkie blues. Like...

Them styles it was all like the same thing.

But why did you want to be a guitar player?

I heard so many bad piano players.

I just decided I'll never get a job playing music, as a piano player.

There was so many cats that were...

Like I said, there was Jack Dupree...

there was Hughie Smith, he got famous for doing...

that rock Rollin and boogie woogie all that stuff later...

when I first met him he was playing the blues all that bad stuff.

- By bad you mean good. - I mean seriously hip stuff.

Bad meaning good.

The thing was, Professor Long Hair was one of my all time.

He goes back. As a kid I got to meet him a little...

because my father wasn't selling records...

but doing fixings, pa systems and stuff round town.

We'd used take old pianos like this one.

They couldn't really put 'em together so they set 'em out on the street.

Trash pick em up, but we'd drag 'em in the house...

or in the alleys in different places.

I learned how to fix pianos this way. Different player...

get handles off of one piano and put 'em in the other...

get the little pad that make the action down here.

If it wouldn't work I'd tie a chord string or three in it...

and bring it to the next notch where the action would work to get it to work.

I'd play. Some keys work and some keys didn't...

just with a broken piano in the house it taught me a lot.

This is how I started cross chording...

if one key didn't play it didn't matter to me I'd find other key to skip to.

Tipitina tipa tipa Tipitina, little mama

Tipitina tipa tipa Tipitina, little mama

Who was your influence beside your uncle.

Was it all in your family, your aunt and uncle?

To start with...

and then I grew up in blues country...

and I had piano players in my family.

So first, my grandmother who played ragtime piano...

was an influence on me.

She had a pile of ten pan alley sheet music...

so I got hear a lot of that.

My aunt played beautiful piano a certain amount of boogie woogie.

So as I started exploring piano really...

professor Longhair and the New Orleans sound playing...

but he in particular because he was such an innovator...

he invented and created that polyrhythmic style that...

that so many of us do and carried on through Dr. John and James Bleeker...

and now a whole other generation.

Well give us a little shot. Play us something.

Well, my favorite 'fess kind of stuff.

I got my red beans cooking

I got my red beans cooking

I got my red beans cooking

I got my red beans cooking

I got my red beans cooking

Then when they get done Won't give me some?

Fabulous.

Yeah fabulous, that was fabulous.

Fats Domino. He was bad.

He was playing stuff that made him famous and he was playing the blues.

They call me Call me the Fat Man

Cause I weigh two hundred pounds

All the girls they love me

Cause I know my way around

I was standing, was standing On the corner

Of Rampart and Canal

I was watching, watching

Watching those people go

I'm going, going away

And I'm going to stay

Cause we be in this fast life Can't stand this

Fats Domino is amazing. One time we took him out...

on the plains of the Grand Tetons in Wyoming...

and we put a huge grand piano out there...

and had Fats Domino play and so he started playing one of these things...

I Wanna Walk You Home, one of these songs...

and all of a sudden everyone stopped and I look over the side of the hill...

and there were ten elk and they were all sitting there...

with their heads titled like this.

And as soon as he stopped, they left.

They were fascinated.

- Everybody likes the blues. - No critics there.

My own gimme.

Me got fire, me can't put out

Firewater gonna make me shout

Going down and get my squaw

And may come well in a car

Me big chief, me feeling good

Me gonna do everything me could

Me big chief, me got my day

Ain't that the way some say

Getting on down the 6th Avenue

Small boy running in a battle field

Me whole tribe having fun

Is it going the whole night long?

You can shake it, you can break it Hang it on the wall

Throw it up in the little kitchen In a little ball

You can mess around

Mess around

Do what you want where and when you feel like

Everybody is doing the mess around

Thank you.

My name is Willy.

- Willy. - Willy Perkins.

We started calling me Pinetop.

Where do you think the blues sort of evolved from?

What do you think the beginning did it out of gospel, out of churches?

I tell you I think what muddy said about it...

if the blues had a baby they'd name it be rock 'n roll.

Two things that give the man the blues.

You ain't got no bread and love sick.

That's two blues in one.

I agree with you there, Muddy.

I would do the same thing like because I know...

If time ain't get no better

Up the road I'm going

The blues is like a doctor...

it can heal you...

and it can pull you down some.

Where do we all get our blues from...

mostly, is our beautiful ladies.

Let me sing a song.

In the 1950 an urban blues sound came together in Chicago.

Men like Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf electrified the music...

that had been brought up from the Delta.

Contributing to this life force of deep blues...

were piano players like Otis Spann.

Let me tell you something now.

One day

I'm gonna miss again And I say

Ain't nothing to say gal

Ain't nobody's business You hear me?

What I do

Me and my baby

We fought and fight

Just the next morning

Are we lovin' right

Ain't nobody's business

If I do

All lie

To save a notion

Call a gal

Dropping older

Ain't nobody's business

If I do

I give up trying To find my red rooster

I'm telling you I've been waiting him

If you see my little red rooster

Please drive him home

Dogs start barking

And hounds begin to howl

If you see my little red rooster

Drive him home

Well there was a lady who lived up the street from me called...

her name was White and I got a lot of influence from her.

Cause I couldn't play the blues in my daddy's house.

See my mother was in church and my dad was the deacon of the church...

and I couldn't play no blues. I had to go to her house to play the blues.

- Sneak out. - I got a few whoopings behind it too.

I was supposed to be in school but I wasn't. I was playing the blues.

You know the blues

Don't like nobody

You know the blues

Don't like nobody

But you can find the blues, baby

Only for a dollar a bottle

You know the blues

Hates everybody

You know the blues, baby

Hates everybody

But you can find the blues, baby

Only for a dollar a bottle

Never for a baby would I Knock down this soul

Cause she wants me no more Cause I had the blues

It don't like nobody

You know the blues You know the blues

Blues don't like nobody

I'm going

Only this morning 'bout Four o'clock

Stopped by her house Feeling really low

Cause the blues

And the blues don't like nobody

You know the blues You know the blues

Blues don't like nobody

You know the blues

Hates everybody

You know the blues

Hates everybody

You know the blues You know the blues

The blues don't like nobody

You know the blues You know the blues

The blues don't like nobody

Today is very much influenced by blues and...

but then before that it seems like music and rock 'n roll...

is getting less complicated...

while blues had more gospel and soul in it.

I never draw any difference between...

blues and any of that stuff.

I thought it was all related first cousin, second cousin, third cousin.

All those jump blues guys they all sort of like rockers...

- Joe Houston all those guys. - Those jump rockers...

they would once in a while would veer off and go off into what we call jazz.

That's what we called jazz back then.

They'd go into jazz, jazz, jazz.

Then so that way I never did know what it meant...

to say this was that, that was that.

Everybody trying to play everything.

I just made it one thing. This was the blues.

Well it can be fast blues, slow blues, that was the only difference I knew...

slow, fast.

What's the tempo your playing it in and let it go.

Right.

This is very beautiful.

Hello little girl

Don't you remember me?

Hello, hello, little girl

Don't you remember me?

A lot of time It's been so long

But I had a little break You see

Well, I'm doing alright

Well, I found a little cupid doll

Yes, I'm doing alright

Yes, I found a little cupid doll

When she loses three flags

Then she sends me with a smile

Well, she calls me her lover

Yes, and her beggar too

Well, she calls me her lover

Yes, and her beggar too

Now ain't you sorry little girl

That my new little girl ain't you

Very good.

Beautiful...

- thanks very much, Jay. - Thank you.

Thanks for talking a little bit about your life and the blues.

That was splendid...

"She called me her lover, she called me her beggar too."

I know those words, I've used them many times.

Piano blues embraces all modes of jazz.

The solitary player of the night club, the sophistication of Duke Ellington...

and the energy of beep bob. The blues is the basis of everything.

So Pete, tell me how you started out.

My father brought home these records of like Meade Lux and Albert Ammons...

and that turned me on immediately.

It seems like I had a natural ability to improvise...

for some odd reason, like a gift.

People say how to play jazz. I say well...

you want to learn how to play your instrument...

and then if your fingers go there, whatever you hear comes out.

Did you learn by reading or by imitating?

Well I imitated the records and then I took piano lessons.

I've always felt that jazz and blues...

were a true American art form...

maybe the only real original American art form we have.

I just have always been fascinated with the music...

I grew up listening to that rather than pop tunes.

My mom thought I was kind of crazy. But it's her fault.

Because she brought home a bunch of Fat Swaller records and said...

This is what I call real piano playing and I thought well that's the way it is.

I'd tried to play stride piano but it didn't come out...

it didn't come out very stridy...

so I kinda played a three cord beat thing.

But I've always been interested in it and later on jazz, beep bob.

Society sort of dictates what people start playing.

Like Beep bop in the 40s came out of...

people searching for something...

something new or some new way to go after things.

You had to open up some doors.

Everybody is like, if your listening to some of the things.

That little thing.

There something else in soft peanut.

There was something in there...

if you are listen at it and slow it down a little bit...

if forget, I can't think of it right now. But it's like it...

really sounds like something Louis Armstrong played way back...

in the game like one of them Call thing.

Beside that famous melody of that piece.

You heard, I mean, you heard...

to me it took something like that...

and he took it to a whole other place and kept rolling stuff like that.

My first time I heard Thelonius Monk record...

I thought he was local cat. I almost turned that off.

I didn't know Monk was from Carolina.

You just heard music and it reminded me of stuff I heard.

Well, everybody is influenced from somewhere.

Back when we did that very last record he did. And he said so you know...

play me some old, this old tune. Old cousin Joe's song...

a guy from new Orleans. A guy he always recording with from new Orleans...

all these bebop cats. I thought he was jibbing...

the fact is I remembered this line of this song...

I didn't know the words, and it ended with...

If you get your hands On some money

You can buy everything You can get

If you get your hands On some money

You can buy everything You can get

You know You can't take it with you

I ain't never seen no armored car Follow a funeral yeah

That line never seen an armored car follow a funeral yeah...

was all that Art remembered of the song.

You want to play a little of Pinetop's boogie for us.

I can't play it like I used to because...

I got stabbed in this arm here and I can't get the base...

rolling like I want.

I can't play it like I used to and I didn't even get stabbed.

I used to play that thing.

Give us just a little taste.

Very good.

- It was nice. - Thank you.

This guy is wonderful. He's still got it.

Beautiful.

Playing the blues evokes joy, sorrow happiness...

despair and truth in a timeless fashion.

Hey mama Don't you treat me wrong

Come and love your daddy All night long

Tell me what'd I say

Tell me what'd I say, baby

- Thank you, Ray. - That's alright, man.

Even patriotic songs can become the blues.

Oh beautiful

For heroes proved

In

Liberating strife

Who more than self

Their country loved

And mercy more Than life, life

What am I singing about tonight?

This America Sweet America

May God thy gold refine

Till all success

Be nobleness

And

Every gain divined

And you know, when I was a little boy...

I remember we used to sing it like this...

Oh beautiful

For spacious skies

For

Amber waves of grain

For purple mountain majesties

Above Above the fruited plain

Listen to me now

America

America

God Done shed his grace on thee

Yes He did

And He crowned thy good

Oh don't you remember?

Singing brotherhood

From

Sea

To

Shining sea

You know, I wish I had somebody to help me sing this.

America

Oh America

My God

He shed His grace on me

I love you America, cause He

He crowned thy good

He told me he would

With brotherhood

From

Sea

To

Shining sea

Yeah, listen

I wanna thank you, Lord