[Dixielandjazz] Cripple Clarence Lofton

[John Farrell]

A snippet from Steve Barbone's post :

"about Cripple Clarence Lofton, and his
unconventional song construction. He was a boogie woogie pianist for
those who don't know. Maybe John Farrell could fine the below renditions
and put them on his midis?"

and a description of how Clarence used to butcher the 12 bar blues format :

"In his version of "Pinetop's Boogie," his first three choruses are
respectively eleven,
ten, and twelve measures in length. In the latter part of the piece,
Clarence favors a fourteen bar construction, with a final chorus of 14
1/2 for good measure! Odd phrase lengths were likewise in his previous
solo art recording of "Streamline Train" and "Had A Dream," as well as
"I Don't Know" (in which pairs of 19 and 20 bar choruses are followed by
one of 19 1/2)."

I have listened to quite a lot of this kind of music in the hope that I
could use it as piano roll and midi file material, but did not do so because
of several considerations including :

1. I do not care for the earthy, unsophisticated "back-to-the-delta" music
played by Clarence and his ilk.
2. It does not sell.
3. I was concerned that roll purchasers might think that the "faulty" 12 bar
blues sequences were in fact transcription mistakes I had made.

Not for me, I'm afraid.

John Farrell
http://homepages.tesco.net/~stridepiano/midifiles.htm