The Birth Of Rock and Roll Piano
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Rock and roll piano springs from many different styles. On the surface the early styles just seemed to be blues playing at a high speed, but a closer look reveals a lot more under the surface. Rock and roll piano is an amalgam of many styles as is jazz or classical playing.
One of the pioneers of rock and roll piano is Little Richard. Little Richard was a fiery pianist, combining boogie-woogie, rhythm and blues and gospel music into his own unique blend. In fact, his introduction to music was in a highly energetic church environment. Combined with his highly suggestive singing, Little Richard formed the basics of rock and roll. He emphasize the back beat in his music to give it wild momentum, unlike many of his peers. James Brown once said that Little Richard “put the funk in the rock and roll beat.”
Jerry Lee Lewis is also a founder of rock and roll piano. His poor family mortgaged their farm in order to buy a piano, and he learned from playing with his cousins. His style combined similar elements as Little Richard’s, but with the inclusion of country piano. One of his early influences was country boogie player Moon Mullican, whose piano style was a precursor to rock and roll. Lewis developed his style at a young age, Â but he transformed traditional gospel numbers into boogie songs.
Before these two performers, there was a man named Fats Domino. In 1949, he released a record entitled “The Fat Man,” which became the first rock and roll record to sell a million copies. During the most successful part of his career, he had many Top 40 hits until the tastes of the record buying public changed. Without his contribution to rock and roll piano, we may have never have heard Lady Madonna by the Beatles.
Both Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis treated the piano not only as an instrument, but as a prop as well. They would play standing up. They would kick the bench out from under them. They would dance on top of the piano while the band continued to play. Rock and roll piano was an untamed beast. Even today Elton John and Billy Joel, artists who are considered very mainstream, adopt some of these wild antics Rock and roll piano lives on in a different form today. There are revivalists, traditionalists and copycat artists all around the world. Popular artists from each subsequent musical generation have mined the style, updating it and adding to their own stew. There are always new avenues to explore in rock and roll.