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Boogie Woogie is a style of music that emerged immediately after the abolition of slavery in the US in the 1870s. This makes the style – like gospel singing – one of the bridges between African-American music, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm and blues from the beginning of the 20th century on. Boogie Woogie has endured over the years and played a major role in the pop music that emerged in the US around the 1960th and would also gain major influence in Europe.

Listen to a recent recording of the ‘Boogie Woogie Piano’ by Johan Blohm. just for fun.

Origin

Freed slaves migrated across America from 1870 in search of work.  At that time, cities developed rapidly and there was a need for lots of timber.  Logging camps sprang up, where many former slaves found work, but also provided musical entertainment in so-called ‘barrelhouses’. These are elementary pubs often just a roof, two beer barrels and a few boards over them, completed by an old piano. Pianists travelled around, telling stories about ‘the outside world”””, which gave them a certain status.  It took not long, before Boogie Woogie was also heard in pubs in the cities.

Boogie Woogie is very catchy and in its elementary form easy to play. Together with the beer (and the ladies) its sound contributed to the pleasure. The origin of the name Boogie Woogie is not clear.  Some think of ‘bogey man’, others hear in the monotonous bass parts the rhythm of the freight trains that carried pianists usually as stowaways from one camp to another. 

The first song in which the term Boogie Woogie appears explicitly is Pine Tops’ Boogie Woogie. ‘Pine Top’ (crown of pine tree) was the nickname of Clarence Smith, one of the piano players who also came to climb pine trees like no other.

Here the original 1928 performance on one of the first gramophone records of the time.

Musical style

Characteristic of Boogie Woogie is the tight rhythm on the piano of the left hand and the frivolous runs with the right hand.  Melody and rhythm are not that important.  The right hand mainly provides variation and inspired dancers to create figures. The lyrics were instructions for dancing. The piano is used like a percussion instrument. This is very well expressed in the following recording, in which piano and drums complementing each other particularly well.

Dance music par excellence

Rhythm, tempo and variation in tone are the key ingredients to put your body in a ‘dancing mood’. To this day, the Boogie Woogie inspires dancing. Nice to see professional dancers displaying their gifts

Boogie Woogie after logging camps and small pubs

Back to history for a moment. When logging camps became history, Boogie Woogie was confined to the many jazz clubs and dance parties.  Gramophone records gave its distribution an initial boost. Initially, Boogie Woogie stayed music by and for African-Americans. That changed in the late 1930s with a concert at Carnegie Hall called ‘From Spirituals to Swing’, which led to a huge uplift in the popularity of ‘black music’. Here is a recording of Mead Lux Lewis, one of famous Boogie Woogie players of that time:.

The bridge to pop music

In 1958, Little Richard provided a bridge between Boogie Woogie and pop music with the song Good Golly Miss Molly. This song was widely adopted by other groups and singers. It reached the 92th place of the ‘Rolling Stone Magazine’s hit list of all time.

Dance competitions

Dancing and on Boogie Woogie are inextricably linked. Sometimes visual effects take the leading role and there is no longer a splashing dance party but a show. This extreme form is also called acrobatic rock and roll. Finally, enjoy a recording of a Boogie Woogie competition from 2016.

The first songs called post-progressive date from the mid-1980s. Most prog rock in the years that follow can be characterized as such.  So, you can expect ‘post-prog rock’ to have a high degree of diversity. Differences exist over time, by group and within albums too. 

Among others, the groups Rush and Marillion illustrate the transition from neo- to post- progressive rock. As for Rush, an album like ‘Presto’ (1989) is characterized by its emphasis on atmosphere and simpler structure. ‘The pass‘ from this album is a simple song, introspective in nature and has meaningful lyrics. In its early years, Marillion embodies the characteristics of the neo-progressive period through its use of synthesizers and dramatic lyrics. Gradually, the emphasis shifts to conveying emotion, creating atmosphere and topical themes, typical of post-progressive rock. 

Below, I will I list seven characteristics and give some examples of each^[1] . I have embedded an example in the text and added references to other examples as hyperlinks to YouTube. Many characteristics apply to most songs. The emphasis in this episode is on watching and listening. The explanatory texts have therefore been kept short.

1. Focus on atmosphere and texture

The emphasis is on creating a rich, atmospheric soundscape. The intimate approach is well heard in Porcupine Tree’s song ‘ Trains ‘, from the album ‘Arriving somewhere’. ‘Living with the big lie’ by Marillion from the album Brave is also an emotional song, which goes far beyond a simple ballad due to its layering. You can listen to this song here.

2. Interaction with alternative rock 

Elsewhere, I have dwelt at length on ‘alternative’ rock.  This style and prog rock have common elements. Both genres set themselves against ‘mainstream rock music’ in the late 20^th century.  Both are experimenting. Prog rock does so with complex structures, unusual time signatures and is influenced by many other genres including classical and jazz. Alternative rock’s song structure tends to be simpler and influenced by post-punk. At the same time, there is great variation within the genres. Radiohead is a band that can be counted as belonging to both genres, consider the album OK computer'(1997) from which you can listen to ‘Paranoid Android’ here.

3. Minimalism through repetition

Parts are sometimes drawn out for a long time, which can have a hypnotic effect. An example is Radiohead’s ‘Pyramid Song’ (2001). The emphasis is on atmosphere and emotion in a minimal but compelling arrangement

This also applies to the track ‘Untouchable, parts 1 & 2) from the album ‘Weather systems’ (2012) by Anathema, an English rock band from Liverpool. This two-part song embodies the emotional content and atmospheric timbre characteristic of much post-progressive rock. It starts with a powerful acoustic melody and evolves into a grand orchestral climax. You can listen to it here:

4. Less emphasis on displaying virtuosity

The emphasis is no longer on individual solos, but on contribution to a collective sonic experience. An example is the song ‘ Lateralus ‘ by the band ‘Tool’ (2014). It has complex time signatures (7/8 and 9/8) and is about spiritual and philosophical growth. The technically high-quality playing expresses its emotional side. 

5. Introspective and social themes

Lyrics are personal, philosophical or socially engaged and often have a melancholic or subdued undertones.

The first example is ‘ Anesthetize ‘ by Porcupine Tree from the album ‘Fear of a blank planet’. For 17 minutes, it addresses topics such as technology and alienation. From a musical point of view, it consists of an alternation between atmospheric and heavy guitar-driven parts. Steven Wilson and his Porcupine Tree are at the heart of the (contemporary) post-progressive movement. 

The group Marillion also occupies a central position in post-progressive rock. The track ‘Care’ from the album ‘An hour before it is dark’ (2022) is an atmospheric composition with socially-conscious lyrics, including climate change. You can listen to it here:

6. Broad influences and cross-genre experimentation

I already referred to the interfaces between post-progressive and alternative rock. In many songs categorized as post-progressive, its creators have deliberately used elements from other genres. Therefore, one of the main characteristics of post-progressive rock is its eclectic nature.

Dream Theater is an example of fusing post-progressive characteristics and hard rock. This is evident in the song ‘Through her eyes’ on the album ‘Live in London’ (2020), but also, for that matter, in most of the band’s other songs. The band is heavily influenced by prog rock bands like Rush, Yes and Pink Floyd, but equally by heavy metal bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest.

A song like ‘Take the veil cerpin taxi’ by the group ‘Mars Volta’ adds influences of punk, jazz and Latin American music to a prog rock base.

Again, I refer to the group Marillion. The song ‘The party’ from the album ‘Holidays in Eden’ (1991) is almost a pop song. It is accessible, melody plays an important role, and the structure is simpler than most of Marillion’s other songs.

Finally, the group ‘Talking Heads’ combined (post-)punk influences with the more refined sound of progressive rock.  This group was a model for many a band. Listen to ‘Life during wartime’ here 

7. Dynamics and contrast

Dynamics and contrast are essentially features of prog rock in general, but in the case of post-prog  rock they are more subtle and emotionally charged.

As a first example, listen to Porcupine Tree’s song ‘The start of something beautiful’ from the album Arriving somewhere but not here’ (2006).

The second example comes from Marillion, namely the song ‘Neverland’ from the album ‘Out of seasons’ (2009). A highlight of the band’s career, it combines melodic style and layered structure.

Finally, I refer to the song ‘From silence to somewhere’ from the group Wobbler’s album ‘From silence to somewhere'(2017). This album ranks as the highest on Prog rock archives’ database in the period 2001 – 2020. You can listen to it here:

I make a preliminary assessment. In the preceding episodes, the characteristics of prog rock, neo-progressive and of post-progressive rock have been discussed. In each case, I showed numerous examples, which incidentally revealed not only differences but also similarities between these periods. 

The main similarities are complexity. layered structure, dynamics, rich lyrics, personal character and virtuoso playing. 

The main differences are summarized in the table below.

In summary, progressive rock was characterized by technical complexity, epic themes and classical influence. Neo-progressive rock is more accessible, more focused on appealing melodies and the use of synthesizers plays an important role. Post-progressive rock mainly seeks atmosphere, within the layered structures of the genre. 

It is more the rule than the exception that bands evolve and the nature of their music changes, as the diagram above indicates. The transitions are then fluid and each band put its own stamp on it. 

In the development of styles, several musicians have played a role beyond the creative power of individual bands, who largely create their songs themselves.  In the next instalment, I briefly consider four of these trailblazers: Rick Wakeman, Peter Gabriel, Mike Portnoy and Steven Wilson. In doing so, I looked at their qualities as musicians and those of the bands they played in, the extent to which their compositions broke new ground, their influence on other bands and musicians and social activities.

^[1] This post is based on an analysis of articles in Wikipedia (Eng.) and recordings on YouTube. ChatGPT was used as an aid in structuring the information.

John William Coltrane (nicknamed ‘Trane’) is born on 23 September 1926 in Hamlet (North Carolina, U.S.) and he died on 17 July 1967 in Huntington (New York, U.S.). He played clarinet and tenor in a local marching band. Later, he switched to saxophone. After high school, he found work in a sugar refinery to supplement the family’s income, which had by now moved to Philadelphia.

1940s

On his 17^de birthday, he was given a saxophone. June 1945 was an important moment in his career; it was then that he first heard Charlie Parker play, about which he later said, “the first time I heard Bird play, it hit me right between the eyes.”

In the army, his musical talent was soon discovered, and he joined the Melody Masters, the swing band at his base in Hawai. His first record recording was in 1946, where he played several jazz standards and bebop songs. Back in Philadelphia, thanks to a scholarship, he took courses in music theory and saxophone. While playing in various bands, he continued to practice fanatically. 

1950s

Meanwhile, Charlie Parker had also discovered his talent and Coltrane regularly played with him as a freelancer, as did Dizzie Gillespie and Johnny Hodges. In 1955, Miles Davis invited him to join his quintet when it was coming back from his heroin addiction. With this quintet, Coltrane recorded the albums Cookin’, Relaxin’, Workin’and Steamin’ (with the Miles Davis Quintet).

From ‘Relaxin’, you can listen here to a live performance in Zurich by Coltrane and Davis in ‘If I Were a Bell’. The recording dates from 1961.

The quintet ceased to exist after several years, now because of Coltrane’s heroin addiction.

In 1957, Coltrane teams up with Thelonius Monk, but due to various contractual obligations, a joint album never materialised. Only in 2005, a good recording of a concert in November 1957 surfaced and an album was produced after all: ‘Thelonius Monk Quartet With John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall’. This album was highly acclaimed. Newsweek spoke of the “musical equivalent of the discovery of a new Mount Everest”. The album shows how Monk gives all the space to Coltrane and subtly supports his solos. Listen to ‘Sweet and Lovely'(1957):

In 1957, Coltrane resumes collaboration with Miles Davis, who perfected the style he had already practised with Monk, i.e. rapid succession of notes, fitting within a predefined sequence of chords. At this time, Daves’ albums ‘Milestones’ and ‘Kind of Blue’ were also recorded. 

1960s

Free jazz

In the early 1960s, Coltrane recorded the album ‘Giant Steps’ (1960). In the history of jazz, this album rivals Davis’ Kind of Blue’. This album has a trickier sequence of patterns of notes than any jazz song. Listening to the title track ‘Giant steps’ while watching an animation of the notes flying by is fascinating. ‘Giant steps’ is compulsory practice material for conservatory students.

Of a very different nature is ‘Naima‘, a tone poem dedicated to his wife. This also applies to two other songs referring to family members: ‘Cousin Mary’ and Syeeda’s Song Flute’, dedicated to his stepdaughter. Watch and listen to the latter song. Played here by the Colorado State University Jazz Ensemble:

A recording like this gives a good idea of what the song sounds like on the record. The difference, of course, is that the song on the album is largely improvised and this version is a transcription of it.

Coltrane forms his first quartet now, later quintet. Its first record was ‘My Favorite Things‘ (1965), on which he plays soprano saxophone. The group plays regularly at the famous jazz club ‘Village Vanguard’ in New York and develops increasingly towards ‘free jazz’. This is evident in one of the most frequently played pieces, ‘Chasin’ the Trane’ (1961). Later, Coltrane added a second bass player to get a deeper pulsating foundation. You can hear that on the albums Olé Coltrane’ (1961), ‘Africa/Africa/Brass’(1961). This song is played here by Archie Shepp and the Hessische Rundfunk Bigband. The beauty of this arrangement is that a second bass player has also been added to this orchestra and the timbre is made extra massive by four (!) tubas.

Of slightly later date are ‘The John Coltrane Quartet Plays’ (1965) and ‘Ascension’ (1965). You watch and listen to part of this album here.

A middle ground?

Many critics were decidedly negative about Coltrane’s development. They spoke of ‘anti-jazz’ and fellow musicians, including Miles Davis, also disliked it. Coltrane took this criticism to heart and the style of the ‘Classic Quartet’, as it was called, becomes more harmonic. This is especially evident in the albums ‘Ballads‘(1961).

In live performances, he continues to push the boundaries between jazz standards and more free forms of jazz. This is evident on albums such as ‘Impressions’ (1963), ‘Live at Birdland’ (1963) and ‘Newport‘(1963). You can watch and listen to ‘I want to talk about you’, from the latter album, here.

Spiritual inspiration

In 1964, the ‘Classic Quartet’ produced its bestseller, ‘A Love Supreme’. This work is an ode to Coltrane’s love for and belief in God. For this, Coltrane thoroughly immersed himself in the writings of various religions. His spiritual inspiration is continued in other albums, such as ‘Ascention‘ (1965), ‘Om‘ (1965) and ‘Meditations‘ (1966) . ‘Om’ is main symbol of Hinduism and refers to the infinity of the universe.

In these albums, Coltrane deepened his commitment to avant-garde jazz, inspired by Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler and Sun Ra. He asked Pharoah Sanders to join the quartet and attracted a second drummer.  Other members of the quartet could no longer follow Coltrane’s path and left the band. 

Cosmic transcendence

With his new group, Coltrane plays long versions of earlier work, sometimes up to 30 minutes. Some concerts have been recorded: ‘Live at the Village Vanguard Again! (1966) and ‘Live in Japan’. Studio recordings appeared on ‘Expression‘ and ‘Interstellar space’(without Sanders).

Death

Coltrane died unexpectedly of liver cancer at the age of 40, after which the African Orthodox Church canonised him. Coltrane is depicted as one of the saints on and 280m² icon – the ‘Dancing Saints’- in St Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco.

Coltrane’s sons continue his musical work. I end with a song taken from the album ‘Expression’, played by Ravi Coltrane’s quartet in 2008.

‘Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary’ is a 2016 film directed by John Scheinfeld. You can watch it here

Urbanisation in the US is undergoing major changes. The image of a central city surrounded by sprawling suburbs therefore needs to be updated. The question is what place does the 15-minute city have in it? That is what this somewhat longer post is about

From the 1950s, residents of US cities began moving en masse to the suburbs. A detached house in the green came within reach for the middle and upper classes, and the car made it possible to commute daily to factories and offices. These were initially still located in and around the cities. The government stimulated this development by investing billions in the road network. 

From the 1980s, offices also started to move away from the big cities. They moved to attractive locations, often near motorway junctions. Sometimes large shopping and entertainment centres also settled there, and flats were built on a small scale for supporting staff. Garreau called such cities ‘edge cities’.

Investors built new suburbs called ‘urban villages’ in the vicinity of the new office locations, significantly reducing the distance to the offices. This did not reduce congestion on congested highways.

However, more and more younger workers had no desire to live in suburbs. The progressive board of Arlington, near Washington DC, took the decision in the 1980s to develop a total of seven walkable, inclusive, attractive and densely built-up cores in circles of up to 800 metres around metro stations. In each was a wide range of employment, flats, shops and other amenities . In the process, the Rosslyn-Balston Corridor emerged and experienced rapid growth. The population of the seven cores now stands at 71,000 out of a total of 136,000 jobs. 36% of all residents use the metro or bus for commuting, which is unprecedentedly high for the US. The Rosslyn-Balston Corridor is a model for many other medium-sized cities in the US, such as New Rochelle near new York.

Moreover, to meet the desire to live within walking distance of all daily amenities, there is a strong movement to also regenerate the suburbs themselves. This is done by building new centres in the suburbs and densifying part of the suburbs. 

The new centres have a wide range of flats, shopping facilities, restaurants and entertainment centres.  Dublin Bridge Park, 30 minutes from Columbus (Ohio) is one of many examples.

It is a walkable residential and commercial area and an easily accessible centre for residents from the surrounding suburbs. It is located on the site of a former mall.

Densification of the suburbs is necessary because of the high demand for (affordable) housing, but also to create sufficient support for the new centres. 

Space is plentiful. In the suburbs, there are thousands of (semi-)detached houses that are too large for the mostly older couples who occupy them. An obvious solution is to split the houses, make them energy-positive and turn them into two or three starter homes. There are many examples how this can be done in a way that does not affect the identity of the suburbs (image). 

This kind of solution is difficult to realise because the municipal authorities concerned are bound by decades-old zoning plans, which prescribe in detail what can be built somewhere. Some of the residents fiercely oppose changing the laws. Especially in California, the NIMBYs (not in my backyard) and the YIMBYs (yes in my backyard) have a stranglehold on each other and housing construction is completely stalled. 

But even without changing zoning laws, there are incremental changes.  Here and there, for instance, garages, usually intended for two or three cars, are being converted into ‘assessor flats’ for grandma and grandpa or for children who cannot buy a house of their own.  But garden houses are also being added and souterrains constructed. Along the path of gradualness, this adds thousands of housing units, without causing much fuss.

It is also worth noting that small, sometimes sleepy towns seem to be at the beginning of a period of boom.  They are particularly popular with millennials. These towns are eminently ‘walkable’ , the houses are not expensive and there is a wide range of amenities. The distance to the city is long, but you can work well from home and that is increasingly the pattern. The pandemic and the homeworking it has initiated has greatly increased the popularity of this kind of residential location.

All in all, urbanisation in the US can be typified by the creation of giant metropolitan areas, across old municipal boundaries. These areas are a conglomeration of new cities, rivalling the old mostly shrinking and poverty-stricken cities in terms of amenities, and where much of employment is in offices and laboratories. In between are the suburbs, with a growing variety of housing. The aim is to create higher densities around railway stations. Besides the older suburbs, ‘urban villages’ have emerged in attractive locations. More and more suburbs are getting their own walkable centres, with a wide range of flats and facilities. Green space has been severely restricted by these developments.

According to Christopher Leinberger, professor of real estate and urban analysis at George Washington University, there is no doubt that in the US, walkable, attractive cores with a mixed population and a varied housing supply following the example of the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor are the future. In addition, walkable car-free neighbourhoods, with attractive housing and ample amenities are in high demand in the US. Some of the ‘urban villages’ are developing as such.  The objection is that these are ‘walkable islands’, rising in an environment that is anything but walkable. So residents always have one or two cars in the car park for when they leave the neighbourhood, as good metro or train connections are scarce. Nor are these kinds of neighbourhoods paragons of a mixed population; rents tend to be well above the already unaffordable average. 

A previous post made it clear that a 15-minute city ideally consists of a 5-minute walking zone, a 15-minute walking zone, also a 5-minute cycling zone and a the 15-minute cycling zone. These three types of neighbourhoods and districts should be developed in conjunction, with employment accessibility also playing an important role.

In the plans for 15-minute cities in many places around the world, these types of zones intertwine, and often it is not even clear which type of zone is meant.  In Paris too, I miss clear choices in this regard. 

The city of Melbourne aims to give a local lifestyle a dominant place among all residents. Therefore, everyone should live within at most 10 minutes’ walking distance to and from all daily amenities.  For this reason, it is referred to as a 20-minute city, whereas in most examples of a 15-minute city, such as Paris, it is only about the round trip. The policy in Melbourne has received strong support from the health sector, which highlights the negative effects of traffic and air pollution. 

In Vancouver, there is talk of a 5-minute city. The idea is for neighbourhoods to become more distinct parts of the city. Each neighbourhood should have several locally owned shops as well as public facilities such as parks, schools, community centres, childcare and libraries. High on the agenda is the push for greater diversity of residents and housing types. Especially in inner-city neighbourhoods, this is accompanied by high densities and high-rise buildings. Confronting this idea with reality yields a pattern of about 120 such geographical units (see map above). 

Many other cities picked up the idea of the 15-minute city.  Among them: Barcelona, London, Milan, Ottawa, Detroit and Portland. The organisation of world cities C40 (now consisting of 96 cities) elevated the idea to the main policy goal in the post-Covid period.

All these cities advocate a reversal of mainstream urbanisation policies. In recent decades, many billions have been invested in building roads with the aim of improving accessibility. This means increasing the distance you can travel in a given time. As a result, facilities were scaled up and concentrated in increasingly distant places. This in turn led to increased congestion that negated improvements in accessibility. The response was further expansion of the road network.  This phenomenon is known as the ‘mobility trap’ or the Marchetti constant.

Instead of increasing accessibility, the 15-minute city aims to expand the number of urban functions you can access within a certain amount of time. This includes employment opportunities. The possibility of working from home has reduced the relevance of the distance between home and workplace. In contrast, the importance of a pleasant living environment has increased. A modified version of the 15-minute city, the ‘walkable city’ then throws high hopes. That, among other things, is the subject of my next post.

Due to a long stay in the hospital, I was unable to post. I cannot guarantee continuity in the near future, but I will do my best… 

In my previous post, I emphasised that urban densification should be coordinated with other claims on space. These are: expanding blue-green infrastructure and the desire to combine living and working. I am also thinking of urban horticulture. It is therefore unlikely that all the necessary housing in the Netherlands – mentioned is a number of one million housing units – can be realised in the existing built-up area. Expansion into rural areas is then inevitable and makes it possible to improve the quality of these rural areas. Densification of the many villages and small towns in our country enable to approach them from the ’15-minute principle’ as well. Villages should thereby become large enough to support at least a small supermarket, primary school and health centre, but also to accommodate small businesses. A fast and frequent public transport-connection to a city, to other villages and to a railway station in the vicinity is important.
 
A thorny issue is the quality of nature in the rural area. Unfortunately, it is in bad shape. A considerable part of the rural area consists of grass plots with large-scale agro-industrial use and arable land on which cattle feed is grown. Half of the Netherlands is for cows, which, incidentally, are mostly in stalls. Restoring nature in the area that is predominantly characterised by large-scale livestock farming, is an essential task for the coming decades.
 
The development of sufficiently dense built-up areas both in cities and villages and the development of new nature around and within those cities and villages is a beckoning prospect. This can be done by applying the idea of ‘scheggen’ in and around medium-sized and large cities. These are green zones that penetrate deep into the urban area. New residential and work locations can then join the already built-up area, preferably along existing railway lines and (fast) bus connections. These neighbourhoods can be built in their entirety with movement on foot and by bicycle as a starting point. The centre is a small densely built-up central part, where the desired amenities can be found.
 
In terms of nature development, depending on the possibilities of the soil, I am thinking of the development of forest and heath areas and lush grasslands, combined with extensive livestock farming, small-scale cultivation of agricultural and horticultural products for the benefit of nearby city, water features with a sponge function with partly recreational use, and a network of footpaths and cycle paths. Picture above: nature development and stream restoration (Photo: Bob Luijks) 

Here you can link to my free downloadable e-book: 25 Building blocks to create better streets, neighborhoods and cities.