My men's league basketball game ran into overtime, so I arrived at the Palladium's Side Door club just in time for boogie-woogie piano master Bob Seeley to go on break. I was surprised, and pleased, to see a sell-out crowd of 150 lingering around the tables, the crowd made up mostly of retirees.
Seeley, based in Detroit, is 80, but doesn't look it — and he certainly doesn't play like you might expect an 80-year-old to play. He's a firebrand with remarkable technique. After doing brisk CD sales at the merch table, and a set by locals Liz Pennock & Dr. Blues, Seeley took to the baby grand and wowed the joint.
Whereas most jazz piano features the player's right hand, with the left hand laying out chordal accents, boogie-woogie highlights the left hand, which pounds out a steady stream of eighth notes.
Not to say that Seeley's other paw was sub-bar; he used it to execute some marvelous runs.
Boogie-woogie, played on solo piano like last night, is one of the most exuberant, joyous sounds to emanate from the annals of American music. Seeley sure proved that.
His show-stopper piece was "Mama Don't Allow," an old-time number that Seeley used to strut his skills in boogie, ragtime, stride, Charleston, Ellingtonia ("Take the A Train"), Gershwin ("I Got Rhythm") and more. He blasted through the piece with supreme confidence and good humor.
