A musical journey through the history of boogie-woogieA warm welcome to BoogieLand – a pub that doesn’t actually exist. Or perhaps it does.
Somewhere between a rough-and-tumble barrelhouse in the American South, a New York City club, and a lively dance bar lies this place, where nearly a century of music history unfolds in a single evening.
The journey begins where boogie-woogie was still music for hardworking people: in simple bars and honky-tonks—loud, raw, and featuring a piano that had to replace an entire band. Henning Pertiet, one of Europe’s great masters of barrelhouse piano, brings this original world back to life.
Then BoogieLand moves on to New York. In the late 1930s, boogie-woogie took the clubs by storm and eventually even conquered Carnegie Hall. The music of the barrelhouses turns into a musical fever. Hardly anyone could tell this story better than Axel Zwingenberger. For decades, he has been one of the most prominent international representatives of boogie-woogie and has himself helped shape a chapter of recent boogie-woogie history.
But at some point, this music no longer wants to be merely admired. It wants to hit the dance floor. In the third part of the evening, the piano becomes a band, and BoogieLand finally turns into a party. K.C. Miller on piano and Viveca Lindhe on vocals join forces with Moe Jaksch on bass and Micha Maass on drums. Boogie-woogie blends with vocals, swing, jump blues, and the energy of clubs and dance halls.
And eventually, all generations come together again where it all began: at the piano, at the bar, and right in the middle of the music. Three musical scenes. Three eras. A bar.
Featuring:
Henning Pertiet · Piano
Axel Zwingenberger · Piano
K.C. Miller · Piano
Viveca Lindhe · Vocals
Moe Jaksch · Bass
Micha Maass · Drums, Host
An evening exploring the history of boogie-woogie—not as a lecture, but the way this music has always been told: live, immediate, and with plenty of action on the keys.
