Albert Ammons

"Boogie-woogie" pianist Albert Ammons was born in 1907 in Chicago, IL. He grew up listening to the blues and "barrelhouse" piano players that inhabited the city's famed jazz scene. He drove a taxi while trying to break into the music business, and one day he ran into fellow driver (and jazz pianist) Meade 'Lux' Lewis. The two hit it off and became close friends, even sharing an apartment for a period. A resident of that apartment building was yet another jazz pianist, Pinetop Smith. The three became close and often played together. Ammons hit his stride in the Chicago blues scene in the early 1930s and cut his first album in 1936 with his group The Rhythm Kings. He went to New York and played in The Cafe Society, a nightclub that featured "boogie-woogie" musicians, and at one point played in Harry James' and Benny Goodman's bands. He joined Lionel Hampton's band in 1949, but his health--which hadn't been good--began to deteriorate rapidly. He died in Chicago on Dec. 5, 1949.