Queens of Boogie Woogie

Boogie woogie is a style of piano that, at one time during the 20th century, was a required part of every piano player’s repertoire, no matter how much of a jazz, blues, rock, pop, ragtime, or bebop player you were. It began in the late 19th century, in the African-American lumber camps, as they cut trees and moved farther and farther out, laying railroad ties across the South. There was always a piano player and a piano on the train to entertain at night. The style is characterized by a driving, repetitive left-hand figure, much like the sound of a train. In previous Spotlight columns, many of the musicians I’ve highlighted wrote, arranged, and played boogie woogie in their repertoire: Hazel Scott, Mary Lou Williams, Hadda Brooks, Katie Webster, Marcia Ball, Lil Hardin Armstrong, Dorothey Donegan, etc. (See previous columns in the Troubadour: https://sandiegotroubadour.com/category/columns/sues-spotlight-women-in-blues-and-jazz/

At first, it was considered “devil’s music,” probably for its association with rough men. But, eventually, it became very popular and there is still a market for it 150 years later! There are so many women I could mention who were considered proponents of it and also occasional players of the genre, including Devonia Williams (well known in Johnny Otis’ band), CleoPatra Brown (out of Chicago: “Pinetop’s Boogie”), Martha Davis (rollicking entertainer and student of Fats Waller), and Jo Ann Castle (well-known stride player, featured with Lawrence Welk; he called her the “Queen of Honky Tonk Piano”). (For more boogie gals, see the two-pack CD compilation set, Boogie Woogie Gals: Boogie Songstresses and Piano Stylists, issued by JSP Records, 2015, out of the United Kingdom and features 50 different women.)

Perhaps the first one to get me into playing as a solo boogie woogie performer was Wendy Dewitt, in the very early 2000s. Wendy, who grew up in Northern California, considers herself a blues player with excellent boogie woogie chops. She first learned about me in Keyboard magazine when I was touring with blues singer Candye Kane in the late ’90s. By 2000, I had left Candye’s band, so she enticed me to join her for the next several years in shows she produced featuring the “Queens of Boogie Woogie.” She went on to produce many such shows, including the Queens and other prominent West Coast festivals, featuring the premier practitioners of the genre, including, among others, Silvan Zingg from Switzerland (who also shares a favorite with me in Hadda Brooks, Lluis Coloma from Spain, and Sonny Carl Leyland from California. But in this column, I want to focus on the queens, all who have active and ongoing music careers as we speak.

Wendy, a Santa Rosa High School graduate, caught the attention of Western Swing Hall of Famer Tommy Thomsen at the age of 10 and hasn’t stopped since. She is the former pianist for Hank Nallard (of Hank Ballard and the Midnighters ) and has worked with Chicago legend Steve Freund for over 30 years. She has also worked with Charlie Musselwhite, Otis Rush, Bigtime Sarah, Jimmy Thakery, and acclaimed Northern California-based blues, rock, and soul vocalist Annie Sampson. She can most often be seen performing with her husband and music partner, drummer Kirk Harwood. They live in a charming wood-frame former church in Ukiah, which they now call the Church of Boogie Woogie.

While she and Kirk have toured nationally and internationally, Wendy has been busy getting her Interdisciplinary Bachelor’s Degree, with a focus on women and the blues. She teaches workshops on boogie woogie and the history of the blues and has a weekly radio show on KZYX-FM in Mendocino. You can catch her online every Monday, 1-3pm, at KZYX.org. She features blues, boogie woogie, and American roots artists from Jimmy Yancey to Marcia Ball. She is very active in her community, holding the position of State Musician for the California State Grange and is a board member for the Ukiah Community Concert Association, among other local organizations.

Wendy plays with her partner, Kirk, sometimes with a full band, including the aforementioned Steve Freund, saxophonist Nancy Wright, and bassist Ruth Davies. Now that she has her Bachelor’s Degree, she intends to rev up her playing schedule and start touring again. I am hoping she makes her way to San Diego.

I would like to mention a few of the women that Wendy included in her Queens of Boogie Woogie Festivals. We played at the famed Yoshi’s in Oakland many times and in the Bay area in general. One of the queens she included was Beverly Stovall, who was a prominent fixture in the East Bay music scenes during the ’80s and ’90s. Her career was firmly rooted in the West Oakland blues and R&B scene. Stovall was a legendary regular at the historic Eli’s Mile High Club on San Pablo Ave., known as “Home of the West Coast Blues,” where she held a residency. She also anchored the house bands at neighboring historic black blues hubs of that era, like the Serenade Club on Telegraph Ave., performing alongside Bay Area staples such as Curtis Lawson, Birdlegg, and Sonny Rhodes.

Originally from Mississippi, she wasn’t allowed to play blues when growing up but went for it after she moved to California. She toured a bit with notorious blues singer Big Mama Thornton. I don’t know too much about her, but she played so lowdown and with such soul, it was amazing. It was a pleasure to hear her.

Beverly ultimately passed away in 2016, but all of the other queens are alive and still have very active careers. Probably the multi-talented Dona Oxford, now of LA, stands out as both a musician and an actress. She was born in New York, studied acting and piano, and moved to Chicago as an adult where she began playing with blues and rock legends, such as Buddy Guy and Johnnie Johnson (Chuck Berry), Keith Richards, Van Morrison, Roger Daltry, Levon Helm, and many more. She was singer Shemekia Copeland’s piano player for several years. She moved to LA to further her acting career and hooked up with Wendy and me in the early 2000s to do boogie woogie shows. She is always a show stopper, whether playing and singing, or acting. She can be extremely funny. She is a serious regular in a new TV comedy CARLOT by Barbershop writer, Mark Brown. She is also a screenwriter and has composed countless TV and film scores. She is a voice instructor and acting coach, and has toured in 27 countries. Dona is a pleasure to play with.

Another of the original queens was Lisa Otey. At the time—2000-2015—she hailed from Tucson, Arizona. I first met Lisa after I quit blues singer Candye Kane’s band in 1999, when she joined Candye after I left. She toured with Candye for awhile before returning to Tucson and did her own career, both solo and with her band the Desert Divas. She was awarded the Arizona Composer of the Year award in 2000, among many other awards, and was frequently awarded Best Performing Artist of Tucson. Before she moved to Michigan, she was the musical director and pianist for the Gaslight Theatre. She is also a great stride and ragtime player.

All of the various queens have organized boogie woogie shows with several of us who were available to come to their hometowns. Lisa booked us in Phoenix (at the Rhythm Room) and several Tucson venues. She toured extensively with Mr. Boogie Woogie from the Netherlands. Moving to the Midwest with her wife and musical partner, singer Diane Van Deurzen, they survived the pandemic and revved up their careers as a duo, touring the Midwest and internationally, playing jazz, sultry blues, and boogie woogie.

Pianist, singer, saxophonist Deanna Bogart was in quite a few of Wendy’s productions. I actually first met her when the Superbowl was in San Diego, in 1988, and we were both trying out to play one of the 88 pianos during the half time show. We were introduced by Bob (Flint) Long, a former San Diego resident and piano player here. I had always been interested in meeting Deanna, as she played sax and piano, but she lived on the East Coast, in Maryland, and our paths rarely crossed. Then I noticed she had moved to Palm Desert, so I told Wendy we should track her down. The shows with her were fun, because not only could we all play solo piano butcould also double, triple, and four-way piano, AND I could play piano while Deanna played sax. I thought she had tone like the sax legend Ben Webster, who turned out to be her role model. Deanna has been entertaining for over 40 years and is a five-time recipient of the Blues Music Award back in Memphis, in the horn instrumentalist category, most recently in 2023.

Deanna was one of the 10 women featured in my first all-women’s 10-piece band at the Gator by the Bay Festival here in San Diego, 2015 (Ladies Shoes Blues Revue) and ended up sitting in with several bands at the festival the same year. Another woman in that show was guitarist Carmen Getit. I had become acquainted with her after playing in one of Wendy’s first Queen of Boogie Woogie productions at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, during the early 2000s. Carmen plays mostly as a duo or in a band with her husband, Steve Lucky, a wonderful swing and boogie woogie player himself. For years they have played as Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums, featuring Carmen Getit, and as a duo. For many years, they have been considered San Francisco’s top jump-swing band.

As you can see, in the music world, one thing leads to another and magic happens! My last boogie woogie profile for this Spotlight is a piano player from Australia, Jan Preston. Wendy, Deanna, and myself met Jan at Sylvan Zingg’s Boogie Woogie Festival in Lugano, Switzerland, in 2014. The shows also included some players from Russia and France as well as some fantastic swing dancers. We all played together and separately and I’m sure, if Jan lived closer, we would have done much more together. She is known as the Queen of Boogie Woogie in Australia and is a delightful singer, pianist, and songwriter. She has written for film and received awards from both New Zealand and Australia; she is currently writing her memoirs after 50 years of playing. She has two million streams on Spotify, a catalogue of over 16 CDs, has represented Sydney at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis and had her intro composition played on BBC Radio every night. “…I haven’t made a million dollars (yet), but I have done what I always wanted to do: being a working musician! What a blessing. A working musician. Long may it continue.” —Jan Preston, Facebook, August 2026…

I think this speaks for all of us.