Last Saturday night while sitting in The Midway Tavern & Dancehall, Mishawaka, Indiana’s famed blues venue, I cast more than one glance toward that old upright piano in the backroom music area, and my mind presented a slew of memories of the great blues piano players who put the grand instrument through its paces.  Certainly, when blues piano man Pinetop Perkins lived just down the road in LaPorte, Indiana, whenever he frequented the club, he would provide the instrument a workout, performing either a solo piece or sitting-in with a band.  I can fondly recall Perkins offering one of his signature pieces, “Caldonia,” more than once, and with a completely different cadence and feeling, him digging deep and soulfully playing and singing “How Long Blues.”

My thoughts also took me to my dear departed friend, Barrelhouse Chuck, and all the times he played the venue, and how much he enjoyed sitting down on that old piano bench, opening the key cover, and playing and crooning the blues.  It seemed like whenever Chuck played The Midway Tavern & Dancehall, he implored all in attendance to recognize Leroy Carr and his importance to the blues and the blues piano art form, and then performing a version of Carr’s “Straight Alky Blues.”

But conversely, Chuck would often cut loose on the aged upright piano and with great enthusiasm and punch out a boogie woogie that would be sure to get the people out of their seats and onto the dancefloor, setting the room alive more than it was already.  With a sparkle in his eyes, and a broad smile upon his face, Chuck knew he had the audience in his hands, right where he wanted them.

Those are some of my favorite blues memories related to that old, battered, smoke-coated upright piano that I will always carry with me when I visit The Midway Tavern & Dancehall.

This past week as I was searching through my vast (my long-suffering wife may call it my “out-of-control”) blues collection, I stumbled upon a Hadda Brooks Ace Records label compilation entitled “Swingin” The Boogie” (Ace CDCHM 889).  Suddenly realizing that I was in the mood for some genuine boogie woogie piano sounds, I pulled the disc from the rack and enjoyed well over an hour of, as the title implies, swinging boogie woogie.  With that in mind, I think its time to present an overview of Hadda Brooks.

She was born Hattie L. Hopgood in late October, 1916 in the Los Angeles, California area in Boyle Heights to parents who were very accomplished.  Her father was employed as an assistant sheriff, and her mother was a physician, something during that period that was indeed quite rare.  It needs to be indicated that her father was a man with a very fair complexion while her mother was darker.  As a result, Brooks was herself also lighter skinned, and because of this she was able to avoid much of the racist backlash of the period.

The family found itself in California in Boyle Heights due to the good fortune and generosity of Samuel Hopgood, Brooks’ grandfather, who was gainfully employed as a porter on a Pullman train, and as a result accumulated sufficient funds to purchase the California land and build the family’s home upon it.  Brooks’ grandfather also provided her an opening into the world of music by taking both her and her sister to classical music presentations and opera performances.  By all accounts, Brooks’ grandfather also had a collection of records that he would play for the family after weekend meals together.  He indeed was very contributory in forming an early appreciation of music within Brooks.

At the tender age of four, the young Brooks revealed a desire to learn how to play the piano.  Initially, she was told she would have to wait until she grew a bit, specifically, as it related to her hands, because at such a tender age she could not fully span a full octave of keys on the piano.  In time, she grew, and she was able to begin her journey into learning to play the instrument.

As Brooks continued to take lessons, practice, and perform, she was able to gain entrance into the highly respected Polytechnic High School in Los Angeles, an institution for those desirous of making music a career.  It was an ideal fit for Brooks and her musical aspirations.

Graduating from Polytechnic High School, Brooks was able to gain enrollment at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois (just north of Chicago).  Once her studies there were concluded, Brooks made the decision to return home making it her goal of continuing her musical studies at Chapman College in Orange, California. 

Due to her vast musical training and abundant talent, Brooks’ first musical employment was for a dance academy in the Los Angeles area.  Ironically, some of the dance students who made their way through the school included the likes of child start Shirley Temple, and the dance duo that would for many years charm fans of film and stage, Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire.

At the age of 25, Brooks married a man who was a basketball player for the ever-roaming Harlem Globetrotters.  Tragically, he passed away only one year after their nuptials.  Fast forwarding through Brooks’ life, she never remarried. Though she did love again.

It must be stated that Brooks never aspired to be a performing musician.  However, a chance encounter, in of all places, a record store, set her on that course.  She had been looking through the racks of records, and noticed that the store had a piano.  She sat down at the piano and was trying to play a boogie pattern.  A gentleman who was standing nearby obviously heard her efforts, and struck up a conversation with him.  He told her if, in one week’s time, she could compose a boogie woogie piano piece, he’d record the composition for her.  Not to shy away form an opportunity or challenge, especially a music-related one, Brooks did just that, and one week later she again met the man, telling him that she had indeed written a boogie woogie piano song.  He was as equally impressed as he’d been with her one week prior, so he stayed true to his commitment to her.  The man was Jules Bihari, and with Brooks’ first creation, the famed Modern Records label was started.

At this point, World War II had just ended, and the country was clamoring for entertainment; upbeat, fun, enjoyable music.  Brooks’ freshman release for Modern Records was “Swingin’ The Boogie,” and the recording became a significant hit across the country.  It was just what the record-buying public wanted.  This was the point in her life, by the way, that she adopted the performing name “Hadda Brooks.”  So, off was her career, one so in-demand and vibrant that at this point she was composing multiple boogie woogie records each month for Meteor Records’ release.  Due to her immense popularity and significance in the entertainment industry, and her skillful boogie pieces, she was bestowed the moniker of “The Queen Of The Boogie,” a title certainly appropriate and definitely earned.

How prolific was Brooks’ Meteor Records output?  Consider this: Over the next roughly five-year period, Brooks had in excess of five dozen recordings released by the label.  It can be substantially and plausibly argued that due to Brooks’ success, Meteor Records established itself as the west coast’s, if not the country’s, preeminent R&B record label (again, arguably one Brooks built).  By this time, the likes of the immensely talented singer Etta James, and none other than the eventual “King Of The Blues,” B.B. King, were established with Meteor Records, again indications of the prominence of the label and its ability to guide top-tier blues and R&B artists to it and toward huge success.

It should be disclosed that while at Meteor Records, Brooks began a years-long love affair with Bihari.  In later interviews she often referred to hm as her greatest love, though they never married.

Brooks became highly in-demand, and she was a regular on the R&B club path, with her talents allowing her to work with some of the biggest names in music of-the-day including the esteemed Count Basie Orchestra and Artie Shaw’s aggregation.  However, at this point she was still solely an instrumentalist with these groups.  But, when challenged after a show by a bandleader to not only play on the encore but to sing as well, Brooks initially objected.  She was in her mind, after all, a piano player, not a vocalist.  However, she was a professional about it and rose to the task, providing the audience her best efforts.  This was after the bandleader told her to just go out and give it her best shot.  And that she did.  The song she sang, “You Won’t Let Me Go,” drove the audience crazy, and suddenly a new facet had been added to her act.  The song also became the first recorded vocal selection of Brooks’ career.

Brooks’ voice was a very interesting, alluring meld.  At once deep and throaty, it was also sultry and scorching in a gravelly sort of way.  It was at once both tempting and glamorous.  As a result, Brooks now attained yet another title, this one being “The Empress Of Torch Blues,” in reference to her captivating, somewhat sexy, and charismatic manner of singing.  Combined with her natural beauty, she was the complete package.

1947 turned out to be quite a year for Brooks, as she started to appear in movie productions in roles as a nightclub singer (how appropriate).  With her natural talents and striking gorgeousness, she was a natural for the big screen, and she appeared in movies that starred such well-regarded actors and actresses such as Humphrey Bogart, Lana Turner, and Kirk Douglas, to name only a few.

But it wasn’t only the big movie screen that realized Brooks’ amazing talents, as in 1951 she gained her own television show in Los Angeles.  It must be stated that she was the first African American woman to ever have such a production.  This was a monumental achievement.

Eventually by 1952, however, Brooks’ music stopped reaching the charts and she left Meteor Records, signing-on with the OKeh Label (a subsidiary of Columbia Records).  This was not the only label, however, she recorded for during this period, as she also produced output for London Records, a British enterprise.  By 1956, realizing that the moves she made were not in her best interest, Brooks found her way back to Meteor Records, where in 1957 she was able to record and have released her very first album (not just singles). 

Brooks embarked on a broad touring schedule, playing all around the world including a very notable performance:  While in England, she performed for the Queen.  Due to her music and film visibility, she also was able to have a private audience with Pope Pius XII, an absolute high distinction. 

Not to rest on her laurels and be content with her more high-profile opportunities, Brooks also traveled from city-to-city with the Harlem Globetrotters basketball crew at whose games she would perform at half-time. 

Yet, as the 1960s came, Brooks grew weary of playing to audiences more enamored with the burgeoning music called rock-n-roll, a loud and brash music quite different from her own.  She made the decision to move to Hawaii, and after a time there, she made a major move to Australia.  In Australia, Brooks was to star in another television show.  She also was very active as a performing artist.  Though by 1971, Brooks again weary, returned to Los Angeles and retired.  But, after a 30+ year career, and with her vast talents still intact, Brooks’ love of music and ability to perform at a still high level would not keep her in retirement forever.

By 1987, the young hipsters and nightclub crowd were seeking a new sound.  In this year, Brooks made the decision to again perform at, of all things, a restaurant opening, though it was an elevated profile place.  Her looks still very much intact, her vocals as sweltering as ever, and her ability to pound out a boogie woogie not at all diminished, suddenly she was the darling of the young nightlife crowd.  At this point in her career, she especially leaned upon her vixen-ish manners to enchant and beguile an audience, and this was noted when after a run of New York City performances that her voice continued to enflame and mesmerize, playing to a sexiness she relished in presenting.  How could a woman of her age only seem to get better and better in so many ways with the passage of time? 

In 1993, Brooks was to receive a major career acknowledgment, being inducted into the Smithsonian Institution’s Rhythm And Blues Foundation by being bestowed its highly coveted Pioneer Award.  One year later in 1994, Brooks was back in a recording studio laying down tracks for a new album.  The woman was 78 years of age by this point, but with continuing undiminished skills.

In 1995, Brooks was again instrumental in a big screen movie, this time recording music for a production starring the great actor, Jack Nicholson. 

During this same period, Brooks continued to play the role of the sage R&B, torch, and boogie woogie matriarch at a Los Angeles venue named The Viper Room, an establishment that was owned by the A-list Hollywood actor Johnny Depp.  There, she continued to wow the younger set with her musical prowess and never-fading sexiness.  Once again, she was the sweetheart of the younger crowd.  And, she savored her role as such.

Virgin Records came calling in 1995 wanting to record Brooks.  This is ironic because it was Virgin Records that assumed the Modern Records (again, where Brooks got her start) catalogue.  In 1996, a collection of new Brooks tunes was released to a wanting public. 

1998 saw the release of an exciting collection, a two-CD set of her career best works.

In 2000, Brooks returned to the big screen in John John In The Sky via a speaking role.

Brooks continued to actively perform, playing to jammed venues and music festivals, with her last series of shows being at a Los Angeles nightclub where her audiences hung on her every sung phrase and boogie woogie run.  They simply adored and admired her.

Brooks passed away in November, 2002 at age 86.

From a chance encounter at a record store was born a magnificent musical career.  If you like boogie woogie, the aforementioned Ace Records label compilation entitled “Swingin” The Boogie” (Ace CDCHM 889) and That’s Where I Came In; The Modern Recordings 1946-  47 (Ace CDCHD 1046) are the place to start.  You will be blown away!  To truly feel the breadth of Brooks’ talents, perhaps then segue to Femme Fatale (Ace Records CDCHM 1129). 

Brooks’ music deserves yet another resurgence of appreciation.  It is really that great.