Music: Bach and Boogie-Woogie

Boogie-woogie is a kind of blues piano playing in which the left hand drones a set bass phrase over & over, while the right hand goes to town with whatever variations the player can think up. Its form is identical with that of the classical passacaglia, a kind of dance music (of Spanish origin) that was old stuff to Bach's grandfather. Though boogie-woogie's mournful thump and clatter had long been heard in the humbler dives of New Orleans and Chicago, it was not taken up by the connoisseurs until 1938. In Manhattan the temple of boogie-woogie has been a subterranean Leftist...