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Boogie Woogie Piano - 8 to the Bar
Whelan Tyme (Hal Schaefer) and his Boogie Woogie Boys
United Artists - 1958

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"When Max Youngstein decided that United Artists Records should have a boogie woogie album in its catalog, he sent me to scout the clubs all over New York City for the right piano player. I looked everywhere, but I couldn't find even one.

"Max pointed his finger at me and said, 'I found one. You! You can play anything!'

"I said, no way, man! I'm a jazz musician. Max kept insisting, and finally I said okay, as long as my name wouldn't be used.

"I came up with the name Whelan Tyme and the concept for the album cover: 8 beautiful women standing at a bar. All the tunes on the album are about or named for a girl."

Personnel:
The "Boogie-Woogie" boys only got together once -- for the recording date. It was a million-dollar rhythm section consisting of Osie Johnson, drums; Chet Amsterdam, bass; the great Count Basie rhythm guitarist, Freddie Green, and myself.

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SAMPLE TRACKS - Click to Listen!
1. Marie: Irving Berlin	7. Margie: David/Conrad/Robinson
2. Charmaine: Rapee/Pollack	8. Maerose: Schaefer
3. Diane: Rapee/Pollack	9. Dolores: Loesser/Alter
4. Peg O' My Heart: Bryan/Fisher	10. Mary's A Grand Old Name: George M. Cohan
5. Maxeen: Schaefer	11. Cecelia: Ruby/Dreyer
6. Louise: Robin/Whiting	12. A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody: Irving Berlin

LINER NOTES:

There are many types of instrumental albums. Some feature lush background music, others music for dreaming, and some even music to sleep by. This isn't that type of album at all. This is an LP of music to be happy by - an album to play when you are throwing a party and there is merriment in the air, or when the neighbors drop in for an entertaining evening. You can listen to the music or dance to it, but either way it will make you want to jump and shout.

The star of this LP is an exciting, hard-driving Boogie Woogie pianist named Whelan Tyme - who makes his home in the Midwest. In this album, he does some wonderful piano playing with a fine collection of songs all of which have a girl's name in the title. His boogie woogie style is mixed with a cheerful honky tonk sound that will give you a lift from the opening chords. He is aided and abetted on these selections by his own rhythm section which he simply calls his
"Boogie-Woogie" boys. In hearing these tunes, you can tell that they have been together a long long time. Although most of the selections in the LP are familiar, you've probably never heard them performed the way Whelan Tyme and his boys handle them in this album. They all have a drive and an engaging kind of swing that will brighten many an evening for you and your friends.

Bob Rolontz
(Bob Rolontz is a veteran music reporter for The Billboard)
1958