Seeing people with incredible talent is always amazing, especially when that person is 80-years-old and performing better than ever. This musician shows us that age really is just a number, as he plays an extremely difficult piece on his piano.
Tommy Johnson, also known as ‘Boogie Man,’ plays a wonderful boogie-woogie piece that lights the internet on fire
At the time of this video, Johnson was an 80-year-old master musician who started playing the piano at the tender age of four. Over time, he perfected many different styles of music including the complex boogie-woogie style.
Boogie-woogie is a piano style that developed in the 1870s and comes from the Africa- American community. The style was derived from the Blues and was popularized in the 1920s. The fast pace and many sounds of boogie-woogie make it very difficult to play, but not if you’re the ‘Boogie Man.’
The ‘Boogie Man’ wastes no time jumping into the music, you can tell right away this is going to be good
Johnson quickly moves up and down the keys on his piano, his fingers doing most of the work as they rapidly play. It’s no surprise that he specializes in boogie-woogie, he’s one of the best you’ll ever hear.
As he goes through the piece every sound is so calculated, the way the piano riffs blend together is so mesmerizing. The ‘Boogie Man’ has a long musical career, dating back to his childhood.
The ‘Boogie Man’ Johnson was a child prodigy
At the age of seven Johson was featured on the Horace Heidt Show, two years later he was featured in Life magazine at just 9-years-old. No wonder why the ‘Boogie Man’ sounds so good, he’s been mastering the piano since he was just a toddler.
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, two people come onto the screen and encourage Johnson to play even faster.
When the ‘Boogie Man’ plays as fast as he can it’s like his keyboard might light on fire
Johnson starts playing the boogie-woogie lightning fast, it’s hard to even keep up with his pace toward the end of the video. He really knows how to play, from start to finish he nails this whole performance.
This isn’t the only time Johnson has gone viral, on his YouTube channel he has many videos that have completely blown up. On his Facebook page, you can see the ‘Boogie Man’ is still winning awards as well. Last May, Tommy won the Senior Idol and proved he’s still a true phenomenon on the piano.
One thing for sure, Tommy ‘Boogie Man’ Johnson rips it up on the piano
When it comes to the boogie-woogie, not many people can play quite like Johnson. We hope to see some more magical videos in the future.
Millions of people watched this video of the ‘Boogie Man’ playing boogie-woogie, they couldn’t get enough of his terrific tunes.
This video has been viewed over 6.3 million times, with 27k liking it and thousands leaving comments
Watching someone who has perfected their skills like Tommy ‘Boogie Man’ Johnson never gets olds. Don’t forget to check out some more of his videos on his YouTube channel. To see him play boogie-woogie to perfection, watch the video below!
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