walking upstream…
Fats Domino
photo: hugo van gelderen / anefo · cc0 ↗Fats Domino
sourcesWikipedia23 · Rock Portraits
Antoine "Fats" Domino Jr. turned a barrelhouse New Orleans piano style into the sound of a new decade, selling more records in the 1950s than anyone not named Elvis while barely raising his voice above a warm, rolling murmur. With producer and co-writer Dave Bartholomew he built hit after hit — "The Fat Man," "Ain't That a Shame," "Blueberry Hill" — out of a triplet-heavy right hand and a shuffling backbeat lifted straight from the Ninth Ward. He proved, quietly and repeatedly, that rock and roll had been playing in New Orleans for years before anyone put a new name on it.
the sound in question
1956
Blueberry HillFats Domino
walk the tributaries ↓
Amos Milburn1940s-50s · Rhythm and blues / Jump blues / Boogie-woogie
Domino named Milburn directly as the source of his signature piano triplet — the trick of squeezing three notes into a single beat that became one of rock and roll's defining rhythmic tics — crediting a Milburn record he'd heard on the jukebox.
listen: upstream & here
1948
Chicken Shack BoogieAmos Milburn
1955
Ain't That a ShameFats Domino
listen forListen for the rolling triplet fills under Milburn's vocal on "Chicken Shack Boogie," then catch that same triplet pattern driving the piano intro of Domino's "Ain't That a Shame."
Professor Longhair1950s · New Orleans R&B / Boogie-woogie / Rhumba-boogie
Domino softened Longhair's percussive rumba-boogie into something radio-friendly, but the rolling, syncopated left-hand pattern and the sense of the piano as a one-man rhythm section both trace back to Longhair's Rampart Street sound.
listen: upstream & here
1953
TipitinaProfessor Longhair
1957
Blue MondayFats Domino
listen forCue up Longhair's "Tipitina" and listen to that lopsided, dropped-beat rhumba roll under the vocal — then play Domino's "Blue Monday" and hear the same rolling triplet feel, just combed smoother and pushed toward the pop charts.
Louis Jordan1940s · Jump Blues / R&B / Swing
Jordan's jump blues — sly, upbeat, packed with novelty and punchlines — gave Domino a template for turning rhythm and blues into good-natured, danceable pop; Domino singled him out among his acknowledged influences.
listen: upstream & here
1946
Let the Good Times RollLouis Jordan
1949
The Fat ManFats Domino
listen forHear Jordan's Tympany Five bounce through the boogie shuffle of "Let the Good Times Roll," then listen for that same easy, wisecracking swing in the horn-free shuffle of Domino's debut, "The Fat Man."