The subtext is simple—a perfectly balanced left hand augmented by a bouncing, out-of-control right hand crossed with the 12-bar blues turned from 33&1/3 to 78. All of this equals boogie woogie piano.

Clay Swafford would spend an hour at a time working on just the left-hand patterns. Listening to tracks from blues albums again and again, trying to learn by-ear the hip-shaking boogie-woogie-style of ...