Sugar Chile Robinson: The Prince of Boogie-Woogie 🎵

And let's discuss the history of Mr.

Sugar Child Robinson.

Frank Isaac Robinson, I don't know why I've been wanting to say Isaiah this entire time, was born on December 23rd, 1938 in Detroit, Michigan.

He was born to Clarence and Elizabeth Robinson.

Clarence was a truck driver and eventually became an owner of a party store.

Frank was also the youngest of seven children.

No one in his family came from a musical background, but Frank showed interest at a very young age.

Before he was two years old, he sang the blues and played the piano.

And not only that, he knew the alphabet when he was six months old and how to read at three years old.

Also at three, he won a talent show at the Paradise Theater.

Frank was such a hyperactive child, and his mother gave him sugar cubes to calm him down.

And that's when she gave him the nickname Sugar Child.

However, his mother tragically passed away when he was five years old.

And I would like to think he went by Sugar Child in honor of his mother.

Shortly after, Sugar Child began to make moves in the music industry.

In 1945, he played guest spots starting with Lionel Leo Hampton's band and the Frankie Carl Orchestra.

However, he was prevented by child labor laws from taking him on tour.

But he was allowed to perform on radio with Lionel and Harry the Hipster Gibson.

By age seven, he only weighed 40 pounds and was under five feet, even in adulthood.

Because of this, he would play the piano standing up sometimes.

Sugar Child's artistry was a combination of blues and an emerging genre called boogie-woogie.

Boogie-woogie is a highly rhythmic, percussive style of blues music.

Unlike traditional blues, boogie-woogies mostly have an instrumental piano style, and the left hand is on the piano at all times.

The left hand maintains the steady rhythm, and the right hand plays the improvised melodies, riffs, and variations using the blues scale.

For Sugar Child, he used techniques of slapping the keys with his fists and elbows.