William Turk

William Turk was an American ragtime pianist, who played in the early 1900s in Texas. He was reputably so obese that he could not put his left hand in front of his stomach. So he invented techniques playing with his left hand to the side. This is rumoured to be where boogie woogie and stride piano playing came from.

The piano sound was originally imitating the sounds of a train and a chainsaw, as it was within the logging camps that he was born. The genre of music initially was known as Dudlow Joe, after one of the early pioneers, only later to become known as boogie woogie.

References

1. Mojo magazine article on Jools Holland - http://www.joolsholland.com/latest/MOJO.pdf