Born Albert Clemens in 1887 in Kingsport, Tennessee, Clarence Lofton was one of a group of piano players who, in the first decades of the 20th century, developed the 'boogie woogie' style of playing, along with others such as Cow Cow Davenport and Will Ezell, and also with Jimmy Yancey with whom he recorded.

He developed his piano skills as a teenager in medicine shows and bars around Memphis and the Mississippi delta area before moving to Chicago in 1921. He was born with a weakness in his leg which gave him a limp and hence his nickname but that didn’t stop him from becoming a tap dancer.

Indeed, he wasn’t restricted by his disability; he developed a stage act as a piano pounder that involved him dancing whilst standing playing the piano. In fact, he was originally hired on the medicine shows as a tap dancer and general entertainer, a great success in Chicago and in 1932 he opened his own club there.

No one can complain of Clarence's lack of variety or versatility. When he really gets going he's a three-ring circus. During one number, he plays, sings, whistles a chorus, and snaps his fingers with the technique of a Spanish dancer to give further percussive accompaniment to his blues. At times he turns sideways, almost with his back to the piano as he keeps pounding away at the keyboard and stomping his feet, meanwhile continuing to sing and shout at his audience or his drummer. Suddenly in the middle of a number he jumps up, his hands clasped in front of him, he walks around the piano stool, and then, unexpectedly, out booms a vocal break in a bass voice from somewhere. One second later, he has turned and is back at the keyboard, both hands flying at lightning-like pace. His actions and facial expressions are as intensely dramatic and exciting as his music. In the ensuing two decades Clarence was prolific in recording for various labels, and remained in Chicago until his death from a stroke in 1957.