James P. Johnson - February 1, 1894 - November 17, 1955

American Pianist And Composer

Excerpt from James P. Johnson - A Case Of Mistaken Identity

By Dr. Scott Brown

     James P. Johnson was born in New Brunswick, NJ on February 1, 1894. His parents had migrated north from Virginia and brought with them a lively parlor dance called The Ring Shout. Eight-year-old James sat at the top of the stairs absorbing these rhythms that would permeate his own music. His mother was his first piano teacher but he quickly progressed to classical training. Blessed with perfect pitch, he also learned ragtime and popular music from local dance hall and cabaret players. By 1920, he had developed a prodigious piano technique and was the most prominent "Negro" pianist in New York.

    Johnson is best known today as the "Father of Stride Piano", the highly rhythmic, two-handed solo piano style which flourished in the Northeast, especially Harlem in the 1920s and ‘30s. "Carolina Shout" was composed around 1917 and became the test piece for all piano players of the day. Many considered Johnson's 1921 phonograph recording of this piece to be the first jazz piano solo on disc. Both the young Thomas "Fats" Waller and Duke Ellington learned it by slowing down Johnson's piano roll version and placing their fingers in the depressed keys. Fats Waller became Mr. Johnson's private student, eventually bringing stride piano to a world-wide audience.

    The Roaring 20's were especially roaring for James P. Johnson. He was the undisputed piano master at "rent parties", featured recording artist for the QRS piano roll company, favorite of vocalists Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters, and a highly sought after composer for Broadway. His 1923 Broadway show "Runnin' Wild" included a dance number that would become the most familiar symbol of the decade, "The Charleston". Over the years, he made 55 piano rolls, more than 400 recorded sides, wrote some 250 popular tunes and scored 11 musicals for the stage as well as contributing to more shows than even he could remember. His greatest musical vision was composing symphonic works based on African-American musical themes. His first extended work, "Yamekraw - A Negro Rhapsody", was premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1928. His many musical scores were feared lost after his death. Through the efforts of Mr. Johnson's family and the Concordia Orchestra, some of these works have been recovered. Arranged by Mr. Johnson for full symphony orchestra, they restored the missing dimension to a remarkable career in American music too long neglected.