Harlem in the 1920s was filled with the sounds of stride piano, a swinging and percussive style that combined ragtime and the blues (read more about stride in my posts "What is Early Jazz" and "Ten Early Jazz Musicians"). James P. Johnson was one of the most well-known stride pianists, after his composition "Carolina Shout" became the most studied piece by aspiring pianists. Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, and George Gershwin each owed a large part of their own innovations on Johnson's virtuosic model.
Today, the stride style is regarded more as a relic than as a significant portion of the jazz palette. If you listen to jazz pianists today, you probably won't even hear a hint of stride.
In recent weeks, the jazz blog world has begun to buzz with debate of the importance of stride, and particularly James P. Johnson and "Carolina Shout." The crux of the argument is the question of whether or not contemporary jazz pianists should know who James P. Johnson is.
This post is a portal into this subtle and somewhat hazy online debate. Here are the key players:
- Ethan Iverson: pianist in the progressive jazz trio The Bad Plus, and blogger extraordinaire. He first recounts his frustration at a group of young pianists who had never heard "Carolina Shout" in this essay.
- Chris Donnelly: A Toronto-based pianist who was chewed out by Ethan Iverson for not having ever heard "Carolina Shout" before. Here is his rebuttal to Iverson's attack.
- Peter Hum: A Canadian blogger and jazz pianist who ruminates the opposing sides of the debate here.
- Ted Gioia: jazz critic and chronicler who chimes in with his perspective on the jazz.com blog, backing Iverson
and finally,
Coming soon: artist profile of James P. Johnson.
Image Courtesy of Collectables Records
Comments
I was actually following this thing. I think it’s very interesting and has the potential to be pretty polarizing. Great coverage.
This is like in the Miles autobiography, when he calls Jackie McLean out in front of Ellington for not knowing Yesterdays.