By Mike Neely
James P. Johnson was not only the earliest grand master of the jazz piano but also his playing was for many years the measure of quality in the jazz piano world. None other than Duke Ellington summed up the situation, "It was me, or maybe Fats (Waller), who sat down to warm up the piano. After that, James took over. Then you got real invention - magic, sheer magic." There was an assurance and deliberateness to JohnsonÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs playing; he was a musician who knew what he wanted and where he was going.
James P. Johnson was born in New Jersey in 1894 and by the time he was twenty years old he was playing professionally in New York City. By 1921, he began publishing a series of solo piano works that would establish his reputation as a composer. In the meantime, his reputation as the King of Harlem piano was carved out of the competitive world of "cutting" contests with his contemporaries. He is often credited with being the creator of the stride piano style; his 1921 recording of "Carolina Shout" is the styleÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs early masterpiece.
Johnson later composed for Broadway musicals, and accompanied Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters. He also ran a parallel career as a classical composer. His 1927 solo piano composition "Yamekaw - A Negro Rhapsody" was orchestrated a year later by the classical composer William Grant Still. His compositions ultimately included symphonies, a concerto, a ballet, and a one act blues operetta with a libretto written by the poet Langston Hughes.
After listening to Johnson, the ingenious, asymetrical elaborations of an Earl Hines or an Art Tatum begin to be rooted to a well-developed line of early jazz piano. Johnson synthesized and developed the early strains of ragtime, blues, and in many ways Teddy Wilson is the direct descendent of Johnson, these two forming the core line of jazz piano up and through the swing era. In short, any competent history of jazz piano must account for the extensive contributions of Mr. James P. Johnson, our first great pianist of jazz.
CD Sources:
- James P. Johnson: Harlem Stride Piano 1921-1929 (Jazz Archives)
- The Original James P. Johnson: 1942-1945, piano solos (Smithsonian Folkways)
- The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz: Volume 1 (The Smithsonian Collection)
