James P. Johnson
Encyclopedia
James P. Johnson was an American pianist
and composer
. A pioneer of the stride
style of jazz piano
, he along with Jelly Roll Morton
, were arguably the two most important pianists who bridged the ragtime and jazz eras, and the two most important catalysts in the evolution of ragtime piano into jazz. As such, he was a model for Count Basie
, Duke Ellington
, Art Tatum
and his more famous pupil, Fats Waller
. Johnson composed many hit tunes including the theme song of the Roaring Twenties, "Charleston
" and "If I Could be With You One Hour Tonight" and remained the acknowledged king of New York jazz pianists until he was dethroned c. 1933 by the recently arrived Art Tatum
, who is widely acknowledged by jazz critics as the most technically proficient jazz pianist of all time. His influence and success are often overlooked, and as such, he has been referred to by Reed College musicologist David Schiff, as " The Invisible Pianist ".
, United States
. The proximity to New York meant that the full cosmopolitan spectrum of the city's musical experience, from bars, to cabarets, to the symphony, were at the young Johnson's disposal. In 1908 his family moved to the San Juan Hill
(near where Lincoln Center stands today) section of New York City
. With perfect pitch and excellent recall he was soon able to pick out on the piano tunes that he had heard.
Johnson grew up listening to the ragtime
of Scott Joplin
and always retained links to the ragtime era, playing and recording Joplin's "Maple Leaf", as well as the more modern (according to Johnson) and demanding, "Euphonic Sounds", both several times in the 1940's. Johnson, like Joplin, when the royalties from his compositions made him financially secure, pursued a lifelong ambition of writing orchestral works.
Before 1920 Johnson had gained a reputation as a pianist on the East coast on a par with Eubie Blake
and Luckey Roberts
and made dozens of superb player piano
roll recordings for Aeolian, Perfection (the label of the Standard Music Roll Co., Orange, NJ), Artempo (label of Bennett & White, Inc., Newark, NJ), Rythmodik, and QRS
during the period from 1917–1927. During this period he met George Gershwin
who was also a young piano-roll artist at Aeolian.
Johnson honed his craft, playing night after night, catering to the egos and idiosyncracies of the many singers he encountered, which necessitated being able to play a song in any key. He developed into a sensitive and facile accompanist, the favorite accompanist of Ethel Waters
and Bessie Smith
. Ethel Waters wrote in her autobiography that working with musicians such as Johnson " ...made you want to sing until your tonsils fell out".
As his piano style continued to evolve, his 1921 phonograph recordings of his own compositions, Harlem Strut, Keep Off the Grass", and Carolina Shout, were ( along with the Jelly Roll Morton's Genett recordings of 1923) among the first jazz piano solos to be put onto record. These technically challenging compositions would be learned by his contemporaries, and would serve as test pieces in solo competitions, in which the New York pianists would demonstrate their mastery of the keyboard, as well as the swing, harmonies, and improvisational skills which would further distinguish the great masters of the era.
The majority of his phonograph recordings of the 1920s and early 1930s were done for Black Swan
(founded by Johnson friend W.C. Handy, where William Grant Still
served in an A & R [Artist and Repertoire] capacity) and Columbia
.
In the depression era, Johnson's career slowed down somewhat. As the opportunities to record and perform live music were limited by the harsh economic realities of the time, the cushion of a modest but steady income from his composer's royalties allowed him to devote significant time to the furtherance of his education, as well as the realization of his desire to compose "serious" orchestral music. Although by this time he was an established composer, with a significant body of work, as well as a member or ASCAP, he was nonetheless unable to secure the financial support that he sought from either the Rosenwald Foundation,or a Guggenheim Fellowship
, both of which he received endorsement for from the Columbia Records
executive, and long time admirer, John Hammond
. The Johnson archives include the letterhead of an organization called "Friends of James P. Johnson", ostensibly founded at the time (presumably in the late 1930s) in order to promote his then idling career. Names on the letter-head include Paul Robeson
, Fats Waller
, Walter White
(President of the NAACP), the actress Mercedes Gilbert
and Bessye Bearden, the mother of artist Romare Bearden
. In the late 1930s Johnson slowly started to re-emerge with the rise of independent jazz labels and began to record, with his own and other groups, at first for the HRS
label. Johnson's appearances at the Spirituals to Swing Concerts at Carnegie Hall in 1938 and 1939 were organized by his friend John Hammond, for whom he recorded a substantial series of solo and band sides in 1939.
Johnson suffered a stroke (likely a transient ischemic attack) in 1940. When he returned to the public eye his style was less clean and precise though his technique was still formidable. He began a heavy schedule of performing, composing, and recording, leading several small live and groups, now often with racially integrated bands led by musicians such as Eddie Condon
, Yank Lawson
, Sidney de Paris
, Sidney Bechet
, Rod Cless
, and Edmond Hall
. He recorded for jazz labels including Asch, Black and White, Blue Note
, Commodore
, Circle
, and Decca
. He was a regular guest star and featured soloist on Rudi Blesh
's This is Jazz broadcasts, as well as at Eddie Condon's Town Hall concerts and studied with Maury Deutsch
, who could also count Django Reinhardt
and Charlie Parker
among his pupils.
Johnson permanently retired from performing after suffering a severe, paralyzing stroke
in 1951. He died four years later in Jamaica, New York and is buried in Mt Olivet Cemetery in Maspeth, Queens
. Perfunctory obituaries appeared in even the New York Times. The pithiest and most angry remembrance of Johnson was written by his friend, the producer and impresario John Hammond
.
" (which debuted in his Broadway
show Runnin' Wild in 1923, although by some accounts Johnson had written it years earlier, and which became one of the most popular songs of the "Roaring Twenties
"), "If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)
", "You've Got to Be Modernistic", "Don't Cry, Baby", "Keep off the Grass", "Old Fashioned Love", "A Porter's Love Song to a Chambermaid", "Carolina Shout", and "Snowy Morning Blues". He wrote waltz
es, ballet
, symphonic pieces and light opera
; many of these extended works exist in manuscript form in various stages of completeness in the collection of Johnson's papers housed at the Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University
, Newark, New Jersey
. Johnson's success as a popular composer qualified him as a member of ASCAP in 1926.
1928 saw the premier of Johnson's rhapsody Yamekraw, named after a black community in Savannah, Georgia. William Grant Still was orchestrator and Fats Waller the pianist as Johnson was contractually obliged to conduct his and Waller's hit Broadway show Keep Shufflin. Harlem Symphony, composed during the 1930s, was performed at Carnegie Hall in 1945 with Johnson at the piano and Joseph Cherniavsky as conductor. He collaborated with Langston Hughes
on the one act opera, De Organizer. A fuller list of Johnson's film scores appears below.
and Willie 'The Lion' Smith, 'The Big Three', and Luckey Roberts
, Johnson embodies the apex of the Harlem Stride piano style, an evolution of East Coast ragtime infused with elements of the blues. His "Carolina Shout" was a standard test piece/ right of passage for every contemporary pianist: Duke Ellington
learned it note for note from the 1921 QRS Johnson piano roll. Johnson taught Fats Waller
and got him his first piano roll
and recording assignments. Eubie Blake
played a somewhat less rhythmically developed style of East Coast ragtime than Roberts or Johnson, a transitional figure between classic ragtime and the hard-swinging, more harmonically advanced style of the stride pianists).
Harlem Stride is distinguished from ragtime by several essential characteristics: Ragtime introduced sustained syncopation
into piano music but stride pianists introduced a more freely swinging rhythm into their performances with a certain degree of anticipation of the left (bass) hand by the right (melody) hand, a form of tension and release in the patterns played by the right hand interpolated within the beat generated by the left. Stride more frequently incorporates elements of the blues, as well as harmonies more complex than usually found in the works of classic ragtime composers. Lastly, while ragtime was for the most part a composed music, based on European light classics such as marches, pianists such as Waller and Johnson introduced their own rhythmic, harmonic and melodic figures into their performances and, occasionally, spontaneous improvisation. In public performance, stride pianists either used variations on popular songs of the day or pieces within the idiom specially composed by its main performers. Examples of these so called test pieces include Johnson's Carolina Shout, Keep Off the Grass
, and Harlem Strut, Fats Waller's Handful of Keys
, and Willie "the Lion' Smith's, Fingerbuster.
Johnson's musical legacy is present in the body of work of the more famous Fats Waller as well as scores of other pianists who were influenced by him, such as Art Tatum
, Donald Lambert
, Louis Mazetier
, Pat Flowers
, Joe Turner
, Cliff Jackson
, Hank Duncan
, Claude Hopkins
, Duke Ellington
, Count Basie
, Don Ewell
, Johnny Guarnieri
, Dick Hyman
, Dick Wellstood
, Ralph Sutton
, Neville Dickie
, Mike Lipskin
, Jim Turner
,Bernd Lhotzky, Chris Hopkins and Butch Thompson
.
On September 16, 1995 the U.S. Post Office issues a James P. Johnson 32 cent commemorative postage stamp.
Unmarked since his death in 1955, his grave was re-consecrated with a headstone paid for with funds raised by an event arranged by the James P. Johnson Foundation, Spike Wilner and Dr. Scott Brown on October 4, 2009. James P. Johnson's Last Rent Party took place at Wilner's Greenwich Village venue, Small's Jazz Club.
were used in a number of movies, which were compiled from previously written musical compositions. Partial list includes:
Johnson's complete Blue Note recordings (solos, band sides in groups led by himself as well as Edmond Hall and Sidney DeParis) were made available in a collection issued by Mosaic Records. The largest, and probably the best anthology of Johnson's recordings was compiled in the Giants of Jazz series by Time-Life Music. This three LP collection contains 40 sides recorded from 1921 to 1945, and is supplemented with extensive liner notes, including a biographical essay by Frank Kappler, and erudite criticism of the musical selections by the noted contemporary stride pianist Dick Wellstood
, and the musicologist, Willa Rouder . Johnson was also a premier piano roll artist, recording approximately 60 rolls between 1917 and 1927. Many of these have been issued on CD, on the Biograph Label. A book of musical transcriptions of Johnson's piano roll performances of his own compositions has been prepared by Dr. Robert Pinsker, to be published through the auspices of the James P. Johnson Foundation.
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
. A pioneer of the stride
Stride piano
Harlem Stride Piano, Stride Piano, or just Stride, is a jazz piano style that was developed in the large cities of the East Coast, mainly in the New York, during 1920s and 1930s. The left hand may play a four-beat pulse with a single bass note, octave, seventh or tenth interval on the first and...
style of jazz piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, he along with Jelly Roll Morton
Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer....
, were arguably the two most important pianists who bridged the ragtime and jazz eras, and the two most important catalysts in the evolution of ragtime piano into jazz. As such, he was a model for Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
, Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, Art Tatum
Art Tatum
Arthur "Art" Tatum, Jr. was an American jazz pianist and virtuoso who played with phenomenal facility despite being nearly blind.Tatum is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time...
and his more famous pupil, Fats Waller
Fats Waller
Fats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...
. Johnson composed many hit tunes including the theme song of the Roaring Twenties, "Charleston
Charleston (song)
"The Charleston" is a jazz composition that was written to accompany the Charleston dance. It was composed in 1923, with lyrics by Cecil Mack and music by James P. Johnson, who first introduced the stride piano method of playing. The song was featured in the American black Broadway musical comedy...
" and "If I Could be With You One Hour Tonight" and remained the acknowledged king of New York jazz pianists until he was dethroned c. 1933 by the recently arrived Art Tatum
Art Tatum
Arthur "Art" Tatum, Jr. was an American jazz pianist and virtuoso who played with phenomenal facility despite being nearly blind.Tatum is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time...
, who is widely acknowledged by jazz critics as the most technically proficient jazz pianist of all time. His influence and success are often overlooked, and as such, he has been referred to by Reed College musicologist David Schiff, as " The Invisible Pianist ".
Biography
Johnson was born in New Brunswick, New JerseyNew Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. It is the county seat and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the population of...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The proximity to New York meant that the full cosmopolitan spectrum of the city's musical experience, from bars, to cabarets, to the symphony, were at the young Johnson's disposal. In 1908 his family moved to the San Juan Hill
San Juan Hill, Manhattan
San Juan Hill was a predominantly African American neighborhood of tenements on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, which was largely razed as part of urban renewal to make way for Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts....
(near where Lincoln Center stands today) section of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. With perfect pitch and excellent recall he was soon able to pick out on the piano tunes that he had heard.
Johnson grew up listening to the ragtime
Ragtime
Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...
of Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist. Joplin achieved fame for his ragtime compositions, and was later dubbed "The King of Ragtime". During his brief career, Joplin wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas...
and always retained links to the ragtime era, playing and recording Joplin's "Maple Leaf", as well as the more modern (according to Johnson) and demanding, "Euphonic Sounds", both several times in the 1940's. Johnson, like Joplin, when the royalties from his compositions made him financially secure, pursued a lifelong ambition of writing orchestral works.
Before 1920 Johnson had gained a reputation as a pianist on the East coast on a par with Eubie Blake
Eubie Blake
James Hubert Blake was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, Blake and long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans...
and Luckey Roberts
Luckey Roberts
Charles Luckeyeth Roberts, better known as Luckey Roberts was an American composer and stride pianist who worked in the jazz, ragtime, and blues styles.-Biography:...
and made dozens of superb player piano
Player piano
A player piano is a self-playing piano, containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism that operates the piano action via pre-programmed music perforated paper, or in rare instances, metallic rolls. The rise of the player piano grew with the rise of the mass-produced piano for the home in...
roll recordings for Aeolian, Perfection (the label of the Standard Music Roll Co., Orange, NJ), Artempo (label of Bennett & White, Inc., Newark, NJ), Rythmodik, and QRS
QRS Records
QRS Records was a United States record label, which produced three different groups of records 1928-1930, including some notable jazz and blues recordings....
during the period from 1917–1927. During this period he met George Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
who was also a young piano-roll artist at Aeolian.
Johnson honed his craft, playing night after night, catering to the egos and idiosyncracies of the many singers he encountered, which necessitated being able to play a song in any key. He developed into a sensitive and facile accompanist, the favorite accompanist of Ethel Waters
Ethel Waters
Ethel Waters was an American blues, jazz and gospel vocalist and actress. She frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues.Her best-known recordings includes, "Dinah", "Birmingham Bertha",...
and Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith was an American blues singer.Sometimes referred to as The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s...
. Ethel Waters wrote in her autobiography that working with musicians such as Johnson " ...made you want to sing until your tonsils fell out".
As his piano style continued to evolve, his 1921 phonograph recordings of his own compositions, Harlem Strut, Keep Off the Grass", and Carolina Shout, were ( along with the Jelly Roll Morton's Genett recordings of 1923) among the first jazz piano solos to be put onto record. These technically challenging compositions would be learned by his contemporaries, and would serve as test pieces in solo competitions, in which the New York pianists would demonstrate their mastery of the keyboard, as well as the swing, harmonies, and improvisational skills which would further distinguish the great masters of the era.
The majority of his phonograph recordings of the 1920s and early 1930s were done for Black Swan
Black Swan
The Black Swan is a large waterbird, a species of swan, which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. The species was hunted to extinction in New Zealand, but later reintroduced. Within Australia they are nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent upon climatic...
(founded by Johnson friend W.C. Handy, where William Grant Still
William Grant Still
William Grant Still was an African-American classical composer who wrote more than 150 compositions. He was the first African American to conduct a major American symphony orchestra, the first to have a symphony performed by a leading orchestra, the first to have an opera performed by a major...
served in an A & R [Artist and Repertoire] capacity) and Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
.
In the depression era, Johnson's career slowed down somewhat. As the opportunities to record and perform live music were limited by the harsh economic realities of the time, the cushion of a modest but steady income from his composer's royalties allowed him to devote significant time to the furtherance of his education, as well as the realization of his desire to compose "serious" orchestral music. Although by this time he was an established composer, with a significant body of work, as well as a member or ASCAP, he was nonetheless unable to secure the financial support that he sought from either the Rosenwald Foundation,or a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
, both of which he received endorsement for from the Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
executive, and long time admirer, John Hammond
John H. Hammond
John Henry Hammond II was an American record producer, musician and music critic from the 1930s to the early 1980s...
. The Johnson archives include the letterhead of an organization called "Friends of James P. Johnson", ostensibly founded at the time (presumably in the late 1930s) in order to promote his then idling career. Names on the letter-head include Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
, Fats Waller
Fats Waller
Fats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...
, Walter White
Walter Francis White
Walter Francis White was a civil rights activist who led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for almost a quarter of a century and directed a broad program of legal challenges to segregation and disfranchisement. He was also a journalist, novelist, and essayist...
(President of the NAACP), the actress Mercedes Gilbert
Mercedes Gilbert
Mercedes Gilbert was an African-American actress. She appeared on the screen four times: first in the film The Call of His People in year 1921, next in the film Body and Soul in year 1925, in the film Moon Over Harlem in 1939 as Jackie's mother, and finally in the episode "The Green Dress" of the...
and Bessye Bearden, the mother of artist Romare Bearden
Romare Bearden
Romare Bearden was an African American artist and writer. He worked in several media including cartoons, oils, and collage.-Education:...
. In the late 1930s Johnson slowly started to re-emerge with the rise of independent jazz labels and began to record, with his own and other groups, at first for the HRS
HRS
HRS may refer to:*Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services*Head-Royce School*Health and Retirement Study*Heart Rhythm Society*Helena Romanes School and Sixth Form Centre*Hepatorenal syndrome...
label. Johnson's appearances at the Spirituals to Swing Concerts at Carnegie Hall in 1938 and 1939 were organized by his friend John Hammond, for whom he recorded a substantial series of solo and band sides in 1939.
Johnson suffered a stroke (likely a transient ischemic attack) in 1940. When he returned to the public eye his style was less clean and precise though his technique was still formidable. He began a heavy schedule of performing, composing, and recording, leading several small live and groups, now often with racially integrated bands led by musicians such as Eddie Condon
Eddie Condon
Albert Edwin Condon , better known as Eddie Condon, was a jazz banjoist, guitarist, and bandleader. A leading figure in the so-called "Chicago school" of early Dixieland, he also played piano and sang on occasion....
, Yank Lawson
Yank Lawson
John Rhea "Yank" Lawson was a jazz trumpeter known for Dixieland and swing music....
, Sidney de Paris
Sidney De Paris
Sidney De Paris was an American jazz trumpeter.He was the son of Sidney G. and Fannie Paris and the brother of Wilbur de Paris....
, Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer.He was one of the first important soloists in jazz , and was perhaps the first notable jazz saxophonist...
, Rod Cless
Rod Cless
George Roderick "Rod" Cless was an American jazz clarinetist and saxophonist, perhaps best-known for his work on sixteen Muggsy Spanier tunes for Bluebird Records...
, and Edmond Hall
Edmond Hall
Edmond Hall was an American jazz clarinetist and bandleader. His father Edward Blainey Hall and mother Caroline Duhe had eight children, Priscilla , Moretta , Viola , Robert , Edmond , Clarence , Edward and Herbert .-Early life:Born in Reserve, Louisiana, about...
. He recorded for jazz labels including Asch, Black and White, Blue Note
Blue note
In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes. Typically the alteration is a semitone or less, but this varies among performers and genres. Country blues, in particular, features wide variations from the...
, Commodore
Commodore Records
Commodore Records was a United States-based independent record label known for issuing many well regarded recordings of jazz and swing music....
, Circle
Circle
A circle is a simple shape of Euclidean geometry consisting of those points in a plane that are a given distance from a given point, the centre. The distance between any of the points and the centre is called the radius....
, and Decca
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
. He was a regular guest star and featured soloist on Rudi Blesh
Rudi Blesh
Rudi Blesh was an American jazz critic and enthusiast....
's This is Jazz broadcasts, as well as at Eddie Condon's Town Hall concerts and studied with Maury Deutsch
Maury Deutsch
Maury Deutsch is a musician who has played the trumpet from an early age. He is one of the most prolific and accomplished arranger-composers of his time, and in New York history. Deutsch was born and raised on the Lowest East Side of Manhattan, New York...
, who could also count Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...
and Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
among his pupils.
Johnson permanently retired from performing after suffering a severe, paralyzing stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
in 1951. He died four years later in Jamaica, New York and is buried in Mt Olivet Cemetery in Maspeth, Queens
Maspeth, Queens
Maspeth is a small community in the borough of Queens in New York City. Neighborhoods sharing borders with Maspeth are Woodside and Sunnyside to the north, Long Island City to the northwest, Greenpoint to the west, East Williamsburg to the southwest, Fresh Pond and Ridgewood to the south, and...
. Perfunctory obituaries appeared in even the New York Times. The pithiest and most angry remembrance of Johnson was written by his friend, the producer and impresario John Hammond
John H. Hammond
John Henry Hammond II was an American record producer, musician and music critic from the 1930s to the early 1980s...
.
Composer
Johnson composed many hit tunes in his work for the musical theatre, including "CharlestonCharleston (song)
"The Charleston" is a jazz composition that was written to accompany the Charleston dance. It was composed in 1923, with lyrics by Cecil Mack and music by James P. Johnson, who first introduced the stride piano method of playing. The song was featured in the American black Broadway musical comedy...
" (which debuted in his Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
show Runnin' Wild in 1923, although by some accounts Johnson had written it years earlier, and which became one of the most popular songs of the "Roaring Twenties
Roaring Twenties
The Roaring Twenties is a phrase used to describe the 1920s, principally in North America, but also in London, Berlin and Paris for a period of sustained economic prosperity. The phrase was meant to emphasize the period's social, artistic, and cultural dynamism...
"), "If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)
If I Could Be with You (One Hour Tonight)
"If I Could Be with You " is a popular song.The music was written by James P. Johnson, the lyrics by Henry Creamer. The song was published in 1926 and first recorded by Clarence Williams' Blue Five with vocalist Eva Taylor in 1927...
", "You've Got to Be Modernistic", "Don't Cry, Baby", "Keep off the Grass", "Old Fashioned Love", "A Porter's Love Song to a Chambermaid", "Carolina Shout", and "Snowy Morning Blues". He wrote waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
es, ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
, symphonic pieces and light opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
; many of these extended works exist in manuscript form in various stages of completeness in the collection of Johnson's papers housed at the Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
, Newark, New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
. Johnson's success as a popular composer qualified him as a member of ASCAP in 1926.
1928 saw the premier of Johnson's rhapsody Yamekraw, named after a black community in Savannah, Georgia. William Grant Still was orchestrator and Fats Waller the pianist as Johnson was contractually obliged to conduct his and Waller's hit Broadway show Keep Shufflin. Harlem Symphony, composed during the 1930s, was performed at Carnegie Hall in 1945 with Johnson at the piano and Joseph Cherniavsky as conductor. He collaborated with Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance...
on the one act opera, De Organizer. A fuller list of Johnson's film scores appears below.
Pianist
Along with Fats WallerFats Waller
Fats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...
and Willie 'The Lion' Smith, 'The Big Three', and Luckey Roberts
Luckey Roberts
Charles Luckeyeth Roberts, better known as Luckey Roberts was an American composer and stride pianist who worked in the jazz, ragtime, and blues styles.-Biography:...
, Johnson embodies the apex of the Harlem Stride piano style, an evolution of East Coast ragtime infused with elements of the blues. His "Carolina Shout" was a standard test piece/ right of passage for every contemporary pianist: Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
learned it note for note from the 1921 QRS Johnson piano roll. Johnson taught Fats Waller
Fats Waller
Fats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...
and got him his first piano roll
Piano roll
A piano roll is a music storage medium used to operate a player piano, piano player or reproducing piano. A piano roll is a continuous roll of paper with perforations punched into it. The peforations represent note control data...
and recording assignments. Eubie Blake
Eubie Blake
James Hubert Blake was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, Blake and long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans...
played a somewhat less rhythmically developed style of East Coast ragtime than Roberts or Johnson, a transitional figure between classic ragtime and the hard-swinging, more harmonically advanced style of the stride pianists).
Harlem Stride is distinguished from ragtime by several essential characteristics: Ragtime introduced sustained syncopation
Syncopation
In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter . These include a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be...
into piano music but stride pianists introduced a more freely swinging rhythm into their performances with a certain degree of anticipation of the left (bass) hand by the right (melody) hand, a form of tension and release in the patterns played by the right hand interpolated within the beat generated by the left. Stride more frequently incorporates elements of the blues, as well as harmonies more complex than usually found in the works of classic ragtime composers. Lastly, while ragtime was for the most part a composed music, based on European light classics such as marches, pianists such as Waller and Johnson introduced their own rhythmic, harmonic and melodic figures into their performances and, occasionally, spontaneous improvisation. In public performance, stride pianists either used variations on popular songs of the day or pieces within the idiom specially composed by its main performers. Examples of these so called test pieces include Johnson's Carolina Shout, Keep Off the Grass
Keep Off The Grass
Keep Off the Grass is a musical revue with sketches by Mort Lewis, Parke Levy, Alan Lipscott, S. Jay Kaufman, and Panama & Frank, lyrics by Al Dubin and Howard Dietz, and music by Jimmy McHugh. The choreography was by George Balanchine....
, and Harlem Strut, Fats Waller's Handful of Keys
Handful of Keys
"Handful of Keys" is a composition in the stride piano style by the jazz composer and pianist Fats Waller and originally published by Chappel & Co....
, and Willie "the Lion' Smith's, Fingerbuster.
Johnson's musical legacy is present in the body of work of the more famous Fats Waller as well as scores of other pianists who were influenced by him, such as Art Tatum
Art Tatum
Arthur "Art" Tatum, Jr. was an American jazz pianist and virtuoso who played with phenomenal facility despite being nearly blind.Tatum is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time...
, Donald Lambert
Donald Lambert
Donald "The Lamb" Lambert was an American jazz stride pianist born in Princeton, New Jersey, perhaps best-known for playing in Harlem night clubs throughout the 1920s. Lambert was taught piano by his mother but never learned to read the notes. For his particularly rapid left hand striding...
, Louis Mazetier
Louis Mazetier
Louis Mazetier is a French stride pianist.Mazetier began playing jazz at age 14 and by age 18 was taking gigs at jazz clubs in Paris. In addition to his career as a musician, Dr. Mazetier works full time as a radiologist...
, Pat Flowers
Pat Flowers
Ivelee Patrick "Pat" Flowers was an American jazz pianist and singer.Flowers started his professional career as the pianist during intermissions at Uncle Tom's Cabin in Detroit when he was 18 years old...
, Joe Turner
Joe Turner
Joe Turner is the name of:* Big Joe Turner , blues singer* Joe Turner , jazz/stride pianist* Joe Lynn Turner , rock musician* Joe Turner , English footballer...
, Cliff Jackson
Cliff Jackson
Clifton Luther "Cliff" Jackson was an American jazz stride pianist.After playing in Atlantic City, Jackson moved to New York City in 1923, where he played with Lionel Howard's Musical Aces in 1924 and recorded with Bob Fuller and Elmer Snowden...
, Hank Duncan
Hank Duncan
Hank Duncan was an American dixieland jazz pianist born in Bowling Green, Kentucky, probably better known for his work with Fess Williams, King Oliver, Tommy Ladnier, Charles "Fat Man" Turner, and many others. He also toured extensively with Fats Waller.-References:...
, Claude Hopkins
Claude Hopkins
Claude Driskett Hopkins was an American jazz stride pianist and bandleader.-Biography:Claude Hopkins was born in Alexandria, Virginia in 1903. Historians differ in respect of the actual date of his birth. His parents were on the faculty of Howard University...
, Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
, Don Ewell
Don Ewell
Don Ewell was an American jazz stride pianist born in Baltimore, Maryland, perhaps best known for his work with several prominent New Orleans–based musicians such as Sidney Bechet, Kid Ory, George Lewis, George Brunis, Muggsy Spanier and Bunk Johnson.From 1956 to 1962, Ewell was a leading member...
, Johnny Guarnieri
Johnny Guarnieri
Johnny Guarnieri was an American virtuoso jazz and stride pianist, born in New York City, perhaps best known for his big band stints with Benny Goodman in 1939 and with Artie Shaw in 1940...
, Dick Hyman
Dick Hyman
Richard “Dick” Hyman is an American jazz pianist/keyboardist and composer, best-known for his versatility with jazz piano styles. Over a 50 year career, he has functioned as pianist, organist, arranger, music director, and, increasingly, as composer...
, Dick Wellstood
Dick Wellstood
Richard MacQueen "Dick" Wellstood was an American jazz pianist...
, Ralph Sutton
Ralph Sutton
Ralph Earl Sutton was an American jazz pianist born in Hamburg, Missouri. He was a stride pianist in the tradition of James P. Johnson and Fats Waller....
, Neville Dickie
Neville Dickie
Neville Dickie is an English boogie-woogie and stride piano player. He has performed all over Europe and North America.-Career:...
, Mike Lipskin
Mike Lipskin
Mike Lipskin is a stride pianist of the pre-bop jazz style, piano instructor, record producer and author. He has striven to keep alive the form of jazz piano known as Harlem Stride Piano. He played piano and organ on Papa John Creach's self-titled album, produced Ryo Kawasaki's Juice album, and...
, Jim Turner
Jim Turner
Jim Turner may refer to:* Jim Turner , American football player* Jim Turner , American football player* Jim Turner , Major League Baseball pitcher...
,Bernd Lhotzky, Chris Hopkins and Butch Thompson
Butch Thompson
Butch Thompson is an American jazz pianist and clarinetist best known for his ragtime and stride performances....
.
Honors and recognitions
Two Romare Bearden paintings bear the name of Johnson compositions: Carolina Shout, and Snow(y) Morning.On September 16, 1995 the U.S. Post Office issues a James P. Johnson 32 cent commemorative postage stamp.
| Year Inducted | Title |
|---|---|
| 1970 | Songwriters Hall of Fame Songwriters Hall of Fame The Songwriters Hall of Fame is an arm of the National Academy of Popular Music. It was founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer and music publishers Abe Olman and Howie Richmond. The goal is to create a museum but as of April, 2008, the means do not yet exist and so instead it is an online... |
| 1973 | Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame Down Beat Down Beat is an American magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois... |
| 1980 | Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame |
| 2007 | ASCAP Jazz Wall of Fame |
Unmarked since his death in 1955, his grave was re-consecrated with a headstone paid for with funds raised by an event arranged by the James P. Johnson Foundation, Spike Wilner and Dr. Scott Brown on October 4, 2009. James P. Johnson's Last Rent Party took place at Wilner's Greenwich Village venue, Small's Jazz Club.
Film scores
Johnson's compositions as a film scoreFilm score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
were used in a number of movies, which were compiled from previously written musical compositions. Partial list includes:
| Year | Film | Actor/Actress | Songs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1929 | The Show of Shows The Show of Shows (film) The Show of Shows is a lavish all talking Vitaphone musical revue film which cost $850,000 to make. The Show of Shows was Warner Bros. fifth color movie, the first four were The Desert Song , On With the Show , Gold Diggers of Broadway and Paris . This movie featured most of the contemporary... |
John Barrymore John Barrymore John Sidney Blyth , better known as John Barrymore, was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III... Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Myrna Loy Myrna Loy Myrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles... |
"Your Love is All I Crave" | |
| 1933 | Dancing Lady Dancing Lady Dancing Lady is a 1933 musical film starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable, and featuring Franchot Tone, the fourth of eight collaborations between Crawford and Gable. It was directed by Robert Z. Leonard, produced by John W. Considine Jr. and David O. Selznick, and was based on the novel of the... |
Joan Crawford Joan Crawford Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre.... Clark Gable Clark Gable William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh... Fred Astaire Fred Astaire Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute... |
"Alabama Swing" | |
| 1938 | The Big Broadcast of 1938 The Big Broadcast of 1938 The Big Broadcast of 1938 is a Paramount Pictures film featuring W.C. Fields and Bob Hope. Directed by Mitchell Leisen, the film is the last in a series of Big Broadcast movies that were variety show anthologies... |
W.C. Fields Dorothy Lamour Dorothy Lamour Dorothy Lamour was an American film actress. She is best remembered for appearing in the Road to... movies, a series of successful comedies starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope .-Early life:Lamour was born Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton in New Orleans, Louisiana, the daughter of Carmen Louise Dorothy... Bob Hope Bob Hope Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel... |
"Charleston" | |
| 1939 | The Roaring Twenties The Roaring Twenties The Roaring Twenties is a 1939 crime thriller starring James Cagney, Priscilla Lane, Humphrey Bogart and Gladys George. The movie was directed by Raoul Walsh, and written by Jerry Wald, Richard Macaulay and Robert Rossen based on the story "The World Moves On" by Mark Hellinger... |
James Cagney James Cagney James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth... Humphrey Bogart Humphrey Bogart Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema.... |
"If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)" | |
| 1942 | Casablanca Casablanca (film) Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, and featuring Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Dooley Wilson. Set during World War II, it focuses on a man torn between, in... |
Humphrey Bogart Humphrey Bogart Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema.... Ingrid Bergman Ingrid Bergman Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute... Dooley Wilson Dooley Wilson Arthur "Dooley" Wilson was an American actor and singer. He was born in Tyler, Texas, and is remembered as piano-player "Sam" who sings "As Time Goes By" at the request of Ilsa Lund in the 1942 film, Casablanca - the Sam in the famously misremembered line "Play it again, Sam" -- a phrase which... |
"If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)" | |
| 1943 | Stormy Weather Stormy Weather (1943 film) Stormy Weather is a 1943 American musical film produced and released by 20th Century Fox. The film is one of two major Hollywood musicals produced in 1943 with primarily African-American casts, the other being MGM's Cabin in the Sky, and is considered a time capsule showcasing some of the top... |
Lena Horne Lena Horne Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the... Cab Calloway Cab Calloway Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer.... Fats Waller Fats Waller Fats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer... Dooley Wilson Dooley Wilson Arthur "Dooley" Wilson was an American actor and singer. He was born in Tyler, Texas, and is remembered as piano-player "Sam" who sings "As Time Goes By" at the request of Ilsa Lund in the 1942 film, Casablanca - the Sam in the famously misremembered line "Play it again, Sam" -- a phrase which... |
"There's No Two Ways About Love" | |
| 1946 | It's a Wonderful Life It's a Wonderful Life It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra and based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" written by Philip Van Doren Stern.... |
James Stewart James Stewart (actor) James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime... Donna Reed Donna Reed Donna Reed was an American film and television actress.With appearances in over 40 films, Reed received the 1953 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as the tramp Lorene in the war drama From Here to Eternity. She is also noted for her role in the perennial Christmas... Lionel Barrymore Lionel Barrymore Lionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul... |
"Charleston" | |
| 1947 | The Man I Love The Man I Love (film) The Man I Love is a noir film made in 1947, based on the novel Night Shift by Maritta M. Wolff.-Plot:Visiting her two sisters and brother, singer Petey Brown lands a job at small-time-hood Nicky Toresca's nightclub... |
Ida Lupino Ida Lupino Ida Lupino was an English-born film actress and director, and a pioneer among women filmmakers. In her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed seven others, mostly in the United States. She appeared in serial television programmes 58 times and directed 50 other episodes... Robert Alda Robert Alda Robert Alda was an American actor. He was the father of actors Alan Alda and Antony Alda.-Life and career:... |
"If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)" | |
| 1949 | Flamingo Road | Joan Crawford Joan Crawford Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre.... |
"If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)" | |
| 1957 | The Joker Is Wild The Joker Is Wild The Joker Is Wild is a film starring Frank Sinatra, Jeanne Crain, and Mitzi Gaynor, and Eddie Albert which tells the story of Joe E. Lewis, the popular singer and comedian who was a major attraction in nightclubs during 1920s to early 1950s.... |
Frank Sinatra Frank Sinatra Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the... |
"If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)" | |
| 1991 | Rambling Rose Rambling Rose (film) Rambling Rose is a 1991 American film set in Georgia during the Great Depression starring Laura Dern, Diane Ladd and Robert Duvall, directed by Martha Coolidge.... |
Laura Dern Laura Dern Laura Elizabeth Dern is an American actress, film director and producer. Dern has acted in such films as Smooth Talk , Blue Velvet , Fat Man and Little Boy , Wild at Heart , Jurassic Park and October Sky... Robert Duvall Robert Duvall Robert Selden Duvall is an American actor and director. He has won an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and a BAFTA over the course of his career.... |
"If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)" | |
| 1991 | Billy Bathgate Billy Bathgate (film) Billy Bathgate is a 1991 American crime film directed by Robert Benton, starring Loren Dean as the titular character and Dustin Hoffman as gangster Dutch Schultz. The film co-stars Nicole Kidman, Steven Hill, Steve Buscemi, and Bruce Willis. It is based on the novel of the same name by E.L.... |
Dustin Hoffman Dustin Hoffman Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters.... Bruce Willis Bruce Willis Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles... Nicole Kidman Nicole Kidman Nicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm... |
"The Mule Walk" | |
| 1994 | Cobb Cobb (film) Cobb is a 1994 biopic starring Tommy Lee Jones as the famed baseball player Ty Cobb. It was written and directed by Ron Shelton and was based on a book by Al Stump... |
Tommy Lee Jones Tommy Lee Jones Tommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive.... Lolita Davidovich Lolita Davidovich Lolita Davidovich is a Canadian film and television actress.-Early life and career:Davidovich was born in London, Ontario, the daughter of immigrants from Yugoslavia. Her father was from Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, and her mother was from Slovenia; she spoke only Serbian during her early years... |
"Bleeding Hearted Blues" | |
| 2001 | The Majestic | Jim Carrey Jim Carrey James Eugene "Jim" Carrey is a Canadian-American actor and comedian. He has received two Golden Globe Awards and has also been nominated on four occasions. Carrey began comedy in 1979, performing at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, Ontario... |
"Blue Note Boogie" | |
| 2003 | Alex & Emma | Kate Hudson Kate Hudson Kate Garry Hudson is an American actress. She came to prominence in 2001 after winning a Golden Globe and receiving several nominations, including a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for her role in Almost Famous. She then starred in the hit film How to Lose a Guy in 10... Luke Wilson Luke Wilson Luke Cunningham Wilson is an American film actor known for his roles in Old School, Bottle Rocket, The Royal Tenenbaums, Legally Blonde, Idiocracy and Death at a Funeral.-Early life:... |
"Charleston Charleston (song) "The Charleston" is a jazz composition that was written to accompany the Charleston dance. It was composed in 1923, with lyrics by Cecil Mack and music by James P. Johnson, who first introduced the stride piano method of playing. The song was featured in the American black Broadway musical comedy... " (1923) |
|
| 2006 | Southland Tales Southland Tales Southland Tales is a 2006 American-Franco-German science fiction dark comedy-drama film written and directed by Richard Kelly. The title refers to the Southland, a name used by locals to refer to Southern California and Greater Los Angeles... |
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson | "If I Could Be with You (One Hour Tonight) If I Could Be with You (One Hour Tonight) "If I Could Be with You " is a popular song.The music was written by James P. Johnson, the lyrics by Henry Creamer. The song was published in 1926 and first recorded by Clarence Williams' Blue Five with vocalist Eva Taylor in 1927... " (1926) |
|
| 2007 | Perfect Stranger | Halle Berry Halle Berry Halle Berry is an American actress and a former fashion model. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming... Bruce Willis Bruce Willis Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles... |
"Don't Cry Baby" | |
Discography
- 1950: Jazz, Vol. 1: South Folkways RecordsFolkways RecordsFolkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.-History:...
- 1953: Jazz, Vol. 7: New York (1922-1934) Folkways
- 1953: Jazz, Vol. 9: Piano Folkways
- 1960: Jazz of the Forties, Vol. 1: Jazz at Town Hall Folkways
- 1961: A History of Jazz: The New York Scene Folkways
- 1964: The Piano Roll Folkways
- 1966: The Asch Recordings, 1939 to 1947 - Vol. 1: Blues, Gospel, and Jazz Folkways
- 1973: The Original James P. Johnson Folkways
- 1974: Toe Tappin' Ragtime Folkway
- 1977: Early Ragtime Piano Folkways
- 1981: Striding in Dixieland Folkways
- 1996: The Original James P. Johnson: 1942-1945, Piano Solos Smithsonian FolkwaysSmithsonian FolkwaysSmithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was founded in 1987 after the family of Moses Asch, founder of Folkways...
- 2001: Every Tone a Testimony Smithsonian Folkways
- 2008: Classic Piano Blues from Smithsonian Folkways Smithsonian Folkways
Re-issues
Multiple CDs of Johnson's recordings have been reissued. The French Chronogical(sic) Classics series includes six discs devoted to Johnson. The Decca CD, Snowy Morning Blues, contains 20 sides done for the Brunswick and Decca labels, between 1930 and 1944. This CD includes an 8 tune, Fats Waller Memorial set, and 2 solos, "Jingles", and "You've Got to be Modernistic", which arguably demonstrate the best of Johnson's hard swinging stride style. The LP, and CD, Father of the Stride Piano, collects some of Johnson's best recordings for the Columbia family of labels, done between 1921 and 1939. It includes "Carolina Shout", "Worried and Lonesome Blues", and "Hungry Blues" (from De Organizer).Johnson's complete Blue Note recordings (solos, band sides in groups led by himself as well as Edmond Hall and Sidney DeParis) were made available in a collection issued by Mosaic Records. The largest, and probably the best anthology of Johnson's recordings was compiled in the Giants of Jazz series by Time-Life Music. This three LP collection contains 40 sides recorded from 1921 to 1945, and is supplemented with extensive liner notes, including a biographical essay by Frank Kappler, and erudite criticism of the musical selections by the noted contemporary stride pianist Dick Wellstood
Dick Wellstood
Richard MacQueen "Dick" Wellstood was an American jazz pianist...
, and the musicologist, Willa Rouder . Johnson was also a premier piano roll artist, recording approximately 60 rolls between 1917 and 1927. Many of these have been issued on CD, on the Biograph Label. A book of musical transcriptions of Johnson's piano roll performances of his own compositions has been prepared by Dr. Robert Pinsker, to be published through the auspices of the James P. Johnson Foundation.
Further reading and listening
- Schiff, David: A Pianist with Harlem on His Mind, New York Times, 2/16/1992 ( A portrait and review of the repremier of Johnson's Harlem Symphony, among other works, as realized by conductor Marin Alsop, pianist Leslie Stifleman, and The Concordia Orchestra ).
- Scott E. Brown, A Case Of Mistaken Identity: The Life and Music of James P. Johnson, Scarecrow Press, 1984. (Part of a series of published by the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University. A definitive study, this remains the only book length biography of this hugely important figure. It began as Dr. Brown's senior thesis at Yale ' 82, and was expanded into book form while he was in medical school. An updated edition is in preparation. It is supplemented with an extensive pre-CD era discography by Robert Hilbert.)
- Good Buddies: Waller and Johnson , Jazz Rhythm Program # 174, www.jazzhotbigstep.com, 2004 (produced by Dave RadlauerDave RadlauerDave Radlauer is the radio host of the five time award winning radio show Jazz Rhythm.Radlauer explores the works of well known and obscure musicians on his radio show Jazz Rhythm. In 2009 his show received its fifth award, that being a Gabriel Award. Radlauer plays traditional jazz music and...
, with guest, Mark Borowsky,M.D., James P. Johnson Foundation) - Celebrating James P. Johnson, Jazz Rhythm Programs #137 138, 139, www.jazzhotbigstep.com, 2003 (produced by Dave Radlauer, with guest, Mark Borowsky, James P. Johnson Foundation)
- Todd Mundt Show, Radio Program, NPR, January 2, 2003, (Includes a 25 minute interview with Mark Borowsky of the James P. Johnson Foundation and a discussion about the discovery and performance of James P. Johnson and Langston Hughes' operetta, De-Organizer. Long thought to have been lost, a score of singing parts was discovered by the noted University of Michigan jazz pianist and scholar, Prof James Dapogny. Dapogny's restoration was performed in 2003, followed in 2006 by a Dapogny restored version of "Dreamy Kid".)
- Fats Waller and James P. Johnson: Student/Teacher, Protege/Master, Colleagues/Best Friends. Lecture, by Dr. Mark Borowsky, Dr. Robert Pinsker, James P. Johnson Foundation. Fats Waller Centennial Conference, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University, May 8, 2004.
- From Joplin to Blake to Johnson: A Ragtime Triple Play. Lecture, by Robert Pinsker, Ph.D., Mark Borowsky, M.D., James P. Johnson Foundation. Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival, August 2002
External links
- James P. Johnson on RedHotJazz.com Biography with RAM files of many of James P. Johnson's historic recordings
- James P. Johnson on BlueBlackJazz.com
- James P. Johnson: A Composer Rescued -- The story of the discovery of "Victory Stride" and James P. Johnson's other lost symphonies by Leslie Stifleman
- The James P. Johnson Foundation For Music and The Arts
- James P. Johnson Discography at Smithsonian FolkwaysSmithsonian FolkwaysSmithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was founded in 1987 after the family of Moses Asch, founder of Folkways...
- Institute of Jazz Studies page on the James P. Johnson archival collection housed there
- James P. Johnson Collection Music Manuscripts Institute of Jazz Studies, Dana Library, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ.
- James P. Johnson Collection Programs, Scripts and Books Institute of Jazz Studies, Dana Library, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ.
- Institute of Jazz Studies Fats Waller Centennial Conference
- "In Search of James P. Johnson" by Ethan Iverson