King of Stride Piano

James P. Johnson (1894-1955) was one of the very first people to play jazz on the piano, hastening the evolution of Eastern ragtime into something vibrant and organic that music critics would later christen "Harlem stride piano." James P. Johnson's "Charleston" set the pace for the 1920s, his many compositions formed part of the bedrock of the traditional jazz repertoire, and his most brilliant exponent was Thomas "Fats" Waller, famous as a piano-thumping singer and purveyor of swing music. This Giants of Jazz compilation combines vintage player piano rolls with a series of excellent solos recorded in 1930 and 1944, a welcome development as most other collections handle either piano rolls or phonograph recordings but do not mingle the two formats. Although an enclosed list provides recording dates and arranges the titles chronologically, the later recordings are shuffled together on the disc with the piano rolls placed last. These rolls include "Eccentricity," a marvelous ragtime waltz from 1921 that feels more like 1905; Tom Delaney's "Down Home Blues"; and a medley of tunes that Johnson wrote for the stage show Runnin' Wild. The kicking strains of "Charleston" are executed at times with such intensity as to suggest the blows of a fist. Note that the years mentioned in the album title should be 1921-1944. Whoever assembled the enclosed discographical information not only referenced a nonexistent piano roll — Johnson did not record "Down Home Blues" in 1918 on any format — but also mistook a 1921 phonograph recording of this song by Alice Leslie Carter with Jimmy Johnson's Jazz Boys for a piano roll. James P. Johnson's sole piano roll of "Down Home Blues" was cut in February of 1922. The material selected for this compilation is uniformly excellent. James P. Johnson's 1930 rendering of Cole Porter's "What Is This Thing Called Love?" was the first recording of that melody ever made by anyone. In June of 1944, six months after the sudden death of Fats Waller at the age of 39, James P. Johnson coped with the loss of his friend by recording a series of songs composed or made famous by Waller. In August and September of 1944, Johnson recorded a series of his own melodies, including the famous "Snowy Morning Blues," the old "Carolina Shout," and the romantically infused "If I Could Be with You (One Hour Tonight)."