James P. Johnson grew up in New York City listening to the rags of Scott Joplin and studying classical piano and theory with an Italian teacher. He soon was able to take ragtime piano to the next step, inventing a technically difficult style called “stride”… named for the large leaps required of the player’s left hand. At that point Johnson became the last great rag pianist, and the first great jazz pianist, with a long performing and recording career.
He was also a clever and extremely successful songwriter: his "Charleston" is, even today, the first music that comes to mind when anyone mentions “The Roaring 20’s.”
But his ambition was not confined to pop music. One example was his response to George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”… Johnson’s 1927 “Yamekraw: A Negro Rhapsody” for piano and orchestra. Premiered at Carnegie Hall and orchestrated by William Grant Still, it’s viewed by many to be the more authentic jazz rhapsody.
During the Great Depression, as popular taste turned to swing, Johnson was able to live off his songwriting royalties and used the time to pivot… writing symphonic compositions. A “Harlem Symphony,” a jazz piano concerto, an orchestral suite, an opera with poet Langston Hughes. These works made Johnson a prophet of what would come to be called “Third Stream” music… a joining of the worlds of classical and jazz. Performed in the 1930’s and 1940’s, this body of work would disappear until scholars were able to coax Johnson’s family to reveal some of the manuscripts in the 1990’s.
Johnson’s performing career ended with a severe stroke in 1951. He would die four years later, almost unnoticed by the media.
But with renewed interest in his music, James P. is still relevant to both jazz and classical listeners.
James Price Johnson…. Classically Black.
