This
style
of
piano jazz appeared towards the end of 1910's when jazz was
expanding in Harlem.
Richer than ragtime before, stride piano offered more freedom with
sounds, more flexibility in the game and came mainly under
improvisation.
It is a self-sufficient style of game because it fills all the sound
space and it is also very visual.
As a real "rythm box", the left hand alternates with flexibility
between basses and agreements, while the right hand weaves a series of
improvisations and variations on the empty space of the keyboard.
Piano stride played on essential part at the beginnings of jazz.
It has seen a generation of pianists who left their prints in jazz
history. Luckey Roberts and James P. Johnson were the first
pianists to prictice stride.
THE
FATHER
OF STRIDE PIANO : JAMES P. JOHNSON
(1894 - 1955)
The
pianist
James
P. Johnson
(1894-1955) created Stride piano by developing the game of the
great Ragtime pianists in a less restrictive music . He started to play
in bars, cabarets and rent-parties, and quickly became famous for his
virtuosity and his compositions. From 1916, he recorded and
published piano rolls in a style which is no longer ragtime. With
a revolutionary game, he used all the sounds he could play on the
keyboard. From 1921, he recorded his first Stride piano compositions
where he mingled syncopations with blues notes. Carolina Shout is
considered as the first recording of Jazz on a piano. In the same
period, James P. Johnson recorded with the greatest Blues singers and
became Bessie Smith's favourite accompanist.
Around
1919, he looked after the 15 years old Fats Waller whose mother had
just died. During several years he gave piano lessons to the
young boy and launched him then into an extraordinary career. For
his part, he continued to record a lot
of solo pieces or to accompany orchestras. James P. Johnson played an
important part in Jazz history. Thanks to him, Ragtime has
evolved towards an improvised music free from rules. He left us a lot
of compositions and standards like Charleston, one of the most recorded
tunes in the 20's. Even so, he never received
the recognition he deserved and died in 1955 nearly forgotten by
everyone.
I Know That You Know (1944) :
WILLIE
"THE LION"
SMITH
(1897 - 1973) :
Willie Smith the
Lion was another famous Stride piano player of Harlem nights. He
quickly stood as an unusual pianist and a wonderful soloist, a
matchless « keyboard trickler ». He was given the
nickname of « the Lion » during the rent-parties
and the well-known « cutting contests »
improvised at the end of the nights in the smoky clubs where artists
confronted each other using their most impressive feats on the
piano. In this night world of music, he was as the « king of
the jungle » waiting for those who would dare to confront
(challenge) him on the piano. Most of his opponents gave up in front of
his virtuosity. Because
of his appearance (he always wore a Derbyhat -or bowler hat - and
smoked a cigar), his strong personality and his unique way to play the
piano, he was one of the greatest Stride piano players.
From
the 30's, when nights in harlem were more quiet, he started recordings.
We discover then his original
compositions recorded in 1939 under the quality label Commodore, 14
titles among which some masterpieces : Echoes Of Spring,
Rippling Waters, Sneakaway, Finger Buster... Although
he borrowed to the game
of his contemporaries James P. Johnson and Eubie Blake, Willie Smith
developed his own technique : a lighter touch on the keyboard than
Waller though a little more risky, but with less virtuosity than
Johnson. He neglected the "game of pomp" with the left hand and
prefered to use a "swing of arpeggios" which gave poetry and
lyricism to his pieces : Fading star, What Is There To
Say?, I'll Follow You...).
Billy Strayhorn (composer and arranger for Duke Ellington's orchestra)
described his style in this way : « It is a
strange mixing of "counterpoint", chromatic harmony and arabesque
devices as fresh to the ear as a spring water for the
palate ». You just have to listen to Echoes of spring to
understand the very peculiar sounds which Willy Smith achieved to
play.
As
the last survivor of the ' Big Three ' of Stride piano , The Lion made
recordings and concerts onto the sixties, with the same style and
always remembering the old time of Harlem and his old friends.
DONALD "THE
LAMB"LAMBERT
(1904 - 1962) :
In a way,
he has been left out of stride history. He was a formidable
pianist in the rent parties of Harlem but he spent most of his life
discreetly playing piano in the clubs around his town. He recorded very
few
pieces and only twice in a studio, in 1941 and 1961. But he mainly
recorded in his favorite bar in Orange, New jersey. At last, he was
discovered by a large public during the Newport festival
in 1960.
Nevertheless, thanks to his few recordings he could enter the
great
names of stride.
He didn’t
composed, but he had a strong musical personnality and was
able to appropriate anyone’s music. He liked to play classical tunes
his own
way, which some were among his greatest pieces like his famous Anitra's
Dance.
Donald Lambert was
largely an autodidact and has a very particular way to play
the piano : he was left-handed and
had a fearsome but reliable left hand playing which he
almost
seemed to forget when he played. Furthermore
he used to play in unusual tonalities which made way to new acoustic
and
digital possibilities.
Later
on,
pianists
have kept the Stride piano alive and have made it
evolved. When he died in 1990 Joe Turner was the last great
player. As for Teddy Wilson, his game was modern but clearly
borrowed to classical Stride piano as well as Art Tatum. Other
well-known
pianists
have played Stride piano : Cliff Jackson, Claude
Hopkins, Ralph Sutton. Donald Lambert was the master in the art
of "stridising" classical music even if he never recorded enough
to remain in History. Anitra' s Dance,
Moonlight Sonata and many others are absolutely brilliant pieces.
Pat Flowers is another Stride pianist that everybody has
forgotten now : he was Waller's pupil and when his teacher died
he became the director of the famous orchestra « Fats
Waller & His Rhythm ». Though less charismatic
than Fats Waller, he knew how to keep alive his teacher's style with
his very personal but perfect technique. There are still many
other artists to discover who will bring the amateurs of Stride piano
instants of pure pleasure.
Pat Flowers
Today,
the very gifted Dick Hyman perpetuates this style in
the United States. In France, we
have the great opportunity to listen to Louis Mazetier and Olivier
Lancelot who play in bars and
jazz-clubs in Paris.
