This meant that many of the established black musicians turned their attention to catering more for the taste of the white audiences with the positive result that by the end of World War Two, stride had found its place in musical history. Stride evolved in the brothels and nightclubs of Harlem cultivated by extraordinary artists and innovators as Willie Smith, Luckey Roberts and of course James P Johnson.Īs the Blues flowed into the white culture of New York the once black only ghettos of the city became popular venues for white people too. Many consider that the stride method of playing comes from a fusion of the popular Blues and ragtime. It was here that stride truly began to flourish. From the ragtime of New Orleans, Jazz headed north to take root in New York and Chicago. The world of the stride pianist was a complete jazz style in its own right. If you listen to Art Tatum performing stride pieces it is even more bewildering as he can not only deliver pinpoint accuracy at very high speeds but also add complex right-hand melodies and even left-hand counter-melodies with his thumb. Even the most accomplished piano player is going to find this a notable challenge. If you refer to the above example, you can see the tempo is indicated at an extremely fast 230 beats per minute. This is still an approachable challenge if tackled systematically but what you hear on many recordings of stride playing is the tremendous speed of performance. Instead, pianists like James P Johnson and Art Tatum often play an octave or even a tenth (for example C to an E 9 notes higher), followed by a three, four or five-note chord on the next beat. For many stride players, a single bass note and chord are not the preferred choice of delivery. It sounds simple enough but there are more aspects to consider. Below is a short example of one of the many ways that stride piano can be realised by a pianist. This then leaves the right hand of the pianist to play the melody, or other more intricate chords or melodic lines. The bass note normally lands on the first and third beats of a four-four bar with the chord arriving on the second and fourth beats respectively. If the pianist could play the bass line chords and the melody, you do not need additional musicians. This technique was largely born out of pure need and economy. The desired effect is to create a bass line plus an on-going chord pattern with one hand. It involves the left hand of the pianist literally ‘striding’ from the low range to the mid-range of the piano. Stride piano playing is on the face of it, quite a straight forward playing technique. Increasingly, the harmonic and rhythmic complexities of the stride pianist moved the music into a very different world to the age of ragtime. The stride player was not restricted to music only in the ragtime vein but far more orientated towards popular compositions of the day. Perhaps the fundamental difference between ragtime and what became established stride piano playing was the type of music that was played. Take a look at the works of the famous ragtime composer Scott Joplin and you’ll quickly spot the stride style in his music. To some extent, the advent of ragtime music heralded the style of stride piano playing with the characteristic left hand striding from bass to mid-range in the piano keyboard. In some ways, this was the aim of the stride technique and in this article, I will look more closely at the technique and the work of these and other pianists. The thing that strikes you when listening to these performers is often that there seems to be more than one pianist playing such is the complexity of the rendition. Each of these piano players amongst many others has come to be celebrated as being amongst the very best of the stride piano players. Even if you are not completely familiar with the term ‘stride piano’ you may well have heard the performances of such notable jazz pianists as Thomas ‘Fats’ Waller, Earl Hines, Art Tatum and possibly James P Johnson.
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