James Price Johnson

Often referred to as the "Father of Stride Piano," James P. Johnson was the dominant figure who in the late 1910s and 1920s helped to evolve ragtime into a more ambitious form of composition and performance combined with elements of jazz. Some sources, even those from his own lifetime, show an 1891 birth date. However, virtually all census and draft records are consistent in stating 1894 as his year of birth, as are his birth and death certificates. Jimmy was born at 6 City Alley in New Brunswick, New Jersey to mechanic William H. Johnson (or so it has been reported) and Virginia native Josephine (Harrison) Johnson who was working as a house maid. Familial circumstances and cryptic census records make it difficult to sort out his direct siblings, and even the identity and status of William H. Johnson can be called into question. One positive verification, however, is the listing of that name as his father on a 1921 passport application. It appears James had five older step-siblings, as noted below.

Around late 1896 to early 1897, Josephine had remarried to Harry (or Perry) Thompson, who was (depending on which information is trusted) between nine and more likely fifteen years her junior. In 1898 she managed to obtain a piano for their home. Jimmy's earliest musical training was given to him by his mother when he was barely able to reach the keyboard. She was able to show him melodies and simple chords of the current music that she knew of, mostly ragtime and early blues pieces, which he quickly memorized. James also had the dual blessing and curse of perfect pitch, which allowed him to instantly reproduce anything he heard in its original key, or quickly transpose it through relativity.

As of the 1900 census they were living in New Brunswick in a house full of collective offspring. The relationships are hard to sort out, but four siblings with the last name of Nevins ranging from 14 to 21 show as stepchildren to Thompson, then there are two with the last name of Collins aged 4 and 7 that, like Jimmy, are shown as boarders, likely an enumeration error. According to that enumeration Josephine would have been reportedly 10 when the oldest step-child was born. As it turns out, she had deflated her age just a bit by thirteen years. Josephine had been married to farmer Richard Nevins, shown to be eighteen years her senior, around 1872. Jimmy's older half-siblings were Diana Nevins (1873), William H. Nevins (8/1879), Richard Frank Nevins (6/1882), Clifford Nevins (9/1883), and Isabella Nevins (10/1886). Diana appears to have died before 1900. To further confuse the issue, the record also included Evangeline Collins (10/1892) and Susan Collins (11/1895), with the different last name and boarder status making them harder to identify.

Josephine appears to have been widowed in the early 1890s. Given that William H. matches both her oldest son and Jimmy's alleged father, and that she claimed her marriage to Thompson to be her second, the circumstances of James P.'s conception and true identification of his father can logically be called into question. No official record of marriage or positive identification of William H. Johnson was found in the author's research. However, there was one likely candidate who was born in Maryland, and in the 1900 census serving time in a prison in Trenton, New Jersey. While it would explain some of the story, there is no confirmation that this is the case. There is also a possibility Jimmy was adopted, but in such cases the last name is usually changed, so this seems unlikely.

Among the early pieces Jimmy learned while growing up were AME or Methodist Hymns and the song Little Brown Jug, which he simply copied from his mother's rendition. The family was devoted to the church and were involved in the social life that came with it. So James observed everything from musical melees to authentic ring shouts and cotillion dances in his home. The experience instilled in him the joys of music as well as the complexities of some of the rhythmic patterns and dance steps that had been passed down, perhaps only a little less than two generations away from the time of slavery in Virginia.

In 1902 the family moved to Jersey City where Jimmy frequently heard early ragtime strains coming from venues throughout the town, including saloons and brothels. He set about trying to duplicate that music at home with some success.

A street scene in the San Juan Hill neighborhood, midtown Manhattan, West Side, around 1910.

Johnson related that his debut as a paid pianist came about at age eight or so [word of mouth is hard to confirm] when a neighbor woman, who was also involved with a "business," heard him play and asked if he would like to earn a quarter just to perform. He obviously was interested in payment, so she led him into a "business" and told to just start playing, but not to turn around for any reason. That was how he says he was introduced to playing in a brothel. By the age of nine Jimmy had surpassed his mother's ability to teach him and he was sent to at least one local instructor in addition to learning more about music at school.

The family moved to New York around 1908, which thrilled Jimmy since he had been going to symphony concerts there for a little while thanks to a friend of his older brother, a pianist named Charlie Cherry. They lived on the west side near Columbus Circle in a questionable neighborhood referred to as "San Juan Hill" because of the battle-like conditions wrought from racial tensions. But the teenager found escape through the piano, and through Charlie's mentoring he was introduced to the more authentic strains of classic ragtime, including that of Scott Joplin. Jimmy soon found musical employment when not in school, working his way up the musician's food chain from brothels and bars to respectable restaurants and private parties. He continued his passion for ragtime, learning in particular the works of Joplin, who was living in New York by then. The 1910 census found the family living at 152 West 62nd Street. Jimmy was grouped in with his older step-siblings and enumerated as James Nevins. Harry was working as a porter in a theater and Josephine as a laundress, while William and Richard were contracted delivery drivers. Isabella was a hotel maid, but Jimmy, shown as 16, did not have a fixed occupation.

The family moved again around 1911 up to 99th Street, about two miles south of Harlem, which was not yet the center of black culture that it would soon become. He kept on working in restaurants, for society dances, at cabarets, and of course in various whore houses. Jimmy's first outside professional engagement other than a brothel or dive was reportedly at Coney Island when he was around 18. There was another possible professional debut playing at the Nickellete Theater in lower Manhattan, an early movie house. In 1913, now 19-years-old, Jimmy got a much more sophisticated gig working at Drake's Dancing Class at 61st Street and 10th Avenue on the west side, a block from his former residence. It was actually more of a nightclub which was also known as The Jungles Casino. It was in this venue that he was once again exposed to the dances he had seen in his mother's parlor, and also started to experiment more in composition to accompany the very specific rhythms requested by the instructors. He also learned about style and content for stage presentation and the relationship between music and dance.

One evening there was a "rent party" held just down the block from Drake's, and he was invited. Such parties were organized not just for the entertainment and social aspects, but for the admission charged which served to help pay the rent of the host or a beneficiary. A fairly new concept in the 1910s, they expanded to be great social events by the end of the decade, and the piano was the omnipresent entertainment center at these parties, which often lasted into the night and even until dawn. There was no formal pecking order - just show up and play, which Johnson did. Many times there were spontaneous cutting contests to determine who the best player in the area was. While he did earn a bit for his efforts, reportedly a $1.50, it was not enough for sustenance at that time. However, he soon dominated these parties and his take went up considerably.

As it happened, Jimmy's reputation started to grow, and by 1914 it prompted certain introductions to other established performers. Among these were James Hubert "Eubie" Blake, Willie Smith (later Willie "The Lion" Smith), and Charles "Luckey" Roberts. A friend of Roberts, Ernest Green, saw to it that Johnson got some classical training to improve his skills, some of it gratis or greatly discounted. He ended up training with Bruto Giannini [the author was not able to definitively locate a teacher by this name, so it is considered approximate], who Green's mother cleaned house for, for four years. Bruto instilled a great deal of musical discipline in the youth through the insistence that a regiment of scales and performance certain classical pieces be followed. This also gave Johnson a further appreciation for classical themes that would surface in his later compositions.

To his great credit, Bruto did not discourage Jimmy's propensities to play ragtime and blues, but did make sure that his fingerings and technique were correct. The experience left Jimmy well versed in not only technique but harmony and theory, all necessary for good composition and arranging. His fingering technique dazzled all who watched, including many competitors who simply ceded to his quiet dominance. Some of that was applied to his early compositions, reportedly originally conceived during his time with Bruto, including the stride piano template Carolina Shout, the bouncy Mule Walk based on a dance of the same name, and the dynamic show-off piece Steeplechase Rag. As his earliest recorded performances would attest, these were still in the rhythmically squared ragtime vein at that time, but by 1920 would evolve into a different feel altogether.

In short order Johnson was working in vaudeville, which gave him a wider audience and an early following that allowed him the luxury of a reputation. What he lacked in stage presence he had plenty in terms of playing ability. With that, he was able to collect a band of talented peers to improve the quality of the music he played. Around the time of The Great War (World War I), carolina shout cover

Jimmy and his colleagues were hired for a couple of touring shows which went to England and Europe (although no passport application for him has been found so the status of that travel is unclear). Still, most people who heard hi play appreciated him largely for his innovative techniques when performing the latest ragtime hits of the day.

Johnson stood out during the cutting contests that were still common in the mid-1910s by employing unusual tricks, many picked up by listening carefully to other pianists and improving on what they did. One of the more important developments in this technique came when he started recording piano rolls in 1917 for Aeolian, soon to be one of the dominant producers of that media. Arrangers of rolls did whatever they could to make their work stand out, which often meant trying to create more sound than the notes on the printed page would produce. This included adding tenths or tenths with fifths in the left hand, using lower octaves and higher chords, and developing tricky patterned runs in the right hand. One offshoot of this enhancement was novelty piano, of which Zez Confrey would eventually shine along with Arthur Schutt and Roy Bargy. But Jimmy took a different direction from that same basis. In his playing, Jimmy stuck to more basic expanded techniques that were grounded in rhythm rather than tricks. Among his unique signatures are the backwards tenth, where the higher note of the left hand tenth is sounded before the beat, and the lower note on the beat. In total he cut around fifty-four rolls for Aeolian on their Metro-Art and Universal labels, and later for QRS, more than any other stride pianist.

With lyricist Will Farrell Jimmy composed some songs for a group known as the Smart Set, which at that time was heavily supported by Luckey Roberts. They managed to get some of their pieces into that touring show. Three of these pieces, Stop It, Boys of Uncle Sam and the popular and often recorded Mama's Blues, were soon sold to publisher F.B. Haviland for $25 each. Johnson used his share of this sale, for which there were no subsequent royalties, to secure a better piano. He further shared the vaudeville stage with one of the first names associated with ragtime, now struggling to maintain a career, Ben Harney. One of their tricks was straddling a bench with a piano on each side, both players using one hand on each piano.

Jimmy's 1917 draft card shows him simply as a piano player working for a (the writing is difficult to decipher) Mr. Pearson at Douglaston on Long Island. It also shows him as married. Jimmy had known singer Lillie Mae Hughes (4/1889), who was five years older than he was, since around 1914. By Johnson's own admission he did what he could to avoid being drafted, as many of his fellow musicians temporarily disappeared from the scene. One of those things was the indication that he was married when the card was filled out on June 5. However, the official record of marriage was dated August 6, 1917, just over two months later. Jimmy ended continued working as a pianist in the evenings, but also as a worker in a Quartermaster Corps warehouse in order to skirt being sent over the Europe. This way he was in the presence of military officers and could carry his draft card, as required at that time, but be less concerned about suddenly joining his friends in the fighting 369th U.S. Infantry. Ultimately, this group saw few casualties and were among the very first honored in New York City upon their return after the war.

The identity of Mr. Pearson is difficult to reconcile, but he may have been associated with or recommended by The Clef Club which was started by James Reese Europe and Ford Dabney (who were both now overseas), as they appeared to be his primary booking agent. For these gigs, which were frequent in 1917 and 1918, Jimmy would gather the best players he could find that could follow his arrangements and his lead, and formed small ensembles that started to garner attention. They would play everything from house parties to extended gigs in off-Broadway shows. Through these groups his reputation among his peers, and even outside of that circle, continued to grow.

During and after the war James continued to record the occasional set of piano rolls for Universal, Artemp and Metro-Art between traveling in vaudeville troupes with Lillie. ivy, cling to me cover

The couple was shown lodging in Toledo, Ohio in the January 1920 enumeration, there on tour with a vaudeville troupe. Jimmy was listed as a cabaret musician and Lillie as a theater performer. That life would not last much longer as James P. Johnson would become a working pianist in New York City, and celebrity to boot.

It was through some piano rolls cut in 1921 and 1922 on the QRS label that Johnson established himself as a stride pianist and composer. He signed on exclusively with the company in 1921 and cut a number of rolls for them over the next five years. These included the ambitious Harlem Strut and the benchmark Carolina Shout, which was considered a test piece for lesser pianists to prove their abilities. Even though he had done an earlier take of Carolina Shout in 1918, which was reportedly around even earlier, the 1921 release clearly shed off much of the square ragtime feel and had much of the stride swing, forecasting the coming piano style. A young disciple of Johnson, Thomas "Fats" Waller, was among those (including Edward "Duke" Ellington) who would sit in front of a player piano pumping Carolina Shout at a very slow tempo, learning the piece note by note.

A 1921 Passport application states his purpose for travel to England and France as the "study of music." Whether this was intended through observation or direct instruction is unclear. His address, however, as at 252 West 139th Street, in the heart of Harlem. Of interest is the witness to his identity, pioneering black stage composer Will Marion Cook. He was scheduled to leave on the Imperator on July 4. Although confirmation from a passenger list was difficult to confirm, it is assumed he made this trip, but was back much sooner than the six months he indicated.

While Johnson had also done an acoustic phonograph recording during that busy year 1917 for what would become the OKeh label, it was ultimately not released. In 1921 he cut one side of Carolina Shout with a small jazz ensemble on Arto Records, a subsidiary of Standard Music Rolls for which he had also worked. There were also some sides recorded for the Black Swan/Paramount company accompanying singers Eddie Gray and Trixie Smith. Finally, Johnson went back into the OKeh studio to cut some solo tracks, of which a solo piano version of Carolina Shout would see the biggest reception immediately upon its release. As Harlem was growing into a solid African-American community in the 1920s, Johnson was one of the musical leaders giving that area northward from 125th Street its musical identity. For his new home town he added The Harlem Strut which had also been recorded on Black Swan. Soon every pianist in the area was trying to outdo each other showing off their renditions of Johnson's two big hits, while Johnson himself was moving on to other things.

The young Mr. Waller soon caught Jimmy's attention and fairly soon would become the heir apparent to the Stride Piano throne. Waller had done most of his early learning on church organs, so even though he was somewhat versed in Johnson's style when they met, he had a relatively weak left hand by virtue of the fact he had learned to use pedals for the bass notes. Jimmy mentored the seventeen-year-old Waller who was spending long periods of time camped out in the master's home. old fashioned love cover

Soon the youth was emerging as a result of his own talent. The two of them reigned at Harlem rent parties as well. It is said that George Gershwin showed up at some of these events just to take in and study their dynamic style. Even Willie Smith, who had been over in the battlefields of France where he allegedly earned his name of "The Lion," was spending a lot of time watching and learning from Johnson.

Johnson's influence turned into deeds as he helped Waller secure a recording job with QRS. In 1922, Waller recorded his first two piano sides on OKeh, Muscle Shoals Blues and Birmingham Blues, in which Johnson's influence was clear in the mature renditions of both tunes. The two became life-long friends, but it was clear over the next few years that Waller, with the more dynamic personality and fearless bravado, would be the performer who caught the public's eye, while Jimmy often remained the technician who caught the musician's ear.

Johnson made a number of new recordings with ensembles from 1921 on, some using the name of Jimmy Johnson, although his good friends evidently called him James. The audio recordings of his piano solos are often as good as or better than the piano rolls, largely because they convey dynamics that rolls don't capture. As historian Dave Jasen conjectured, for his solo instrumental pieces Johnson was still writing piano rags, but was performing them as jazz pieces. The band work was less structured but still arranged. However, the natural swing in Johnson's playing, when it could be heard, was a stark contrast to many of the "straight-playing" musicians sometimes thrust upon him by the studio who was looking to produce more jazz band recordings. In 1923 Johnson would have another shiny jewel added to his crown.

While he had been increasingly busy with piano rolls and records, in April and May Johnson was listed on passenger lists returning from what appears to be trips to London, touring with a subset of the show Plantation Days which had been incorporated into a British show. However, inspired in part on the Broadway success of Shufflin' Along by Eubie Blake and his lyricists partner Noble Sissle, Jimmy teamed with F.E. Miller, Aubrey L. Lyles and lyricist Cecil Mack for a George White produced show. Runnin' Wild toured in the early fall of 1923, and debuted at the Colonial Theater on October 29. In the original incarnation and a re-tooled edition it ran for 228 performances through June 28, 1924, a great achievement during a time when Broadway was at time cluttered with weekly openings. The show yielded several hits but none bigger than the famous Charleston, a piece that defined the sound of the 1920s and spawned countless imitations.

When he wasn't writing, recording or playing on Broadway, Jimmy was playing for rent parties, and even ad hoc gatherings. As recounted in Black Bottom Stomp by Jasen and Jones, he had an unofficial agent, Raymond "Lippy" Boyette, who would make sure that Jimmy hit all the best rent parties and got his share of time before moving on to the next one. Duke Ellington remembered those times, and recalled that when there wasn't any party going on, "Lippy would walk up to any man's house at any time of night. He'd ring the doorbell. Finally somebody would wake up and holler out the window about who was it making all the disturbance. Lippy would answer, 'It's Lippy and James P. is here with me.' These magic words opened anybody's door, and we would sit and play all night long."

Then again, it was through performance more than anything that Jimmy made his living. While his few songs were selling fairly well, the stride style was not only difficult for many pianists to approach, but even harder to notate given the knowledge of that time. Without a frame of reference, such as constant exposure to the feel of stride, translating the notes on the page into the correct swing rhythm was a challenge unto itself. In the end, all but a few earnest followers of Jimmy preferred to pay to hear him play rather than try to do it themselves. Still, some of his works were published, including Jingles, Snow Morning Blues, Keep Off the Grass, Scoutin' Around and Carolina Shout. As a result of his published work, Johnson was able to gain admission to ASCAP in 1926, twelve years after it was founded. That was also the year of the release and piano roll of one of his biggest hits composed with Henry Creamer, If I Could Be With One (One Hour Tonight), still frequently performed over eight decades later.

Some of his best non-solo work was as an accompanist for blues maven Bessie Smith. Johnson ultimately cut fourteen sides with her starting in February 1927. She later mentioned that he was her favorite pianist to work with. He also worked and sometimes recorded with the bands of Perry Bradford, Louis Armstrong, Jabbo Smith, and Joseph "King" Oliver, often uncredited but aurally recognizable.

After several years in jazz, Johnson felt he needed to expand his horizons. Inspired by the works of composers George Gershwin and Ferdé Grofé, he started combining jazz and classical music, also calling on Negro folk music and spirituals at times for effect. Among his best known symphonic works were Yamekraw - A Negro Rhapsody, a mix of spirituals and folk pieces compiled/composed in 1927 and named after a black community in Savannah, Georgia, and Harlem Symphony from 1932. In April 1928, W.C. Handy hosted a concert at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan which included Johnson and his new work. According to The Music Trade Review of May 12, 1928: "W.C. Handy, pioneer composer of many varieties of 'blues' and author of several books on the subject, gave a successful concert in Carnegie Hall, New York, recently, assisted by an orchestra and a group of Jubilee Singers. if i could be with you cover

The program included a negro [sic] rhapsody entitled 'Yamecraw,' [sic] composed by James P. Johnson, in which Thomas Waller played the piano solos." A two piano presentation had been planned, but Johnson had a contractual obligation elsewhere that evening, so Waller had to wing it on his own.

Returning to the stage in 1928, he contributed some songs to and helped to direct Keep Shufflin', largely a collaborative effort of many Harlem musicians trying to follow the success of the earlier Shuffle Along. It ran for a fairly respectable 104 performances, including over a month at the Eltinge 42nd Street Theatre. Another less successful show the following year was Messin' Around composed with Perry Bradford, which in spite of the novelty of a women's boxing match each night with different results each time, did not do very well in two short runs, the first closing after 33 performances. Johnson was involved in one more musical launched nearly two years into the Great Depression, Sugar Hill composed with Jo Trent. This one barely made it through a week of 11 performances at the end of 1931, but few shows were seeing any appreciable attendance at that time. Sadly, many of these works were truly unappreciated during his lifetime, having seen their first serious recordings or new productions in the 1990s four decades after his death.

The 1930 census lists James as a pianist employed in "private musicals," still married to his wife Lillie. Along the way they had added son James Jr. and daughter Arceola to the family in 1926 and 1928 respectively. Lillie had retired from the stage to be a mom, and showed no profession. They would also add a daughter by adoption in the 1930s, Lillie Mae Jr.. During the 1930 to 1933 period Johnson was also listed in some articles and at least on advertisement as a staff composer for Connie Immerman's organization. Along with his brother Immerman ran the somewhat notorious gangster's hangout Connie's Inn where Fats Waller and Andy Razaf also made their name. However, he contributed substantially less of Connie's revues and shows than Waller and Razaf.

Piano rolls and records were difficult commodities to sell in the early to mid-1930s as much of the public simply did not have the funds to purchase them. His hit songs Charleston and If I Could Be With You helped to sustain the family with performance royalties, but Jimmy also continued to contribute to the stage and direct musicals for income. One was The Policy Kings at the tail end of 1938 which collapsed after three performances, even before the copyrights were secure. Johnson even experimented with light blues opera in 1938 composing De Organizer, a socially relevant opera about labor organization with a libretto by Langston Hughes. It had one performance in 1940, then disappeared for nearly 60 years until some of the parts were unearthed and reconstructed with the help of researcher/performer James Dapogny in the early 2000s. He also appeared in two films.

In 1938 and 1939, the tenacious jazz promoter John Hammond staged two Spirituals to Swing concert events at Carnegie Hall. As Hammond had been facilitating more recordings by Johnson, some of them unissued until after his death, he also included Jimmy and his music in these epic events. The second one was not nearly so easy, however. It was also in the late 1930s through 1940 that Johnson suffered a series of partial strokes that set him back for a short time. He and his family, Lillie Mae, James P. Jr. and Arceola, were shown as living in Queens in the 1940 enumeration, with James listed as a composer with his "own practice."

Johnson was recording again by 1942 and did some works on V-Discs which were used to entertain the troops overseas.

Johnson as part of an all-star band at Town Hall, New York, 1945.
L to R: Cozy Cole, James P. Johnson (at left piano), Miff Mole, Benny Moten, Bobby Hackett, Bill Coleman, Max Kaminsky, Muggsy Spanier, Ed Hall, Pee Wee Russell, Ernie Caceres, Eddie Condon (conducting) and Kansas Fields.

However, his playing was clearly not as clean as it had been before, partly from the effects of the stroke (said by some experts to have been TIA or transient ischemic attacks). Jimmy's 1942 draft record shows him as self-employed and living at 171-38 108th Avenue, Jamaica, Queens, New York, the same address they had been at since at least the mid-1930s.

From the time he acted as a mentor until the 1940s, Jimmy had remained close with his star pupil, Thomas Waller. However, Fats had taken a different direction not only stylistically but in his lifestyle. In November 1943, while working a club in Los Angeles during an unusual heat wave, the overweight and over-indulgent Waller spent a great deal of time sweating next to an air conditioning unit which was chilling his constant perspiration and weakening his immune system. On December 15, while on his way back to the East Coast, Waller succumbed to pneumonia brought on by the chill, dying on the train as it approached Kansas City. Johnson was greatly affected by the death of his longtime friend, and recorded a blues for his late friend three days later.

Although he remained musically active through the rest of the decade, it was largely as an ambassador of sorts and no major works came from that time. There were a few recordings done with assembled studio bands, but he was usually not a feature in these. However, Johnson and his music were featured in a Carnegie Hall concert in 1945, including a performance of his Harlem Symphony conducted by Joseph Chemiavsky. Another event was held at Town Hall that same year with an integrated band that included Johnson and many other musical luminaries. Turning back to the stage, his last major works involved a musical called Meet Miss Jones at an experimental theater in the Harlem Elks Lodge in 1947, followed a newly rewritten production of Sugar Hill in Los Angeles in 1949, 18 years after the first one had debuted, both with librettos and some additional music by Flournoy Miller. Neither production was met with much enthusiasm or success by the public or the critics. Recordings continued, the last of them captured on early renditions of magnetic tape, but many would remain unheard by the public until the 1970s or later.

The 1950 census showed James and Lillie Mae in Queens along with James Jr. and the younger Lillie Mae. Both men declared their occupation as composer in the music field, with the younger James shown as an aid to his father. In 1951, Johnson suffered a debilitating full stroke that ostensibly ended his musical career as it left him bedridden throughout the next four years. He passed on in 1955 while residing at a convalescent home in Jamaica, New York. Left behind were his wife Lillie, who survived him by 11 years, three children, several grandchildren, and a small contingent of grieving fans who had fortunately not forgotten the father of stride piano. James P. Johnson was laid to rest in Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Maspeth, Queens, New York, with a mere 75 people in attendance. As he died with his funds nearly depleted, the grave remained unmarked for nearly six decades, but efforts have been underway to put a proper headstone in place by the end of 2010. By the time of his death, as incredible as it seems, few outside of the music world knew who Johnson was. Fortunately has fame has grown slowly in the decades since.