James P. Johnson News

Entering pianist Taslimah Bey's Rochester Hills townhouse, you'll immediately notice two things.

Hard to believe it's been 7 years since Steve Lehman graduated from Wesleyan but not surprising when one sees how busy he's been.

A definition of righteousness: about 75 people, crammed into the West Village club Smalls, watching a series of pianists play James P. Johnson on a grand piano in a benefit concert to buy a headstone for his grave.

A great-grandson of the first Union Bay postmaster returns to Baynes Sound for a concert Oct.

SOURCE: Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes The jazz community has learned how to take care of its makers--past, present--and way in the past.

October 4th, 2009 1:00 PM to 9:00 PM @ Smalls Jazz Club 183 West 10th Street @ 7th Ave South New York City, 10014 smallsjazzclub.com James P. Johnson, the father of stride piano, the composer of The Charleston and The Carolina Shout, and one of the founders of modern jazz piano, lies, shockingly, in an unmarked grave in Maspeth, Queens, Mt.

In the first Chapter 'On Tone Parallels to Harlem" John Howland states the premise that Symphonic Jazz of the 1920's influenced 'a wide variety of American musical traditions" covering an awful lot of ground but stipulating it was merely 'a minor footnote" in its own time.

In the first Chapter 'On Tone Parallels to Harlem" John Howland states the premise that Symphonic Jazz of the 1920's influenced 'a wide variety of American musical traditions" covering an awful lot of ground but stipulating it was merely 'a minor footnote" in its own time.

New Orleans Style and the Writing of American Jazz History by Bruce Boyd Raeburn Michigan, 352 pp., $26.95 Ellington Uptown Duke Ellington, James P. Johnson and the Birth of Concert Jazz by John Howland Michigan, 360 pp., $28.95 When I was 17 years old and newly arrived on my college campus, I scandalized the department of music by playing "Maple ...

The Dialect. First, what about the accent you hear there? That regal way of speech? You're in South Carolina, of course--but the speech you hear is barely "Southern". Most likely, experts, say, it's a blend: of Gullah spoken by African Americans, and of English spoken by Europeans, over 300 years ago.