James P. Johnson
- Kenneth Kiesler, Elizabeth Gray, De Organizer Chorus, Lonel Woods, Rabihah Davis Dunn, Branden C.S. Hood, Olivia Duval, Darnell Ishmel, Kenneth Kellogg, Lori Celeste Hicks, University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, Emery Stephens, Monique Spells
- Hot Springs Music Festival Symphony Orchestra, Richard Rosenberg, Tatiana Roitman, Gary Hammond, Creole Serenaders, Michael Gurt, Peter Mintun, Don Vappie
Biography
Active throughout the 1920s and '30s, the sophisticated and influential musician James P. Johnson synthesized many strands of black music--ragtime, blues, popular and sacred song--with his own original stride piano style. Though his young protege Fats Waller went on to popularize stride, Johnson was the masterly father of the style. The majority of his more ambitious works for symphony orchestra have been lost to history, due to the complete lack of respect shown black composers by the classical music world at the time.