James P. Johnson
- Emery Stephens, Monique Spells, Rabihah Davis Dunn, De Organizer Chorus, Darnell Ishmel, Olivia Duval, Branden C.S. Hood, Elizabeth Gray, Lonel Woods, Kenneth Kellogg, Lori Celeste Hicks, Kenneth Kiesler, University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra
- Peter Mintun, Tatiana Roitman, Hot Springs Music Festival Symphony Orchestra, Michael Gurt, Richard Rosenberg, Don Vappie, Creole Serenaders, Gary Hammond
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.