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