Carolina Shout
James P. Johnson
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Browse piano sheets by James P. Johnson on Zen Virtual Piano. Around 1918 Johnson produced Carolina Shout, a rag of advanced rhythm and technical difficulty that turned into the piece a generation of pianists used as a test. Structurally it is a piano rag in four strains, with linking passages in some versions, and its several sections recall dance suites and marches; it is instrumental through and through, its right-hand figures ill suited to singing. A rag that became a test-piece for pianists, set beside Johnson's remark that much of his music rests on southern dance steps, may suggest that technical demand and dance roots sat together. Born in New Jersey in 1894, Johnson moved with his family to New York City before his teens; his mother, Lottie, was a Virginian. Perfect pitch and a strong memory let him quickly find at the piano the tunes he had heard. Shout dancing and dance calls built on traditional forms were part of the social gatherings he attended with Southern-born family and friends, and later he put it this way: “A lot of my music is based on set, cotillion, and other southern dance steps and rhythms . . . I find I have a strong feeling for these dances that goes way back.” His birth in New Jersey, set beside the Carolina in the title of his rag, may suggest that the Southern dance forms he knew reached him through Southern-born family and friends rather than through where he was born. He got his first job as a pianist in 1912 and chose a musical career over returning to school; from 1913 to 1916 he studied the European piano tradition with Bruto Giannini. By 1913–14 he was working as a tickler at the Jungles Casino and at Jim Allen's, which was farther uptown. Playing for dancers before 1920, he earned a name for rare skill at embellishing and varying popular songs and improvising on them, blues among them, relatively new at the time. Study of the European piano tradition alongside playing for dancers may suggest two schools at once, one of study and one of the dance floor. Quickly picking out tunes he had heard and later improvising on popular songs for dancers may suggest a link between a retentive ear and his skill at variation. In stride piano as Johnson played it, a development of ragtime, two-beat left-hand rhythms accompanied right-hand melodies with uncommon interpretive variety. He taught Waller and got him his first piano roll and recording assignments, and Britannica singles out his accompaniment on Bessie Smith's Backwater Blues as especially notable. Plantation Days, a revue, made him its musical director in 1922 and carried him to England for four months in 1923. A severe, paralyzing stroke in 1951 ended his performing for good, and he survived financially on his songwriting royalties while he was paralyzed; in 2020 Carolina Shout was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame. Embellishing popular songs before 1920 and playing stride with uncommon interpretive variety may point to variation as a thread in his playing.
Browse piano sheets by James P. Johnson on Zen Virtual Piano.
Around 1918 Johnson produced Carolina Shout, a rag of advanced rhythm and technical difficulty that turned into the piece a generation of pianists used as a test. Structurally it is a piano rag in four strains, with linking passages in some versions, and its several sections recall dance suites and marches; it is instrumental through and through, its right-hand figures ill suited to singing. A rag that became a test-piece for pianists, set beside Johnson's remark that much of his music rests on southern dance steps, may suggest that technical demand and dance roots sat together.
Born in New Jersey in 1894, Johnson moved with his family to New York City before his teens; his mother, Lottie, was a Virginian. Perfect pitch and a strong memory let him quickly find at the piano the tunes he had heard. Shout dancing and dance calls built on traditional forms were part of the social gatherings he attended with Southern-born family and friends, and later he put it this way: “A lot of my music is based on set, cotillion, and other southern dance steps and rhythms . . . I find I have a strong feeling for these dances that goes way back.” His birth in New Jersey, set beside the Carolina in the title of his rag, may suggest that the Southern dance forms he knew reached him through Southern-born family and friends rather than through where he was born.
He got his first job as a pianist in 1912 and chose a musical career over returning to school; from 1913 to 1916 he studied the European piano tradition with Bruto Giannini. By 1913–14 he was working as a tickler at the Jungles Casino and at Jim Allen's, which was farther uptown. Playing for dancers before 1920, he earned a name for rare skill at embellishing and varying popular songs and improvising on them, blues among them, relatively new at the time. Study of the European piano tradition alongside playing for dancers may suggest two schools at once, one of study and one of the dance floor. Quickly picking out tunes he had heard and later improvising on popular songs for dancers may suggest a link between a retentive ear and his skill at variation.
In stride piano as Johnson played it, a development of ragtime, two-beat left-hand rhythms accompanied right-hand melodies with uncommon interpretive variety. He taught Waller and got him his first piano roll and recording assignments, and Britannica singles out his accompaniment on Bessie Smith's Backwater Blues as especially notable. Plantation Days, a revue, made him its musical director in 1922 and carried him to England for four months in 1923. A severe, paralyzing stroke in 1951 ended his performing for good, and he survived financially on his songwriting royalties while he was paralyzed; in 2020 Carolina Shout was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame. Embellishing popular songs before 1920 and playing stride with uncommon interpretive variety may point to variation as a thread in his playing.
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James P. Johnson
Common questions
James P. Johnson was an American pianist and composer, born in New Jersey in 1894, who played stride piano.
It is a rhythmically advanced four-strain piano rag from around 1918 that became a test piece for a generation of pianists.
It was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2020.
He taught Waller and got him his first piano roll and recording assignments.