Yamekraw - a rhapsody in black and white

[Durium]

YAMEKRAW - JAMES P. JOHNSON

When James P. Johnson made his first recordings in May 1921 he was in his twenties and became known as a stride piano player, but in fact he started to play the piano in clubs long before since 1913. During the 1920s he developed into one of the best Harlem piano players, a model for numerous followers, but also started to compose more serious(?) works, like the music for the Broadway musical Runnin' Wild. He also started to compose large-scale orchestral works, like the 1927 Yamekraw, which was a piano rhapsody now complete forgotten.

The story of this suite is described in a new book, Ellington Uptown, written by John Howland and published at few months ago by the University of Michigan Press in its series Jazz Perspectives. ( ISBN-13: 976-0-472-03344-4 ).

The full ttitle of the book is: Ellington Uptown - Duke Ellington, James P. Johnson and the Birth of Concert Jazz – The Story of the African American contributions to the symphonic jazz vogue of the 1920s through the 1940s.

Yamekraw - a rhapsody in black and white

Keep swinging

Durium

[jeffcrom]

Thanks for posting this. I've always been fascinated by Johnson's symphonic music, particularly "Yamekraw." There is a nice Musicmasters CD of Johnson's works for orchestra (not including "Yamekraw," however) by the Concordia Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop.