by

piano fallboard -- takes you to my ex - compuserve page..

Hello. Here's a little essay I wrote for this site in June of 1996.

Here are some words about stride piano. Music truly should lift you out of yourself .
   I am a pianist in New York City, who plays 1920's, 30's, and 40's style swing piano. More succinctly, the stuff I play is called stride.
   Thomas "Fats" Waller {1904-1943} was the greatest and purest progenitor of this style, but he had lots of company. Everybody learned from Thomas Wright Waller including Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, Count Basie, and Sting [Yes, bass lines were important.].

  To make a piano stride it is necessary to treat the left hand as if it were the rhythm section of a jazz orchestra. The right hand, generally, plays the parts of the tenor saxophones and other reeds, trumpets and strings, if any. Some of the melodic tasks are also taken up by the left hand, filling the sounds of the baritone saxophones, trombones, and of course, the string bass. All the while, a song is going on, often at break-neck speed.
   Stride can also be played quite slowly, where it takes on the consistency of blues and ballads. Basically, though, stride can be used to raise the hair on the backs of listeners necks, being played with the sound of a charging locomotive, a boisterous journey.

press the envelope for my U.S. Postal address.

Stride is the direct inheritor of ragtime, or, ragged-time as it was originally called. The novelty of ragtime was the syncopation of marches, cake walks, fox-trots, and waltzes, which began to see popularity in America during the 1880's and 90's. The syncopation gave these works a kinetic quality, heretofore unheard. Syncopation is the played emphasis of the weak beats in common-time songs and melodies, giving the strains an exciting, almost machine-like quality. Scott Joplin took this formula and created rags imbued with great dignity and pathos.

It took the efforts of pianists and composers like Jelly Roll Morton, Lucky Roberts, James P. Johnson, Willie "the Lion" Smith, and Zez Confrey to turn Joplin's art form into swing music, a music meant to be danced to. This is what stride is; This is what stride does. Not too many can stay still before it.
This is what I play.
James Steeber

Visit my

MUSIC ART

Gallery.

"Oh, we're FLOATIN' down the Hudson!"

"Mr. Steeber plays and practices on the

piano...", and is grateful for the time.

You are visitor

LE FastCounter

since the last time the counter was reset.

Last Updated Tuesday, June 9, 1998 2:54:39 AM (boy was I up late.)

Here are some words about stride piano. Music truly should lift you out of yourself . I am a pianist in New York City, who plays 1920's, 30's, and 40's style swing piano. More succinctly, the stuff I play is called *stride. Thomas "Fats" Waller* {1904-1943} was the greatest and purest progenitor of this style, but he had lots of company. Everybody learned from Thomas Wright Waller including Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, Count Basie, and Sting [Yes, bass lines were important.].
To make a piano stride it is necessary to treat the left hand as if it were the rhythm section of a jazz orchestra. The right hand, generally, plays the parts of the tenor saxophones and other reeds, trumpets and strings, if any. Some of the melodic tasks are also taken up by the left hand, filling the sounds of the baritone saxophones, trombones, and of course, the string bass. All the while, a song is going on, often at break-neck speed. Stride can also be played quite slowly, where it takes on the consistency of blues and ballads. Basically, though, stride can be used to raise the hair on the backs of listeners necks, being played with the sound of a charging locomotive, a boisterous journey.	press the envelope for my U.S. Postal address.
Stride is the direct inheritor of ragtime, or, ragged-time as it was originally called. The novelty of ragtime was the syncopation of marches, cake walks, fox-trots, and waltzes, which began to see popularity in America during the 1880's and 90's. The syncopation gave these works a kinetic quality, heretofore unheard. Syncopation is the played emphasis of the weak beats in common-time songs and melodies, giving the strains an exciting, almost machine-like quality. Scott Joplin took this formula and created rags imbued with great dignity and pathos.
It took the efforts of pianists and composers like Jelly Roll Morton, Lucky Roberts, James P. Johnson, Willie "the Lion" Smith, and Zez Confrey to turn Joplin's art form into swing music, a music meant to be danced to. This is what stride is; This is what stride does. Not too many can stay still before it. This is what I play. *James Steeber*
	Visit my MUSIC ART Gallery.