Leave it to the piano players to know who the piano players are. Slightly more than a year ago, Alan Broadbent introduced Rifftides readers to Chris Dawson. Now, Alan alerts us to Stephanie Trick of St Louis, Missouri. She studied classical piano from the age of five. When she was 10, her teacher introduced her to ragtime and stride. She fell in love with the genre and mastered it, and now the worldwide network of stride enthusiasts is in love with her. I wouldn’t be surprised to see her following expand to a wider audience. Mr. Broadbent describes Ms. Trick as “the real deal” and comments on her “rock-solid” left hand.
If you’re not accustomed to willowy young women emulating James P. Johnson, Fats Waller and Willie The Lion Smith, get used to it, is my advice. Here is Ms. Trick in concert last New Year’s Eve in St. Louis with James P’s “Modernistic.”
Embedding is disabled on a clip of Stephanie Trick’s riveting performance of Willie The Lion’s “Keep Your Temper.” You can see and hear it by clicking here. To learn more about her, go here.