{"id":9063,"date":"2018-02-02T14:22:46","date_gmt":"2018-02-02T22:22:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=9063"},"modified":"2018-02-02T19:23:16","modified_gmt":"2018-02-03T03:23:16","slug":"james-p-johnson-and-carolina-shout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2018\/02\/james-p-johnson-and-carolina-shout\/","title":{"rendered":"James P. Johnson And &#8220;Carolina Shout&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-9064\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Jazz-MusiciansJames-P-Johnson-e1517609947571.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"159\" \/>Today, February 2, is the birthday of James P. Johnson (1894-1955), who developed stride piano as an art form within an art form. In his time, piano cutting contests were proving grounds\u00e2\u20ac\u201dmost often in Harlem apartments\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhere competing pianists showed their stuff. If James P was playing, their stuff was likely not to be good enough. Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most famous composition was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Carolina Shout,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a test of a pianist&#8217;s swing, power and rhythm. He recorded it several times. Many pianists, critics and jazz historians consider this 1921 version his best.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ENhEVM1aQNk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>At those cutting contests, if Fats Waller was in attendance he usually placed second to the master. Here is Waller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Carolina Shout.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xCDOdRoBjmk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>If your videos are blocked, sorry about that. The Johnson and Waller tracks turn out to be banned from <em>YouTube<\/em> by the record companies that own them, although they may be visible in some areas. If they are missing on your screen, you can see them by clicking on <strong>Watch on YouTube<\/strong> in the panels above. Then come back to <em>Rifftides<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Dozens of pianists have recorded \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Carolina Shout\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the century or so since James P. wrote it. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll find many of their versions on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/results?search_query=Carolina+Shout\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this <em>YouTube<\/em> page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><strong>Added Later Today<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It is also Stan Getz\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Birthday. He would have been been 90. His daughter Beverly posted on her <em>Facebook<\/em> page a link to her father playing what Bev called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the ultimate standard\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for Bill Evans on <em>his<\/em> birthday in August of 1974, when Evans turned 45.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0sm9H7vbrKU\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Other notable musicians born on this date include Sonny Stitt, Greg Gisbert, Godfrey Hirsch, Mimi Perrin, James \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Blood\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ulmer, Fritz Kreisler, Eva Cassidy and the composer Burton Lane (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Old Devil Moon,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How About You,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How Are Things in Glocca Mora?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d et al). So, if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also your birthday, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in good company. Happy birthday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, February 2, is the birthday of James P. Johnson (1894-1955), who developed stride piano as an art form within an art form. In his time, piano cutting contests were proving grounds\u00e2\u20ac\u201dmost often in Harlem apartments\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhere competing pianists showed their stuff. If James P was playing, their stuff was likely not to be good enough. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}