Blog 2: Stride Piano and Jazz in New York

Stride Piano and Jazz in New York

Albeit both Chicago and New York contributed greatly to the development of jazz, New York played a more important role in popularizing jazz and evolving it beyond its New Orleans roots.  The city of New York had many social, cultural, and political aspects that allowed jazz to be properly cultivated in the city.  For instance, there was a strong cultural conflict between African Americans of status and new arrivals in the city, which mirrors the conflict between Creoles and Blacks that played a significant role in the development of jazz in New Orleans. (“James P. Johnson”)  The economic situation of Blacks also contributed, as poor economic conditions required Blacks to throw parties to earn their monthly rent, and these rent parties provided opportunities for jazz musicians to earn a living and hone their skill.(Gioia, 90)   However, perhaps the most important factor in the development of jazz in New York was the influence of the stride pianists.  While most of the other factors present in New York were present, in some way, shape, or form, in Chicago, the stride pianists of New York provided a strong stylistic influence that was unique to New York and had no appropriate parallel in Chicago.  Although jazz musicians in Chicago introduced some stylistic differences to the existing New Orleans jazz paradigm, these differences are subtle enough that some (such as the author of “The Chicagoans”) to conclude that Chicago jazz “was not a style at all”; meanwhile, the influence of stride piano on New York Jazz is unmistakable, to the point that one could claim that this influence is the defining characteristic of New York Jazz. 

While the exact essence of stride piano is hard to capture – when investigating why it is called “stride piano”, the author of “James P. Johnson” came to the conclusion that the name “simply exists to confuse the layman” – the music incorporated elements of ragtime, jazz, and classical music, and the result could perhaps be described as a very “virtuosic” evolution of ragtime (Gioia, 92)  This virtuosity may be in part due to the very competitive nature of the Harlem music scene; the piano was nearly ubiquitous in New York, so naturally there were many piano players who had to compete for opportunities to perform, and the need to “one-up” other pianists, both at their performances and at the so-called “cutting contests”, likely pushed musicians to perform more technical and complex music.( Gioia, 93)  This virtuosity is perhaps epitomized by Art Tatum, whose piano skill is practically unmatched even to this day, and whose work developed stride piano to the point that some may claim he exhausted its possibilities. (Gioia, 97)  The rhythmic complexity and breakneck speed of his work clearly reflects the fast-paced lifestyle of New York.  The virtuosic nature of stride piano exerted a strong influence on New York Jazz, and is paralleled by the increasing focus on improvisation; take, for instance, the Henderson band’s performance of “The Stampede”, which not only borrowed specific rhythms from stride piano, but also focused so completely on rhythmic complexity that the melody “is left almost entirely for the soloists to provide” (“Fletcher Henderson”) 

Harlem stride piano clearly played an important role in the development of New York jazz, and consequently on the development of jazz as a whole, which is why New York was the more important city for the development of jazz in the 1920s.