The Harlem Stride is a style of piano playing that emerged in Harlem New York during the 1920s. It was part of a larger cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance and it affected the way piano was played and also who could and would play it and listen to it. Piano had previously been considered to be the domain of the rich and cultural elite. However, this new style of playing brought the instrument into a broader category of jazz and music playing, which introduced to all people. James P. Johnson was one of the greatest musicians to play in this stile and is universally accepted as the Father of Stride Piano. One if his most famous contributions to music was his composition of the Charleston.

Pianists who played in the Stride style developed extreme skills and amazingly accurate leaping abilities with their left hands. They soon considered themselves to be a special category of jazz pianists and were often considered to be the best. The music was influenced by classical compositions, in which many of these musicians were heavily trained. Another basis of Stride were the jazz rags, of which Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag, was the most influential, though he is probably most widely remembered for his song The Entertainer. Musicians would take a typical rag and jazz it up with melodic embellishments and other elements. Tourists who stay in the four star New York hotels are often thrilled to discover new styles of music and art during their trips.

Johnson was born in February of 1894 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He was one of those rare individuals and was reported to have been born with perfect pitch as well as near perfect memory recall. From an early age he demonstrated a strong ability to listen to a complicated piece of music and play it back immediately from memory. His early upbringing placed him near enough to New York that he had the benefit of the city’s music scene and in 1908 his family moved to an area in the city that is near where the Lincoln Center stands today. Johnson had his first professional performance in Coney Island in 1912.