The father of the “stride” style of jazz piano, James Price Johnson studied music with his mother, learning a wide variety of gospel and folk styles at a very early age. When the family moved to New York City in 1908, the young man became acquainted with ragtime and other prevalent styles. Later he would study classical music with Bruno Giannini. In 1912 he began playing piano in saloons and nightclubs in New York and Atlantic City, and he developed a style of playing that was distinguished by widely spaced chords and “walking” tenths in the left hand. By the time he had reached his 20s, he was one of the leading “stride” pianists in New York, after which he began to form bands and ensembles of his own. 

During the 1920s and ’30s he composed prolifically, and he was best known for his rags and “strides.” In 1921 he recorded the “Carolina Shout,” which would become one of his most popular tunes. He also played piano for the movies, including the 1929 St. Louis Blues (in which he accompanied Bessie Smith’s vocals), and The Emperor Jones with Paul Robeson. He wrote stage shows and musicals, including the 1928 Keep Shufflin’ (a collaboration with Fats Waller) and The Kitchen Mechanics Revue of 1930. During the 1930s and ’40s he played for numerous radio broadcasts, including the series This Is Jazz. 

Johnson also composed larger works, including a Harlem Symphony (1932) and pieces for piano and orchestra, all of which drew upon a variety of jazz and traditional styles. Victory Stride is a driving and colorful amalgam of the whole panoply of the composer’s idioms.

—Paul J. Horsley