James P. Johnson/ Mama's Blues, 1917/ played by Jim Hession

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Uploaded by on Jan 7, 2010

http://www.hessionsession.webs.com

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/jimhession

http://www.artistopia.com/hessionsession



Taken from the original sheet music, Jim Hession improvises on James P. Johnson's 1917 blues song, Mama's Blues. Jim uses his knowledge of James P's style to play this tune as perhaps Johnson might have conceived it. We haven't ever heard a piano roll or recording of JPJ playing this so this is an educated guess as to how it may have been played. This song is early in JPJ's career when his stride style was developing. It shares many musical similarities with the other blues song of the era coming from W.C. Handy and Jelly Roll Morton.

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Top Comments

  • Jim, you are an incredible musician, and have such an in depth knowledge of traditional jazz, it's just amazing :D

  • Outstanding ! JPJ would be proud.

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All Comments (12)

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  • Hi Jim. You are so amazing! How do you learn to use your left and right hand so well. Is there any tips? What's the name of what you were doing on the left hand? There's alot more things I need to know about blues.

  • OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEA!

  • I think the piano key,ie., the one used to lock the piano, is rattling around inside the piano somewhere. You can hear it vibrate when certain notes are played.

  • Great Jim thanks!

  • Wow Fantastic  Loved it

  • Genial Jim !

    5 * * * * *

  • Welcome back, Jim! What a fine take on this great tune. You really sound good on this great piano, too.

  • Awesome! Haha the ragtime/stride style is one I've yet to spend the time to tackle. This sure is encouraging tho!

  • Delightful, toe tapping, put-on-a-smile kinda performance. Nice job.

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