Joe Turner Blues

A piano roll of the great stride piano master James P. Johnson. This is one of my favorite pieces played by him. Enjoy it!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• James
• P.
• Johnson
• Price
• stride
• piano
• roll
• jazz
• joe
• turner
• blues
• ragtime

[kinetification]

(con't) I've been transcribing and playing stride piano for years, starting with old Biograph recordings. Years later, I found a library with a player piano and tons of rolls. How fun to watch the keyboard move to music I'd transcribed years earlier (Accurately, too! I have degrees in music). Try playing Farewell Blues, Don't Mess With Me and Dr. Jazz's Raz-ma-Taz along with Carolina Shout (1921 version). Thanks for posting this. I started transcribing it; never finished it. Classic James P.

[Deaglet]

Thanks to you, kinetification! Thank you for having shared your knowledges about this recording, about the big masters and their music! ;)

[AAErikCO]

God I would have loved to be there at 1min 16 in. Just to listen to these guys live..  Anyone got a time machine?

It's one of my favorite rolls too Deaglet, thank you for putting it online, this music needs to be circulated even more.

Erik

[Deaglet]

You are very welcome, Erik! Time machine? I'd like to have one, me too! Specially in that particular meeting among J. P. Johnson, Fats Waller and Art Tatum, all together!

[Deaglet]

Thank to both of you guys for listening. It's true, the piano it's a little out of tune but amazing. I'm surely interested in your MIDI and sheet music files about this piece.

I've some Jelly Roll Morton's sheet music and I'm trascribin two pieces of Pete Johnson and Fats Waller.

Let's keep in touch.

Diego. ;)

[LudwigVonKoopa64]

haha.. nice honky tonk sound :P

[KawhackitaRag]

I've heard this recording; it's great! Yeah Johnson and Waller were pretty much the Arden and Ohman of the Harlem community.

Donald Lambert and Paul Seminole also were a great piano duet team, but they never recorded together; Lambert's extant recordings are mostly solos or with bands, and Seminole's only recordings (that I know of) are on the banjo, with a band.

[KawhackitaRag]

Dr. Bob Pinsker of San Diego has made a fine exact note-for-note transcription of this roll, from a copy of the original roll. The added impossible notes are also included, but printed in grey rather than black like the the notes Johnson most probably originally played. A useful item! This transcription is available in Dr. Pinsker's folio "Piano Roll Sampler". Contact me for details!

[JamesPriceJohnson]

i just purchased this roll from bluestones music rolls, ilil put it up soon. i wrote in the lyrics correctly on the roll without playing it on the player piano. i guess im gifted along with my piano playing and art

[kinetification]

When these piano rolls were originally cut (this one was cut in NYC in 1922) the machine made perforations in paper and then workers meticulously cut them out by hand. Then they added additional notes usually to double the melody line. In those days, the player piano was a sort of home entertainment center. You popped in a roll and people stood around and sang. It was thought that lay folk would need doubled melody lines in order to follow the pop tunes of the day as the played in the piano.

[kinetification]

(con't) James P's piano roll output during this period was rich and productive, and showed him at the peak of his power. That's really him. Years later, people put these rolls on vinyl (and then CD) by playing them back on a player piano. The choice of tempo and whether the piano was in tune or not was a choice of the record producers. That's why the piano on this version sounds out of tune. Record producers made that choice. It's likely this speed was pretty true.

[kinetification]

(con't) Johnson took a hiatus in 1930 as he had begun turning to classical music --symphonies, concertos and opera. In the late 30s, a renewed interest in the "old masters" brought Johnson back to the recording studio and a return to performing, which was a pretty busy scene with numerous clubs in the 1940s. But his health decline and his playing skills, though still impressive, had diminished. Textures were thinner, tempos slower. Tastes had changed, too.

[kinetification]

(con't) Johnson remained busy until 1951 when paralyzed by a stroke. Long overshadowed by his more famous pupil Fats Waller, James still stands as a titan of early jazz piano. Until Art Tatum came along, no one could touch him. There's a great 1928 recording called Chicago Blues featuring a small orchestra and two pianos: James P and Fats Waller. Their solo turn (a duet) is an awesome display but they are also powerful accompanists; you can feel them driving the orchestra forward.