| Louisa's Music | |||||
| Although Louisa is quite capable of playing Mozart, Chopin, or any of the Classical composers, she does not get much call for that at Il Randello! There, she plays the new music, the devil's music - ragtime, blues, jazz and, especially her favorite style of jazz piano - Harlem stride piano. The piece currently playing is a MIDI file of one of the more famous stride pieces, and Louisa's signature piece that she plays once a night at Il Randello - "Snowy Morning Blues". Unfortunately, being limited on this site to MIDI or wav files, this was one of the few I have so far found of that song. There is a MIDI of "Carolina Shout" on Louisa's gallery page. I would highly recommend following the James P Johnson link below and listening to the 1944 recordings of both of these songs. |
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| Links |
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| Stridepiano.com - Mike Lipskin's site, with a wonderful definition of stride. James P Johnson - the father of stride, and one of the seminal figures in jazz piano. Clink on the links to hear some wonderful music. My personal favorites are the 1944 recordings of "Snowy Morning Blues" and "Carolina Shout", the two standards of stride. Johnson is also the composer of the Charleston. Fats Waller - a student of Johnson, and another of the giants of stride, indeed of all jazz. Fats was arguably the most influential jazz pianist of the century, and undeniably one of the greatest entertainers. All of the links here are worth listening to, at least try listening to "Honeysuckle Rose" and "Ain''t Misbehavin'" . "Alligator Crawl" is a fun listen, and it is interesting to compare Fat's versions of "Carolina Shout" to Johnson's. Jelly Roll Morton - the self-proclaimed Father of Jazz. Fun to listen to, another outgrowth of ragtime other than stride. Annette Hanshaw, Edna Hicks, Alberta Hunter, Bessie Smith, Lizzie Miles - because sometimes, Louisa just wants to sing! |
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