Speakeasies to Symphonies: The Jazz Genius of James P. Johnson (American Made Music Series)

James P. Johnson (1894-1955) is one of the most important figures in twentieth-century American music.However, few people other than scholars and serious fans know of his life and work.Rare jazz aficionados know him as the Father of Harlem Stride piano but his other monumental contributions to American music are seldom acknowledged.Speakeasies to Symphonies: The Jazz Genius of James P.Johnson seeks to rectify this. Johnson, born in New Jersey, absorbed many musical elements in his youth, especially the African American culture of the Southeastern Seaboard, to create a new musical and rhythmic force for jazz, musical theater, and symphonic music.Johnson’s career stretched from the early 1910s to the early 1950s.His heyday was the 1920s-the decade known for the Jazz Age, the Harlem Renaissance, rent parties, classic blues singers, the first golden age of Broadway and the great American song book, and, perhaps most notably, the worldwide music and dance phenomenon, the Charleston.Johnson