The Melody Web what each genre heard, and what it passed on

heard passed on Click or tap a node to recenter. Use a connecting line, or Influence, for the story.

Heard

Ragtime genre · 1890–1920

Stride keeps ragtime’s strain form and left-hand march and makes the right hand an improvising jazz voice.

Influence

Stride piano

style · 1919–

Also called Harlem stride, stride

Harlem piano school that keeps ragtime’s left-hand march and then widens the stride — a jumping bass, more swing, and improvisation as the point (Johnson, Waller, Tatum as a later virtuoso). It hears Ragtime for the strain plan and the oom-pah engine. The hops into Jazz, Swing, and Bebop are drawn. Tatum stays on this node as a later virtuoso, not a second school. Boogie-woogie leftover as a sibling piano dialect, not a parent.

Listen

  1. Carolina Shout James P. Johnson (1921) YouTube · Spotify
  2. Harlem Strut James P. Johnson (1921) YouTube
  3. Handful of Keys Fats Waller (1929) YouTube · Spotify
  4. Viper's Drag Fats Waller (1934) YouTube · Spotify
  5. Caprice Rag James P. Johnson (1917) YouTube

Passed on

Bebop style · 1940–1955

Bebop piano keeps stride’s Harlem harmonic density and left-hand cadence, then drops the full jumping bass so the right hand can run bop lines (Powell, Monk; Tatum as the virtuoso…

Influence
Chicago jazz style · 1922–1930

Chicago jazz piano hears Harlem stride, then recodes the jumping left hand as a horn-like right-hand line: Hines’s “trumpet style” with Armstrong.

Influence
Jazz genre · 1910–

Jazz piano after ragtime is often Harlem stride: jumping bass, improvised right hand, rent-party virtuosity taken onto jazz dates.

Influence
Swing style · 1928–1946

Swing-band piano keeps stride’s jumping left hand and shout right hand as a rhythm-section option.

Influence

Ragtime → Stride piano

form and structureinstrumentationmeter and groovestrength: highscholarly consensus1919–1925oralnotationrecording

Mechanism

Stride keeps ragtime’s strain form and left-hand march and makes the right hand an improvising jazz voice. Strength high. Johnson is the usual hinge. This is the piano child; ragtime new orleans jazz is the band child.

Evidence

Carolina Shout against Joplin strains; Berlin and Schuller on that succession.

Debate

Whether stride is already jazz. It is a piano school that feeds jazz bands; this hop is the ragtime parent.

Mediators

artist: James P. Johnson

Stride piano → Bebop

harmonyperformance practicemelodystrength: mediumscholarly consensus1939–1947oralpedagogyrecording

Mechanism

Bebop piano keeps stride’s Harlem harmonic density and left-hand cadence, then drops the full jumping bass so the right hand can run bop lines (Powell, Monk; Tatum as the virtuoso limit they heard). Strength medium. Swing bands are still the professional school (swing bebop); this hop is the keyboard craft.

Evidence

Powell’s and Monk’s left-hand remnants of stride; Minton’s pianists from the Harlem rent-party line; DeVeaux on the small-group pianist’s training.

Debate

Whether Tatum is the parent. Tatum is a later stride virtuoso and a model; Powell is the dated bebop keyboard. Do not hang a second “Tatum style” node.

Mediators

artist: Thelonious Monk; artist: Bud Powell; artist: Art Tatum

Stride piano → Chicago jazz

performance practicephrase and lickinstrumentationstrength: mediumscholarly consensus1926–1928oralrecording

Mechanism

Chicago jazz piano hears Harlem stride, then recodes the jumping left hand as a horn-like right-hand line: Hines’s “trumpet style” with Armstrong. Strength medium. stride piano swing is the later band-chair hop; this edge is the 1920s Chicago small-band hinge.

Evidence

Hines with Armstrong in Chicago; Weather Bird (1928); Schuller on Hines as the piano recoding of that city’s solo language.

Debate

Whether Hines invents a piano school outside stride. The left-hand job is still stride-derived; the Chicago contribution is the linear right hand beside a featured horn.

Mediators

artist: Earl Hines; artist: Louis Armstrong

Stride piano → Jazz

instrumentationperformance practicephrase and lickstrength: mediumscholarly consensus1921–1935oralrecording

Mechanism

Jazz piano after ragtime is often Harlem stride: jumping bass, improvised right hand, rent-party virtuosity taken onto jazz dates. Strength medium on the umbrella. The swing-band hop is stride piano swing.

Evidence

Johnson and Waller as jazz pianists; Schuller and Berlin on that literacy.

Debate

Whether New Orleans already had jazz piano. It did; this hop is the Harlem school that becomes the national jazz-piano default.

Mediators

artist: James P. Johnson; artist: Fats Waller

Stride piano → Swing

instrumentationperformance practicephrase and lickstrength: mediumwell documented1928–1942oralrecordingradio

Mechanism

Swing-band piano keeps stride’s jumping left hand and shout right hand as a rhythm-section option. Strength medium. Waller and Basie are the usual hinges. New Orleans jazz is the band parent of swing; this hop is the Harlem piano.

Evidence

Waller small-group and big-band dates; Basie’s left hand; Schuller on that chair.

Debate

Whether this is already jazz-internal. The named Harlem school is still the donor.

Mediators

artist: Fats Waller; artist: Count Basie