Partly that's due to his roots, which ran deep in Harlem
stride piano, filtered through later influences like the spare, crisp keyboard work of Count Basic.
Johnson is regarded as the "father of
stride piano," and that is his legacy as transmitted through Jazz history and appreciation textbooks.
It's exhilarating to here Chopin suddenly twist and turn into
stride piano jazz, and Valdes pays an appropriate debt to Art Tatum.
Militello contributed another incendiary saxophone solo in the style of boppers Charlie Parker and Cannonball Adderley before giving way to Brubeck, who countered with a piano improvisation that began with some sketchy chords and evolved into a section of
stride piano and several choruses of big block chords underpinned by Smith's booming walking bass line and Cox's drum accents.
The favoured piano styles were boogie-woogie and the fast, intricate New York style known as the
stride piano - named after the movement of the player's left hand and made famous by the likes of Willie the Lion Smith, James P Johnson and Fats Waller.
The horn section rocks in true Fletcher Henderson fashion on Big John's Special (written by Fletcher's brother, Horace) while here and elsewhere Sun Ra reveals his
stride piano credentials.
The overview includes sections on ragtime structure, classic ragtime,
stride piano, and the demise of ragtime.
Caine sounds pretty Jarrettish on Roll On, but throws in a good bit of
stride piano too.
The UK disc is more of the same, really - Brubeck leans in with two-fisted chords, then throws in a little gentle
stride piano on Margie.
Also, two
stride piano legends, Willie "the Lion" Smith and Donald Lambert, spent a lot of time performing in Newark clubs.
From a warm, graceful, Bill Evansish reading of Henry Mancini's Dreamsville, it's straight into a powerhouse version of Stevie Wonder's I Wish, with Newton adapting the strong bass line to a
stride piano style, before entering Horace Silver funk territory in his solo.