Stride (music)

Prominent stride pianists include James P. Johnson, Willie "the Lion" Smith, Fats Waller, Luckey Roberts, and Mary Lou Williams.

Compared to the ragtime style popularized by Scott Joplin, stride players' left hands travel greater distances on the keyboard.

James P. Johnson (1894–1955), known as the "Father of Stride", created this style of jazz piano along with fellow pianists Willie "The Lion" Smith (1893–1973), Thomas "Fats" Waller (1904–1943) and Luckey Roberts (1887–1968).

The pianist could not only substitute tenths for single bass notes but could also play broken (staggered) tenths up and down the keyboard[6] Stride pianist Art Tatum (1909–1956) (a fan of Fats Waller and Lee Sims, who was himself a fan of the European "Impressionist" pianists such as Claude Debussy and Erik Satie, and hosted a radio program Tatum enjoyed) introduced more complex harmonies into his playing, and, like Fats Waller, would start songs with legato explorations of chordal intricacies before launching into swing.

[7] Other stride jazz pianists of the 20th century included Clarence Profit, Johnny Guarnieri, Mary Lou Williams, Cliff Jackson, Hank Duncan, Pat Flowers, Don Ewell, Joe Turner, Claude Hopkins, Ralph Sutton, Dick Wellstood, Dick Hyman, and Judy Carmichael.

Other prominent stride jazz pianists are Butch Thompson, Mike Lipskin, Bernd Lhotzky,[8] Louis Mazetier, Rossano Sportiello[9] and Stephanie Trick, who perform internationally.