View source for James P. Johnson

{{Short description|American pianist and composer (1894–1955)}}
{{distinguish|text=other people named [[James Johnson (disambiguation)|James Johnson]], or with his near-contemporary [[J. C. Johnson]]}}
{{for|the U.S. congressman from Colorado|James Paul Johnson}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2014}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name                = James P. Johnson
| image               = JPJ_CD2.gif
| caption             = 
| image_size          = 
| background          = non_vocal_instrumentalist
| birth_name          = James Price Johnson
| alias               = 
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1894|2|1}}
| birth_place         = [[New Brunswick, New Jersey]], U.S.
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1955|11|17|1894|2|1}}
| death_place         = [[Jamaica, Queens]], [[New York City]], U.S.
| instrument          = Piano
| genre               = [[Jazz]]
| occupation          = Composer, musician
| years_active        = 1912–1955
| label               = 
| website             = 
}}
{{Refimprove|date=May 2025}}

'''James Price Johnson''' (February 1, 1894 – November 17, 1955) was an American pianist and composer. A pioneer of [[Stride (music)|stride piano]], he was one of the most important pianists in the early era of recording, and like [[Jelly Roll Morton]], one of the key figures in the evolution of [[ragtime]] into what was eventually called [[jazz]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.wbgo.org/post/deep-dive-putting-louis-armstrong-context|title=Deep Dive: Putting Louis Armstrong in Context|first=Lewis|last=Porter|newspaper=Wbgo|date=May 3, 2019|access-date=2020-04-21}}</ref> Johnson was a major influence on [[Count Basie]], [[Duke Ellington]], [[Art Tatum]], [[Thelonious Monk]], and [[Fats Waller]], who was his student.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-P-Johnson|title=James P. Johnson &#124; American composer and pianist|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2020-04-21}}</ref>

Johnson composed many hit songs, including the unofficial anthem of the [[Roaring Twenties]], "[[Charleston (1923 song)|The Charleston]]", and he remained the acknowledged king of New York jazz pianists through most of the 1930s. Johnson's artistry, influence on early popular music, and contributions to musical theatre are often overlooked, and as such, he has been referred to by musicologist [[David Schiff]] as "The Invisible Pianist."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/16/arts/pop-music-a-pianist-with-harlem-on-his-mind.html|title=POP MUSIC; A Pianist With Harlem on His Mind|first=David|last=Schiff|date=February 16, 1992|website=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=2020-04-21}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=James Price Johnson {{!}} RSA |url=https://rsa.fau.edu/james-price-johnson#:~:text=Johnson%20composed%20many%20hit%20songs,as%20%22The%20Invisible%20Pianist%22. |access-date=2025-09-14 |website=rsa.fau.edu}}</ref>

==Biography==
[[File:"Twelfth Avenue" (1943), by James Price Johnson.oga|thumb|Johnson's 1943 "Twelfth Avenue"]]

=== Early life and education ===
Johnson was born in [[New Brunswick, New Jersey]] on February 1, 1894.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-P-Johnson|title=James P. Johnson {{!}} American composer and pianist|work=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2017-05-14|language=en}}</ref> The proximity to New York City meant that the full cosmopolitan spectrum of the city's musical experience, from bars, to cabarets, to the symphony, were at the young Johnson's disposal. Johnson's father, William H. Johnson, was a store helper and mechanic while his mother, Josephine Harrison, was a maid.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AuEpAQAAMAAJ&q=American+national+biography,+Volume+12|title=American national biography|last1=Garraty|first1=John Arthur|last2=Carnes|first2=Mark Christopher|last3=Societies|first3=American Council of Learned|date=1999-01-01|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=9780195206357|language=en}}</ref> Harrison was a part of the choir at the [[Methodist]] Church and was also a self-taught pianist.<ref name=":0" /> Johnson later cited the popular [[African-American music|African American songs]] and dances he heard at home and around the city as early influences on his musical taste. In 1908, Johnson's family moved to the [[San Juan Hill, Manhattan|San Juan Hill]] section of New York City (near where [[Lincoln Center]] stands today) and subsequently moved again to uptown in 1911.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dc1TAQAAQBAJ&q=In+1908%2C+Johnson%27s+family+moved+to+the+San+Juan+Hill+uptown+1911&pg=PA69|title=Black Bottom Stomp: Eight Masters of Ragtime and Early Jazz|last1=Jasen|first1=David A.|last2=Jones|first2=Gene|date=2013-10-11|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781135349356|language=en}}</ref>

With perfect pitch and excellent recall, Johnson was soon able to pick out the piano tunes that he had heard.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/blacknotesessays0000banf|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/blacknotesessays0000banf/page/166 166]|quote=james p. johnson perfect pitch.|title=Black Notes: Essays of a Musician Writing in a Post-album Age|last=Banfield|first=William C.|date=2004-01-01|publisher=[[Scarecrow Press]]|isbn=9780810852877|language=en}}</ref> He grew up listening to the ragtime of [[Scott Joplin]] and always retained links to the ragtime era, playing and recording Joplin's "[[Maple Leaf Rag]]",<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/kingofragtimesco00berl_0|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/kingofragtimesco00berl_0/page/56 56]|quote=james p Johnson scott Joplin Maple Leaf.|title=King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era|last=Berlin|first=Edward A.|date=1996-01-11|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=9780195356465|language=en}}</ref> as well as the more modern (according to Johnson) and demanding "Euphonic Sounds", both several times in the 1940s. Johnson, who gained his first job as a pianist in 1912, decided to pursue his musical career rather than return to school. From 1913 to 1916, Johnson spent time studying the European piano tradition with Bruto Giannini.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.oxfordaasc.com/article/anb/1801344|title=Oxford AASC: Johnson, James P.|website=Oxfordaasc.com|language=en|access-date=2017-05-22}}</ref> Over the next four to five years, Johnson continued to develop his ragtime piano skills by studying other pianists and composing his own rags.<ref name=":1" />

=== Early career: 1914—1929 ===
In 1914, while performing in [[Newark, New Jersey]] with singer [[Lillie Mae Wright]], who became his wife three years later, Johnson met [[Willie "The Lion" Smith]]. Smith and Johnson shared many of the same ideas regarding entertainers and their stage appearance. These beliefs and their complementary personalities led the two to become best friends. Starting in 1918, Johnson and Wright began touring together in the Smart Set Revue before settling back in New York in 1919.<ref name=":1" />

Before 1920, Johnson had gained a reputation as a pianist on the East coast on a par with [[Eubie Blake]] and [[Luckey Roberts]] and made dozens of player piano roll recordings initially documenting his own ragtime compositions before recording for Aeolian, Perfection (the label of the Standard Music Roll Co., Orange, New Jersey), Artempo (label of Bennett & White, Inc., Newark, New Jersey), Rythmodik, and QRS during the period from 1917 to 1927.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.redhotjazz.com/jpjohnson.html|title=James P. Johnson|website=Redhotjazz.com|access-date=2017-05-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061116060553/http://www.redhotjazz.com/jpjohnson.html|archive-date=November 16, 2006|url-status=dead}}</ref> During this period he met [[George Gershwin]], who was also a young piano-roll artist at Aeolian.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/memoryofallthatl00peys|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/memoryofallthatl00peys/page/59 59]|quote=james p johnson met george gershwin aeolian.|title=The Memory of All that: The Life of George Gershwin|last=Peyser|first=Joan|date=2006|publisher=[[Hal Leonard Corporation]]|isbn=9781423410256|language=en}}</ref>

As his piano style continued to evolve, his 1921 [[phonograph]] recordings of his own compositions, "Harlem Strut", "Keep Off the Grass",  "[[Carolina Shout]]", and " Worried and Lonesome Blues" were, along with [[Jelly Roll Morton]]'s [[Gennett Records|Gennett]] recordings of 1923, among the first jazz piano solos to be put on record. These technically challenging compositions would be learned by his contemporaries, and would serve as test pieces in solo competitions, in which the New York pianists would demonstrate their mastery of the keyboard, as well as the swing, harmonies, and improvisational skills which would further distinguish the great masters of the era.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}

The majority of his phonograph recordings of the 1920s and early 1930s were done for [[Black Swan Records|Black Swan]] (founded by Johnson's friend [[W.C. Handy]], where [[William Grant Still]] served in an [[A&R]] capacity) and Columbia. In 1922, Johnson branched out and became the musical director for the revue ''[[Plantation Days]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Blondie Robinson collection of African-American Minstrel and Vaudeville photographs (MS.2015.018), Biographical/Historical note |url=https://www.riamco.org/render?eadid=US-RPB-ms2015.018&view=biography |website=riamco.org}}</ref> This revue took him to England for four months in 1923. During the summer of 1923, Johnson, along with the help of lyricist [[Cecil Mack]], wrote the revue ''Runnin' Wild''. This revue stayed on tour for more than five years as well as showing on Broadway.

=== Swing era: 1930—1939 ===
In the Depression era, Johnson's career slowed down somewhat. As the [[swing era]] began to gain popularity within the African American communities, Johnson had a hard time adapting, and his music would ultimately become unpopular.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} The cushion of a modest but steady income from his royalties as a composer allowed him to devote significant time to the furtherance of his education, as well as the realization of his desire to compose "serious" orchestral music. Johnson began to write for musical revues, and composed many now-forgotten orchestral music pieces. Although by this time, he was an established composer, with a significant body of work, as well as a member of [[ASCAP]], he was nonetheless unable to secure the financial support that he sought from either the [[Rosenwald Foundation]] or a [[Guggenheim Fellowship]]; he had received endorsement for each from Columbia Records executive and long-time admirer John Hammond. The Johnson archives include the letterhead of an organization called Friends of James P. Johnson, ostensibly founded at the time (presumably in the late 1930s) in order to promote his then-idling career. Names on the letter-head included [[Paul Robeson]], [[Fats Waller]], [[Walter Francis White|Walter White]] (President of the [[NAACP]]), the actress [[Mercedes Gilbert]] and [[Bessye Bearden]], the mother of artist [[Romare Bearden]]. In the late 1930s, Johnson slowly started to re-emerge with the revival of interest in traditional jazz and began to record, with his own and other groups, at first for the [[Hot Record Society|H.R.S.]] label.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} Johnson's appearances at the ''[[Spirituals to Swing]]'' concerts at [[Carnegie Hall]] in 1938 and 1939 were organized by John Hammond, for whom he recorded a substantial series of solo and band sides in 1939.

=== Later career: 1940—1951 ===
[[File:James P. Johnson, Fess Williams, Freddie Moore, Joe Thomas 1948 (Gottlieb).jpg|thumb|James P. Johnson, [[Fess Williams]], Freddie Moore, [[Joe Thomas (tenor saxophonist)|Joe Thomas]] 1948.<br /> Photography by [[William P. Gottlieb]].|300x300px]]Johnson suffered a stroke (likely a [[transient ischemic attack]] or mini-stroke) in August 1940. When Johnson returned to action, in 1942, he began a heavy schedule of performing, composing, and recording, leading several small live and groups, now often with racially integrated bands led by musicians such as [[Eddie Condon]], [[Yank Lawson]], [[Sidney de Paris]], [[Sidney Bechet]], [[Rod Cless]], and [[Edmond Hall]]. In 1944, Johnson and Willie "The Lion" Smith participated in stride piano contests in [[Greenwich Village]] from August to December. He recorded for jazz labels including [[Asch Records|Asch]], [[Black & White Records|Black & White]], [[Blue Note Records|Blue Note]], [[Commodore Records|Commodore]], [[Circle Records|Circle]], and Decca. In 1945, Johnson performed with Louis Armstrong and heard his works at Carnegie Hall and [[The Town Hall (New York City)|Town Hall]] in New York City.  He was a regular guest star and featured soloist on [[Rudi Blesh]]'s ''This is Jazz'' broadcasts, as well as at Eddie Condon's Town Hall concerts. As such, he was regarded as something as a distinguished pioneer of the idiom, and was often referred to as "The Dean of Jazz Pianists".{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} Never satisfied with the state of his craft, he continued his musical education, begun in the 1930s, studying with [[Maury Deutsch]], who could also count [[Django Reinhardt]] and [[Charlie Parker]] among his pupils.

In the late 1940s, Johnson had a variety of jobs, including jam sessions at Stuyvesant Casino and Central Plaza, as well as becoming a regular on [[Rudi Blesh]]'s radio show. In 1949 as an 18-year-old, actor and band leader [[Conrad Janis]] put together a band of musicians, consisting of James P. Johnson (piano), Henry Goodwin (trumpet), [[Edmond Hall]] (clarinet), [[Pops Foster]] (bass) and [[Baby Dodds]] (drums), with Janis on trombone.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.conradjanis.com/MississippiRag1.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040603234825/http://conradjanis.com/MississippiRag1.php |url-status=usurped |archive-date=June 3, 2004 |first=Jim |last=Uhl |title=For Conrad Janis, Acting and Jazz Share the Spotlight |work=Maria and Conrad Janis |date=September 2002}}</ref> Johnson permanently retired from performing after suffering a severe, paralyzing stroke in 1951. Johnson survived financially on his songwriting royalties while he was paralyzed. He died four years later in [[Jamaica, New York]] and is buried in [[Mount Olivet Cemetery (Queens)|Mount Olivet Cemetery]] in Maspeth, [[Queens]]. Perfunctory obituaries appeared in even ''[[The New York Times]]''. The pithiest and most angry remembrance of Johnson was written by [[John Hammond (record producer)|John Hammond]] and appeared in ''[[DownBeat]]'' under the title "Talents of James P. Johnson Went Unappreciated".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hammond |first=John |date=1955-12-28 |title=Talents of James P. Johnson Went Unappreciated |work=Down Beat |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/DownBeat/IDX/50s/Down-Beat-1955-12-28-22-26-IDX-16.pdf |access-date=2023-04-10}}</ref>

== Compositions ==
Johnson composed many hit tunes in his work for the musical theatre, including "[[Charleston (1923 song)|Charleston]]". It debuted in his [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] show ''[[Runnin' Wild (musical)|Runnin' Wild]]'' in 1923,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/runnin-wild-9308 |title=''Runnin' Wild'' |website=IBDB.com |publisher=[[Internet Broadway Database]] }}</ref> although by some accounts Johnson had written it years earlier. It became one of the most popular songs of the "[[Roaring Twenties]]". He also wrote "[[If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)]]", "[[You've Got to Be Modernistic]]", "Don't Cry, Baby", "[[Keep off the Grass]]", "[[Old Fashioned Love (1920s song)|Old Fashioned Love]]", "[[A Porter's Love Song to a Chambermaid]]", "[[Carolina Shout]]", and "[[Snowy Morning Blues]]". He wrote [[waltz]]es, ballet, [[symphonic]] pieces and light opera; many of these extended works exist in manuscript form in various stages of completeness in the collection of Johnson's papers housed at the [[Institute of Jazz Studies]], [[Rutgers University]], [[Newark, New Jersey]]. Johnson's success as a popular composer qualified him as a member of [[ASCAP]] in 1926.

Premiered in 1928, Johnson's ''[[Yamekraw|Yamekraw, a Negro Rhapsody]]'', was named after a black community in Savannah, Georgia. [[William Grant Still]] was orchestrator and [[Fats Waller]] the pianist as Johnson was contractually obliged to conduct his and Waller's hit Broadway show ''[[Keep Shufflin]]''. ''[[Harlem Symphony]]'', composed during the 1930s, was performed at [[Carnegie Hall]] in 1945 with Johnson at the piano and [[Joseph Cherniavsky]] as conductor. He collaborated with [[Langston Hughes]] on the one-act opera, ''[[De Organizer]]''. A fuller list of Johnson's film scores appears below.

===Pianist===
Along with Fats Waller, Willie "The Lion" Smith, and [[Luckey Roberts]], Johnson embodies the Harlem Stride piano style, an evolution of East Coast ragtime infused with elements of the blues. His "Carolina Shout" was a standard test piece and rite of passage for every contemporary pianist: [[Duke Ellington]] learned it note for note from the 1921 QRS Johnson [[piano roll]]. Johnson taught Waller and got him his first piano roll and recording assignments.<ref>{{cite book |last=Brown |first=Scott E. |title=James P. Johnson: A Case of Mistaken Identity |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1986 |isbn=9780195035643}}</ref>

Harlem Stride is distinguished from ragtime by several essential characteristics: ragtime introduced sustained [[syncopation]] into piano music, but stride pianists built a more freely swinging rhythm into their performances, with a certain degree of anticipation of the left (bass) hand by the right (melody) hand, a form of tension and release in the patterns played by the right hand, interpolated within the beat generated by the left. Stride more frequently incorporates elements of the blues, as well as harmonies more complex than usually found in the works of classic ragtime composers. Lastly, while ragtime was for the most part a composed music, based on European light classics such as marches, pianists such as Waller and Johnson introduced their own rhythmic, harmonic and melodic figures into their performances and, occasionally, spontaneous improvisation. As the second generation stride pianist [[Dick Wellstood]] observed, in liner notes for recordings by the stride pianist [[Donald Lambert]], most of the stride pianists of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s were not particularly good improvisers. Rather, they would play their own, very well worked out, and often rehearsed variations on popular songs of the day, with very little change from one performance to another. It was in this respect that Johnson distinguished himself from his colleagues, in that (in his own words), he "could think of a trick a minute". Comparison of many of Johnson's recordings of a given tune over the years demonstrates variation from one performance to another, characterized by respect for the melody, and reliance upon a worked out set of melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic devices, such as repeated chords, serial thirds (hence his admiration for Bach), and interpolated scales, on which the improvisations were based. This same set of variations might then appear in the performance of another tune.

==Legacy==
Johnson may be thought of as both the last major pianist of the classic ragtime era and the first major jazz pianist. As such, he is considered an indispensable bridge between ragtime and jazz. Johnson's musical legacy is also present in the body of work of his pupil, Thomas "Fats" Waller, as well as scores of other pianists who were influenced by him, including Art Tatum, Donald Lambert, [[Louis Mazetier]], [[Pat Flowers (musician)|Pat Flowers]], [[Cliff Jackson (musician)|Cliff Jackson]], [[Hank Duncan]], [[Claude Hopkins]], Duke Ellington, [[Count Basie]], [[Don Ewell]], [[Johnny Guarnieri]], [[Dick Hyman]], Dick Wellstood, [[Ralph Sutton]], [[Joe Turner (jazz pianist)|Joe Turner]], [[Neville Dickie]], [[Mike Lipskin]], and [[Butch Thompson]].{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}

Johnson was a pioneer, and one of the main originators of what is known today as the (Harlem) [[Stride (music)|stride style]] of jazz piano playing. "Stride piano has often been described as an orchestral style and indeed, in contrast to boogie-woogie blues piano playing, it requires a fabulous conceptual independence, the left hand differentiating bass and mid-range lines while the right supplies melodic issues."{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} Johnson honed his craft, playing night after night, catering to the egos and idiosyncrasies of the many singers he encountered, which necessitated being able to play a song in any key. He developed into a sensitive and facile accompanist, the favorite accompanist of [[Ethel Waters]] and [[Bessie Smith]].{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} Waters wrote in her autobiography that working with musicians such as, and most especially, Johnson "made you want to sing until your tonsils fell out".

==Album discography==
* 1921 ''The Piano Roll'' (Folkways, 1964)
* 1921–26 ''James P. Johnson 1921–1926'' (Olympic Records, 1974)
* 1921-27 ''Backwater Blues: The Stride Piano Of James P. Johnson'' (Riverside Records, 1961)
* 1921-39 Father Of The Stride Piano (Columbia, 1962) anthology of Colomubia recordings. Reissued in CD with the same title
* 1944 ''New York Jazz'' (Asch, 1944) (3x78'rpm) 6 tracks of piano solo 
* 1944.09 ''Happy harlem: James P. Johnson Quartet with others...'' (Jazz Guild, 1957) Only three titles with J P Johnson under Rod Cless Quartet
* 1945.05 ''The Original James P. Johnson'' (Folkways, 1973)
* 1946.09 ''Jazz of the Forties, Vol. 1: Jazz at Town Hall'' (Folkways, 1960) Seven titles with J P Johnson
* 1947 ''Harlem Party Piano'' (Riverside Records, 1956) James P. Johnson on side A, Luckey Roberts on side B
* 1944-49  ''Ain'tcha Got Music'' (Pumpkin Productions, 1981)
* 1921-45 ''Giants of Jazz: James P. Johnson'' (3xLp) (Time-Life Records, 1981) an extendet Johnson anthology covering his whole career
Johnson's largest recording anthology  was compiled  in 1981 by [[Time-Life Music]] (Giants of Jazz series) in a three-LPs set. The collection,40 sides recorded from 1921 to 1945, is enriched by extensive liner notes, a biographical essay by Frank Kappler and criticism by Dick Wellstood  and the musicologist Willa Rouder.

==CD re-issues==
* 1921-28 ''The Chronological'' (Classics #658, 1992)
* 1928-38 ''The Chronological'' (Classics #671, 1992)
* 1938-42 ''The'' ''Chronological'' (Classics #711, 1995)
* 1943-44 ''The Chronological'' (Classics #, 1995)
* 1944-01 ''The Chronological'' (Classics #, 1995)
* 1944-01 ''The Chronological'' (Classics #, 1995)
* 1944-45 ''The Chronological (''Classics #, 1998)
* 1945-47 ''The Chronological (''Classics #, 1999)
* 1942–45 ''The Original James P. Johnson: 1942–1945, Piano Solos'' ([[Smithsonian Folkways]], 1996)
* 1921-44 ''Classic James P. Johnson Sessions, 1921-1944'' (6xCD) (Mosaic Records, 2016)
* 1943-44 ''The Blue Note Jazzmen'' (2xCD) (Blue Note, 1998)

''Father of the Stride Piano (''CBS/Sony) is the CD re-issue of a Columbia Lp that collects some of Johnson's best recordings for the label between 1921 and 1939. It includes several solos from the 1920s:"''Carolina Shout", "Worried and Lonesome Blues",'' and ''"Hungry Blues"'' (from ''De Organizer'') and band  and solos sides recorded in 1939.

The [[Biograph Records|Biograph]] label has re-issued on CD approximately 60 of Johnson's piano rolls, recorded between 1917 and 1927. A book of musical transcriptions of Johnson's piano roll performances of his own compositions has been prepared by Dr. Robert Pinsker, to be published through the auspices of the James P. Johnson Foundation.

The most complete CD collection of his work, including alternate takes, has been produced by [[Michael Cuscuna]] and his associates at [[Mosaic Records]] with the box ''Classic James P. Johnson Sessions, 1921-1944'',<ref>{{Cite web |last=Records |first=Mosaic |date=2021-04-21 |title=James P. Johnson - 1921-1943 Sessions - Mosaic Records |url=https://www.mosaicrecords.com/james-p-johnson-1921-1943-sessions-mosaic-records/ |access-date=2021-07-21 |website=Mosaicrecords.com |language=en-US}}</ref> that includes all of Johnson's piano solos, band sides, and blues accompaniments, done during this period, for the major commercial labels, exclusive of Decca/[[Brunswick Records|Brunswick]], and [[RCA Victor]].

Even more complete, but without the alternate takes, is the french The Chronological serie by [[Chronological Classics|Classics]] . The eight discs devoted to Johnson cover the period 1921-1947.

James P. is also featured prominently in the Mosaic re-issues of the Commodore (under Max Kaminsky's name) and the HRS labels (Pee Wee Russells's Rhythm Makers).

The Decca CD, ''Snowy Morning Blues'', contains 20 sides recorded for the Brunswick and Decca labels, between 1930 and 1944 with an eight-tune Fats Waller Memorial set, and two solos, "Jingles", and "You've Got to be Modernistic", which demonstrate Johnson's hard swinging stride style.

Johnson's complete Blue Note recordings (solos, band sides in groups led by himself as well as by Edmond Hall and [[Sidney DeParis]]) were issued in a collection by Mosaic Records<ref>{{Cite web |title=Out-Of-Print Limited Edition Jazz Collections |url=https://www.mosaicrecords.com/out-of-print-limited-edition-jazz-collections/ |access-date=2021-07-21 |website=Mosaicrecords.com |language=en-US}}</ref> and, later, in a 2CD selection in 1998 entitled ''The Blue Note Jazzmen''.

In the internet era, nearly all of Johnson's recordings are now available on a YouTube channel, compiled by Mark Borowsky, M.D., titled, " James P. Johnson: The Quiet Man Who Made the 20s Roar After Dr. Scott Brown " . It is a companion site to the forthcoming definitive biography of James P, written by Dr. Brown, and scheduled for publication in 2025.

== Honors and recognitions ==
On September 16, 1995, the [[List of people on stamps of the United States|U.S. Post Office]] issued a James P. Johnson 32-cent commemorative postage stamp.<ref>{{cite web|last=Meddings |first=Mike |url=http://www.doctorjazz.co.uk/jelly39.html |title=James P. Johnson and Jelly Roll Morton First Day Cover |publisher=Monrovia Sound Studio |access-date=December 22, 2014}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year Inducted
! Title
|-
| 1970
| [[Songwriters Hall of Fame]]
|-
| 1973
| [[Down Beat|Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame]] 
|-
| 1980
| Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame 
|-
| 2007
| [[American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers|ASCAP Jazz Wall of Fame]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ascap.com/eventsawards/awards/jazzwall/2007/jazz-wall-inductees.aspx |title=ASCAP 2007 Jazz Wall of Fame |work=[[American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers]] |access-date=December 22, 2014}}</ref>
|}

Johnson is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in [[Maspeth]], Queens County, New York. Unmarked since his death in 1955, his grave was re-consecrated in 2009 with a headstone paid for with funds raised by an event arranged by the James P. Johnson Foundation, Spike Wilner and Dr. Scott Brown.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/arts/music/06rent.html?_r=0 |title=Raising Roof and Headstone for Pioneering Pianist |first=Ben |last=Ratliff |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |page=C1 |date=October 5, 2009}}</ref>

In 2020, Johnson's song "Carolina Shout" was added to the [[Grammy Hall of Fame]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Blistein |first=Jon |date=2020-01-21 |title= Elton John, Public Enemy, Joni Mitchell Recordings Added to Grammy Hall of Fame|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/elton-john-public-enemy-joni-mitchell-recordings-grammy-hall-of-fame-2020-induction-937561/ |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |access-date=2020-08-17 }}</ref>

==Film scores==
Some of Johnson's compositions were used in a number of movies  as [[film score]]s.

A partial list includes:

{| class=wikitable colspan="5" style="text-align:center;" 
! Year
! Film
! Actor/actress
! Songs
|- align=center
| 1929
| ''[[The Show of Shows]]''
| [[John Barrymore]]<br>[[Douglas Fairbanks Jr.]]<br>[[Myrna Loy]]
| "Your Love is All I Crave"
|- align=center
| 1933
| ''[[Dancing Lady]]'' 
| [[Joan Crawford]]<br>[[Clark Gable]]<br>[[Fred Astaire]]
| "Alabama Swing" 
|- align=center
| 1938
| ''[[The Big Broadcast of 1938]]''
| [[W. C. Fields]]<br>[[Dorothy Lamour]]<br>[[Bob Hope]]
| "Charleston"
|- align=center
| 1939
| ''[[The Roaring Twenties]]''
| [[James Cagney]]<br>[[Humphrey Bogart]]
| "If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)"
|- align=center
| 1942
| ''[[Casablanca (film)|Casablanca]]''
| [[Humphrey Bogart]]<br>[[Ingrid Bergman]]<br>[[Dooley Wilson]]
| "If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)"
|- align=center
| 1943
| ''[[Stormy Weather (1943 film)|Stormy Weather]]'' 
| [[Lena Horne]]<br>[[Cab Calloway]]<br>[[Fats Waller]]<br>[[Dooley Wilson]]
| "There's No Two Ways About Love" 
|- align=center
| 1946
| ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]'' 
| [[James Stewart]]<br>[[Donna Reed]]<br>[[Lionel Barrymore]]
| "Charleston" 
|- align=center
| 1947
| ''[[The Man I Love (1947 film)|The Man I Love]]'' 
| [[Ida Lupino]]<br>[[Robert Alda]]
| "If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)"
|- align=center
| 1949
| ''[[Flamingo Road (film)|Flamingo Road]]'' 
| [[Joan Crawford]]
| "If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)"
|- align=center
| 1957
| ''[[The Joker Is Wild]]'' 
| [[Frank Sinatra]]
| "If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)"
|- align=center
| 1974
| ''[[The Great Gatsby (1974 film)|The Great Gatsby]]'' 
| [[Robert Redford]]<br>[[Mia Farrow]]<br>[[Bruce Dern]]<br>[[Sam Waterston]]<br>[[Karen Black]]
| "Charleston" 
|- align=center
| 1991
| ''[[Rambling Rose (film)|Rambling Rose]]'' 
| [[Laura Dern]]<br>[[Robert Duvall]]
| "If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)" 
|- align=center
| 1991
| ''[[Billy Bathgate (film)|Billy Bathgate]]''
| [[Dustin Hoffman]]<br>[[Bruce Willis]]<br>[[Nicole Kidman]]
| "The Mule Walk"
|- align=center
| 1994
| ''[[Cobb (film)|Cobb]]'' 
| [[Tommy Lee Jones]]<br>[[Lolita Davidovich]]
| "Bleeding Hearted Blues"
|- align=center
| 2001
| ''[[The Majestic (film)|The Majestic]]'' 
| [[Jim Carrey]]
| "Blue Note Boogie"
|- align=center
| 2003
| ''[[Alex & Emma]]''
| [[Kate Hudson]]<br>[[Luke Wilson]]
| "[[Charleston (1923 song)|Charleston]]" (1923)
|- align=center
| 2006
| ''[[Southland Tales]]'' 
| [[Dwayne Johnson|Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson]] 
| "[[If I Could Be with You (One Hour Tonight)]]" (1926)
|- align=center
| 2007
| ''[[Perfect Stranger (film)|Perfect Stranger]]''
| [[Halle Berry]]<br>[[Bruce Willis]]
|
|}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading and listening==
*[[David Schiff|Schiff, David]]: ''A Pianist with Harlem on His Mind'', ''[[The New York Times]]'', February 16, 1992 (A portrait and review of the re-premier of Johnson's Harlem Symphony, among other works, as realized by conductor Marin Alsop, pianist Leslie Stifleman, and The Concordia Orchestra.)
* Scott E. Brown, ''A Case of Mistaken Identity: The Life and Music of James P. Johnson'', Scarecrow Press, 1984. {{ISBN|0810818876}} (Part of a series published by the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University. This remains the only book-length biography of Johnson. It began as Dr. Brown's senior thesis at Yale, 1982, and was expanded into book form while he was in medical school. An updated edition is in preparation. It is supplemented with an extensive pre-CD era discography by Robert Hilbert.)
* ''Good Buddies: Waller and Johnson'', Jazz Rhythm Program No. 174, www.jazzhotbigstep.com, 2004 (produced by [[Dave Radlauer]], with guest, Mark Borowsky, James P. Johnson Foundation)
* ''Celebrating James P. Johnson'', Jazz Rhythm Programs No.&nbsp;137 138, 139, www.jazzhotbigstep.com, 2003 (produced by Dave Radlauer, with guest, Mark Borowsky, James P. Johnson Foundation)
* ''Todd Mundt Show'', Radio Program, NPR, January 2, 2003 (Includes a 25-minute interview with Mark Borowsky of the James P. Johnson Foundation and a discussion about the discovery and performance of Johnson and Langston Hughes' operetta, ''De-Organizer''. Long thought to have been lost, a score of singing parts was discovered by the [[University of Michigan]] jazz pianist and scholar, Prof [[James Dapogny]]. Dapogny's restoration was performed in 2003, followed in 2006 by a Dapogny restored version of "Dreamy Kid".)
* ''Fats Waller and James P. Johnson: Student/Teacher, Protege/Master, Colleagues/Best Friends''. Lecture, by Dr. Mark Borowsky, Dr. Robert Pinsker, James P. Johnson Foundation. Fats Waller Centennial Conference, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University, May 8, 2004.
*''From Joplin to Blake to Johnson: A Ragtime Triple Play''. Lecture, by Robert Pinsker, Mark Borowsky, James P. Johnson Foundation. Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival, August 2002
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000p7mq BBC Radio 3 ''Composer of the Week'', 9-13 November, 2020]
*[[Riccardo Scivales]]: ''Jazz Piano: The Left Hand'' (Bedford Hills, New York: Ekay Music, 2005). A method covering practically all the left-hand techniques (Johnson's too) used in the history of jazz piano, with hundreds of musical examples.

==External links==
{{External links|date=November 2023}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20030417173145/http://www.redhotjazz.com/JPJohnson.html James P. Johnson on RedHotJazz.com Biography with RAM files of many of James P. Johnson's historic recordings]
* [http://www.blueblackjazz.com/johnson_en.html James P. Johnson on BlueBlackJazz.com]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20121021185037/http://www.columbia.edu/acis/textarchive/cjas/11/12.html ''James P. Johnson: A Composer Rescued – The story of the discovery of "Victory Stride" and James P. Johnson's other lost symphonies'' by Leslie Stifleman]
* [http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/news/04/07_james_johnson.shtml Institute of Jazz Studies page on the James P. Johnson archival collection housed there]
*[http://newarkwww.rutgers.edu/IJS/collections/JPJ%20new%20406.pdf James P. Johnson Collection Music Manuscripts] Institute of Jazz Studies, Dana Library, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ.
*[http://newarkwww.rutgers.edu/IJS/collections/James%20P%20Scripts_e.pdf James P. Johnson Collection Programs, Scripts and Books] Institute of Jazz Studies, Dana Library, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ.
* [http://newarkwww.rutgers.edu/IJS/Waller1.html Institute of Jazz Studies Fats Waller Centennial Conference]
* [https://ethaniverson.com/rhythm-and-blues/in-search-of-james-p-johnson/ "In Search of James P. Johnson"] by Ethan Iverson
*{{Find a Grave|47379076}}
*{{IBDB name|70381}}
* [https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/103380 James P. Johnson recordings] at the [[Discography of American Historical Recordings]].
* {{youTube|85dcYGC1OeA|Video (film clip; 9:35) ''"Yamekaw"'' (comp.Johnson; arr.[[William Grant Still|Still]])}}
* {{youTube|DMUSRP_LL5Y|Video (15:30) ''"Yamekaw"'' (comp.Johnson; arr.[[William Grant Still|Still]])}}
*[https://www.mosaicrecords.com/the-great-jazz-artists/james-p-johnson/ ''Scott E. Brown M.D., liner note excerpt Mosaic Records: Classic James P. Johnson Sessions (1921-1943)'']
*[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQuhDgfsUyRu18P9ZlQmcOekmjCKqq5uF YouTube]

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