Stride (music)

Stride piano is a solo piano style from the early days of jazz. He goes back to the ragtime, is contrary to this but not composed, but are largely improvised. It was created in Harlem in 1920 as " Harlem Stride piano" by pioneers such as James P. Johnson and Willie "The Lion" Smith and developed by Fats Waller at the prevailing style of swing.

In stride piano the left hand takes over the function of the bass and harmony by alternating octaves (or even tenths ) in the deep and chords in the middle register are struck, while the right hand plays above the melody or improvised.

Because the pianist dominates the Stride game, kick drums and bass back as rhythm instruments. The groups are usually not larger than five to six musicians. However, in rare style was played with bigger bands, eg by Teddy Wilson.

The ability to play stride, as is the practice in improvisation to parts also depends on the anatomy of the hands: only a few pianists can play in any key tenths, whether with two black keys ( relatively easy), a white and a black key (more difficult ) or with two white keys ( difficult faulty neighboring key game to avoid ). Exponent of stride game was Eubie Blake, who could play twelfths due to its exceptionally long fingers.

Art Tatum as a kind perfecter of style, often played passages that ran the tenths in the bass in crotchets and renounced all the needs of the alternating chords.

The term " stride piano " (English about: playing the piano with long strides ) was coined later by critics, but became the basis for all subsequent jazz piano styles. Ralph Sutton described the variety as " Harlem Rhythm".