The Limitations of Ragtime and Stride

As music developed in the bars and brothels of Storeyville and other such suspect places, it became something new, something different, something called ragtime. Before jazz really evolved, there was ragtime. While ragtime is very, very different from jazz, it influenced the jazz piano of the 1920s considerably.

Ragtime is a type of playing that is characterized by its polyrhythm and excessive syncopation, or emphasis of the weak beat. Though it is heavily syncopated, ragtime is supposed to be played at a very steady and certain beat with no variation from the original tempo. A rag is generally played in 16 bar theme in duple meter. It has a lively, dancing tempo.

Some of the most famous rags were produced by Scott Joplin. Scott Joplin composed many rags but some of his most famous are Maple Leaf Rag and The Entertainer. I, however, have chosen to include his Peacherine Rag and Elite Syncopations.

Elite Syncopations

Peacherine Rag

From these two pieces you can clearly hear some of the key traits of ragtime. It has that very steady tempo. It makes you want to dance (that's not really a requirement, but it certainly helped in the popularity of ragtime). It does not "swing" at all--the rhythm is very straight even if it is syncopated. Most importantly, if you listen closely to the left hand (the lower part), you can occasionally hear something that sounds like early stride piano. 

Ragtime is a very interesting form of music in that it both stays the same and changes. Joplin's rags are still famous over 100 years later and yet there are a great number of derivations of original ragtime. I think that can be heard in Jelly Roll Morton's piece Wolverine Blues which is featured below. Keep in mind as you listen that this piece came out over 20 years after either of the aforementioned rags. 

Wolverine Blues

Though Wolverine Blues clearly shares some traits with ragtime, it also has more of what we might call a "jazz" feeling. For one thing, ragtime was usually just a piano whereas here we have a trio of piano, drums, and clarinet. The beginning of the piece sounds like a rag but it is more flashy with a bit more swing then a typical ragtime piece would have, as well as some impressive glissandi. 

Stride piano was roaring by this time. James P. Johnson, Luckey Roberts, and Duke Ellington all used this style and it is apparent in many tunes, both solo piano and in an ensemble. Stride piano allowed a pianist to not only play a solo, but to help set down a chord progression as well. For this reason it is a very important addition to the art of playing the jazz piano. 

Though stride piano contained solos, it was also rather limited because of its lack of original melodies. Dick Wellstood, a stride pianist who played in the 1940s despite the advent and rise of bebop, explained it this way: 

One of the weaknesses of stride playing is that it is not melodic in the manner of, say, the playing of Earl Hines or the boppers, but rather consists often of pianistic filigree over the melody of a tune. That is to say, the stride players loved to take a reasonably simple melody ("Liza", "I Know That You Know") and state it, and restate it, on the beat, off the beat, in thirds, in sixths, with syncopated bass, in different keys, etc. But the restatements themselves seldom had much melodic interest; they were usually just arpegiated figures, ornamenting the melody or establishing a rhythmic pattern. 

It is easy to see this by listening to one of the songs that Wellstood mentions: Liza. Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away) was written by George Gershwin and then played by many other musicians after him. The first video is of Gershwin's piece (it is not, however, performed by him), while the second video is a version performed by James P. Johnson (usually considered the father of stride piano).

Liza (as written by George Gershwin)

Liza (performed by James P. Johnson)

It is easy to see what Wellstood meant. Though both of these versions are beautiful, Johnson's is never much different from the original score that Gershwin wrote. Johnson's piece lacks a new idea, a higher improvisational form than just variation. 

Ragtime and its predecessor stride piano are both important to the progression of jazz piano, but their shortcomings would ultimately leave jazz pianists wanting more and would force pianists to come up with new ways to express themselves in jazz.

Sources:
Stride! by John L. Fell and Terkild Vinding
That American Rag by David A. Jasen and Gene Jones
parlorsongs.com/insearch/ragtime/ragtime.php