High, Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project.”
by Loudon Wainwright III
and featuring Paul Asaro on piano
Grammy Award Winner 2010: Best Traditional Folk Album
About Stride Piano
Harlem Stride Piano developed out of the ragtime piano styles of New York City and the east coast, also known as “Eastern Ragtime”. The style continued the ragtime tradition of a march-like left hand see-sawing between a single bass note at the bottom of the keyboard, and a chord struck in the center of the keyboard. In general, ragtime pianists only stretched an octave or an octave and a half between the bass note and the chord in the middle but the stride pianists stretched much further towards the bottom end of the keyboard and the wider span give a much fuller sound. The syncopated figures in the right hand evolved into more varied and complicated patterns involving all manner of thirds, sixths, tenths, chromatic runs, broken chords, glissandos, and tremolo octaves. As it developed during the declining years of ragtime’s popularity and during the rise of the jazz age it further distinguished itself from ragtime piano in its sense of “swing” in the rhythm and its increasing use and the complexity of improvisation during perfomance. Stride piano was an east coast development and differed stylistically from the New Orleans jazz pianists such as Jelly Roll Morton in its voicings and melodic figures.
0 Paul Asaro Plays The Crave
Paul Asaro plays Jelly Roll Morton’s “The Crave” on the piano.
0 New Year, New Website
0 Paul Asaro plays The Fingerbreaker
0 “Like” Paul Asaro on Facebook!
Paul Asaro now has a fanpage on Facebook! Be a fan and be in the know of his latest performance schedule and updates.