home
Paul Asaro

Stride and Ragtime Piano

  • Home
  • Calendar
  • Audio
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • News
  • Bio
  • Publicity
  • Booking
  • Contact

Paul Asaro’s ebullient stride-piano technique vividly
evokes an earlier era. You don’t encounter pre-bebop jazz
of this quality and commitment very often anymore.”
– Howard Reich of Chicago Tribune

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

Mr. Asaro at the piano is a one man orchestra,
his left hand often representing reeds and strings,
the right hand a Sousa-influenced brass band.”
—Alvin Klein, New York Times

The real star of the show is Paul Asaro, a fabulous
jazz pianist who will keep your feet tapping and
your eyes on his amazing hands.”
—Toby Zinman, Philadelphia City Paper

Paul Asaro has a rich honky tonk flair and
a stride technique that recalls Fats Waller in his prime.”
—Lawrence Bommer, Chicago Reader

Asaro is a sensitive accompanist,
underpinning Obba Babatunde’s vocalism
with a sturdy beat and attentive flexibility.”
—Clifford A. Ridley, The Philadelphia Inquirer

There is a new light shining
among the stars of the stride heavens,
and his name is Paul Asaro.”
—Robert Ault, Sedalia Rag

Previous Next


  • Album cover
    Previous Play Pause Next
    Loading audio... Please wait while albums and tracks are being loaded..
    Update Required To Play Media Update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.

    Toggle Playlist













  • Archives & Search

    Browse Paul's posts in the archives

Golden Wedding (Live at the Blind Pig)

  • 04/03/12
  • admin
  • · News · Videos

The Blind Pig in Champaign, IL is my local saloon to relax and play on my own piano when I’m off the road. It’s usually much too dark to get a good video there so I’m happy to have this footage carefully shot by my brother, Peter Asaro. “Golden Wedding” is a classic arrangement by one of my all time favorite stride piano players, Donald Lambert.

Blind Pig Blues (Live at the Blind Pig)

  • 04/03/12
  • admin
  • · News · Videos

Improvised blues live at the Blind Pig, Champaign, IL.

Snowy Morning Blues, Live!

  • 03/30/12
  • admin
  • · News · Videos

This is from my recent solo tour for Allied Concerts. More to come…

Paul Asaro on “Boardwalk Empire” with Vince Giordano

  • 03/03/12
  • admin
  • · News

Paul just finished four days of shooting for the HBO series “Boardwalk Empire”. He will appear on screen as the pianist in a six piece band featuring Vince Giordano.  Vince just won a Grammy for the musical soundtrack of this show. Keep a look out for season three…

“Caravan”

  • 02/03/12
  • admin
  • · News · Videos

The Fat Babies are recording an album…

  • 01/20/12
  • admin
  • · News

The Chicago based jazz band The Fat Babies will heading into Pogo Studio in Champaign, IL in late January to record their first album. The tunes will be selected mainly from the classic recordings of the Fats Waller & His Rhythm band played in an early 1930s swing groove. Besides Paul on piano the band will include Beau Sample, bass, Alex Hall, drums, Jacob Sanders, guitar, Andy Schumm, cornet, and John Otto, clarinet & sax.

On Stage with Leon Redbone

  • 01/07/12
  • admin
  • · News

On Tour with Leon Redbone

  • 01/06/12
  • admin
  • · News

I’ll be on tour with Leon Redbone in the coming months.

Check out my tour schedule and come out to a show!

About Stride Piano

  • 01/06/12
  • admin
  • · About · News

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.

… Continue reading

Paul Asaro Plays The Crave

  • 01/06/12
  • admin
  • · News · Videos

Paul Asaro plays Jelly Roll Morton’s “The Crave” on the piano.

← Older posts
Newer posts →

© 2025 © 2011-2012 Paul Asaro | Powered by Wordpress | Designed and Developed by Anastasia Tumanova

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Vimeo
  • RSS

Designed by Luke McDonald & Powered by WordPress