Piano music of the 1920s and 1930s

Audio made with Musescore, the free music
composition software

Musescore can be downloaded from Musescore.org

All of the audio files (except one - the Melrose Rag) were produced from music written in Musescore version 1.1. The MP3 files were created using the Audacity Lame extension.

These audio files are not meant to be "performance" quality renditions of these pieces. Rather, they are intended as an audio model of the music, just as sheet music is a visual model. The audio is intended to be used as a learning tool, such as using the computer to play one hand while learning the music with the other, or as an example for use in music appreciation or music theory study.

Click on a music title to play it. Use your browser's "Return to previous page" button to return to this index.

Robin Frost
Although written from 1980 to 1990, these pieces are written in the stride and novelty jazz style of the 1930s. Frost always uses humorous titles for his songs.
Hot Kumquats     Bozo Pants     Running On The Rims     Long and Gentle     Three Lost Bodies     Sharp Simon     Space Shuffle    

A video version of Space Shuffle is on YouTube

James P. Johnson
Lock and Key     Carolina Shout     Snowy Morning Blues     Mule Walk Stomp     Fascination     Jingles     Blueberry Rhyme     Harlem Strut     Keep Off The Grass     Harlem Hotcha     Liza     Caprice Rag     The Charleston     You've got to be Modernistic     Daintiness Rag     Jersey Sweet    

The audio of "Jersey Sweet" uses the WST25 sound font, which reproduces high notes better than most sound fonts. This tune is a good test of your audio equipment. With quality headphones it sounds acceptable, but with cheap headphones and poor fidelity sound reproducers it's pretty awful.

Here's a special treat: Bessie Smith's original 1927 recording of Lock and Key with James P. Johnson on the piano. In case your having trouble understanding Ms Smith, here's a link to the lyrics.

Sheet music for Lock and Key is available here

A video version of Snowy Morning Blues is on YouTube

A video version of Blueberry Rhyme is on YouTube

W. C. Handy
In a 1916 interview, W. C. Handy related this story about Joe Turner Blues: "It was written around an old Negro song I used to hear and play thirty or more years ago. In some places it was called Going Down the River for Long, but in Tennessee it was always Joe Turner. Joe was a brother of Pete Turner, once a governor of Tennessee. He was an officer and he used to come to Memphis and get prisoners to carry to Nashville after being convicted in a kangaroo court. When the Negroes said of any one 'Joe Turner's been to town,' they meant that the person in question had been carried off hand-cuffed to be gone no telling how long.
(Actually, it was Peter Turney who was governor of Tennessee (1893-1897) and it was his brother, Joe Turney who made money managing chain gangs. Peter Turney's major initiatives during his term as governor were in education and prison reform. Because of Governor Turney's efforts in prison reform, the state named a facility for youthful offenders in Hickman in his honor.)

The version of Joe Turner Blues in the link below is from a 1922 piano roll ascribed to James P. Johnson.
Joe Turner Blues     Beale Street Blues    

Eubie Blake
The Charleston Rag     Baltimore Todolo     The Chevy Chase    

Fats Waller
Handful of Keys     Sheltered by the Stars     Ain't Misbehavin'    

Willie "The Lion" Smith
Finger Buster    

A video version of Finger Buster is on YouTube

Ferd "Jelly Roll" Morton
The version of Milenberg Joys is a transcription inspired by a 1925 piano roll by J. Lawrence Cook. The others are transcriptions of Morton's own playing.

Although the title "Milenberg Joys" is often used and the tune is usually ascribed to Jelly Roll Morton, it is perhaps more accurate to call it "Milneburg Joys" and credit Paul Mares and Leon Roppolo (members of the New Orleans Rhythm Kings) as composers. More information of the origin of this music is available here. Milneburg is a district in the city of New Orleans.
Finger Breaker     Grandpa's Spells     Milenberg Joys     Shreveport Stomp     Kansas City Stomp     Seattle Hunch     Jelly Roll Blues     Wolverine Blues     The Crave    

Don Ewell
Don Ewell played with prominent New Orleans-based musicians such as Sidney Bechet, Kid Ory, George Lewis, George Brunis, Muggsy Spanier and Bunk Johnson. From 1956-1962, Ewell was a leading member of the Jack Teagarden sextet. Walleritis is a parody of "Fats" Wallers Handful of Keys. Ewell recorded Walleritis and Lullaby in Rhythm in the mid 1950s.

Ewell had several students during the '50s and '60s. He composed Take It In Stride for them as an study in stride technique.
Walleritis     Lullaby in Rhythm     Take It In Stride

Zez Confrey
Dizzy Fingers    
Sheet music for Dizzy Fingers is available  here

Bob Zurke
Bob Zurke (born Boguslaw Albert Zukowski in Hamtramck, Michigan in 1912) was best known for his work with the Bob Crosby band in the late 1930s. His arrangements and style were much appreciated by musicians and jazz fans alike at the time. In 1939 he won Downbeat magazine's reader's poll for most popular pianist. He died in 1944 at the age of 32 from pneumonia complicated by alcohol poisoning.

Bob Zurke's 1938 version of Joe Sullivan's 1933 tune, Little Rock Getaway, quite obviously had the ideas Zurke borrowed for his theme song, Hobson Street Blues.
Little Rock Getaway     Hobson Street Blues    

Rob Cooper
Rob Cooper was a black pianist of the 1930s who was involved in development of the "Santa Fe" style. This type of music was played in the dance halls and beer parlors of rural Texas and New Mexico. It combined the (rather refined) technique of the eastern stride pianists with the boisterous "barrelhouse" sound needed to attract the attention of a noisy audience. Here is a link to more information about the Santa Fe style. And here's a link to Rob Cooper playing a wild and wooly version of his West Dallas Drag.
West Dallas Drag    

Hubert Theodore Bauersachs
This version of the Melrose Rag, dedicated to Miss Elfie Keith of Hillsboro, Illinois - whoever she was, is from a piano roll made in 1922. It is included to show what typical "barrelhouse" music would have sounded like at the time Rob Cooper was developing his "Santa Fe" style.
Melrose Rag    

12-Bar Blues
The 12-bar blues progression was often used by instrumental ensembles playing in the clubs and speakeasies of the early 1920s. Of these groups, probably the best known was the all-white New Orleans Rhythm Kings who came to prominence in the Chicago area. Their music was rooted in a New Orleans dixie-land style (where several of original members grew up) but had a sophistication that appealed to Chicago club patrons. Their drummer was Ben Pollack, who later became known as the "father of swing." Later on he had in his own band many soon-to-be-famous musicians (Benny Goodman, Harry James and Glenn Miller, among others).

One of the features of the New Orleans Rhythm Kings was to devote an entire chorus to a solo passage for one of the instruments. This is shown in their 1924 take on the Tin Roof Blues, a tune that they probably devised themselves to show off their unique style. The model given below is played at an unusually fast tempo to show the music's simple structure. Typically, it is played at a very slow blues tempo, such as this version from a 1952 radio broadcast by Red Nichols and his Five Pennies.
Tin Roof Blues    

Billy Joel
Although composed in the 1970s, this Billy Joel rag is an example of what ragtime in Ireland would sound like. It is included here not only because it's a nice tune, but it also shows how early ragtime can be adopted into a modern piece.
Root Beer Rag    


Student Section
Monk TV Theme     Mr. Sandman     Earth Angel     Bandstand Boogie    


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