TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. There are two fat, new biographies of composers and pianists born 43 years apart. Their music transcended jazz, but recognition for their work was slow - James P. Johnson, born in 1894, and Alice Coltrane, born in 1937. Jazz historian Kevin Whitehead reviews both books.
(SOUNDBITE OF JAMES P. JOHNSON'S "ROSETTA")
KEVIN WHITEHEAD, BYLINE: James P. Johnson on "Rosetta," 1939. In the 1920s, Johnson was the foremost proponent of stride piano, the style that transformed ragtimes, oompah beats and tidy syncopations into more flexibly propulsive jazz piano. His buoyant touch and phrasing influenced Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Earl Hines, Art Tatum, Count Basie, Thelonious Monk and many of their admirers. Johnson wrote songs for Black Broadway, was king of Harlem's legendary rent party piano gladiators, was blues singer Bessie Smith's best accompanist and composer of 1920' signature tune "The Charleston." This is from a player piano roll James P. Johnson cut. He never bothered to record his biggest hit.
(SOUNDBITE OF JAMES P. JOHNSON'S "RUNNIN' WILD MEDLEY")
WHITEHEAD: Scott Brown's very good new biography "Speakeasies To Symphonies: The Jazz Genius Of James P. Johnson" answers the question given all Johnson had accomplished, why isn't he as well-known as his disciples? In hindsight, we know it's recordings that cement a musician's reputation, but making records paid poorly in the '20s and Johnson didn't take them so seriously. He wasn't a natural showman like his protege Fats Waller, had no interest in leading a working band to promote his tunes and didn't always feature his virtuoso piano enough. He did have a comeback in the 1940s, working in traditional jazz bands, but that made him seem like a relic of an earlier era.
(SOUNDBITE OF EDDIE CONDON'S "JUST YOU, JUST ME ")
WHITEHEAD: Starting in the 1920s, James P. Johnson also composed blues rhapsodies for orchestra that symphonic gatekeepers ignored. But in recent decades, his African American classical music has brought him renewed attention. Revivals include a new, modernized revamp of Johnson's sweet "Yamekraw," by pianist Marcus Roberts. The world may finally be catching up.
(SOUNDBITE OF CINCINNATI POPS ORCHESTRA, ET AL.'S PERFORMANCE OF JOHNSON'S "YAMEKRAW")
WHITEHEAD: Today's other biographical subject also gets more respect now that she's gone. Alice McLeod started out playing piano in church as a girl in Detroit, but became famous as harpist Alice Coltrane, wife and widow of saxophonist John. From the first, there could be something oddly harp-like about Alice's swirly, sweeping piano moves, a tendency that grew more pronounced when she joined her husband's band in 1966.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN COLTRANE'S "CRESCENT (LIVE AT SANKEI HALL, TOKYO, JAPAN / JULY 11, 1966)")
WHITEHEAD: John Coltrane was fascinated by the shimmering, angelic sound of the harp and had ordered one built for Alice, which arrived only after his untimely death in 1967, as if harp was his bequest, a directive on how to proceed. Alice Coltrane took to it right away, pursuing orchestral ideas she and John had discussed. Back then, she took a lot of criticism, especially after overdubbing a string section onto a couple of John's unreleased recordings. When her music resembled his, folks said it fell short. When she then went her own way, they didn't know what to think. This is from 1971's "Universal Consciousness."
(SOUNDBITE OF ALICE COLTRANE'S "UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS")
WHITEHEAD: Andy Beta's good new bio, "Cosmic Music: The Life, Art, And Transcendence Of Alice Coltrane," traces her musical life from early Detroit days through her years with John Coltrane and her wild '70s recordings, featuring harp, strings and her dynamic work on electric organ, where she might hold notes like a saxophonist.
(SOUNDBITE OF ALICE COLTRANE'S "SPIRITUAL ETERNAL")
WHITEHEAD: Then came her long last act. By the late 1970s, Alice Coltrane withdrew from public music making, having become a Hindu mystic. In the '80s, she founded a California ashram, where she was known as Swamini Turiyasangitananda. Her musical focus was now on devotional chants. After she died in 2007, a familiar story played out. Her records, once dismissed as crazy, got rediscovered and reappraised. I was asleep on her jaw-dropping '70s stuff myself. For better or worse, she helped inspire a recent spiritual jazz revival, with two Coltranes as patron saints. Alice Coltrane came out of her husband's shadow by shining her own bright light. Her music is still out there in every sense.
(SOUNDBITE OF ALICE COLTRANE'S "GALAXY IN SATCHIDANANDA")
MOSLEY: Jazz historian Kevin Whitehead reviewed "Speakeasies To Symphonies: The Jazz Genius Of James P. Johnson," by Scott E. Brown, and "Cosmic Music: The Life, Art, And Transcendence Of Alice Coltrane," by Andy Beta.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MOSLEY: On tomorrow's show, we talk about the state of the conflict with Iran and prospects for peace with Aaron David Miller, a veteran of the State Department who advised Republican and Democratic presidents on Middle East policy. He's the author of five books and is currently a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. I hope you can join us.
FRESH AIR's executive producer is Sam Briger. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi, Anna Bauman and Nico Gonzalez-Wisler. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. With Terry Gross, I'm Tonya Mosley.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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