D. L. Bullock said "Scott Joplin invented the ragtime form"; I'm no
ragtime expert but I'm pretty confident that was not the case --
perhaps Ed Berlin (an eminent ragtime historian of world renown who
has written the definitive Joplin biography) will be good enough to
let us know who has first claim on the invention of ragtime.

Likewise for stride piano (I just love that style of playing).  Popular
belief credits James P. Johnson as the originator of stride; I do not
subscribe to that opinion.  There were quite a number of black stride
pianists around in the late 1910s/early 1920s -- for instance: Jimmy
Blythe, who played in that hotbed of hot black pianists, the South Side
of Chicago.

They learned from, copied and fed off, each other; I believe that James
P. was no exception.  He was certainly an extremely gifted performer
and composer, but the inventor of stride piano? -- I am not at all
convinced about that.

During the 1920s such companies as Capitol, Clark and Automatic
manufactured nickelodeon A-rolls specifically for the "race" market.
Regrettably the artists are rarely if ever identified, nevertheless
it is a safe bet that Jimmy Blythe and James P. Johnson numbered among
them.  I have many of these wonderful, exciting rolls, and they are a
sheer delight -- I never tire of listening to them.

John Farrell
stridepiano@email.msn.com