James P. Johnson Records 'Carolina Shout'—Codifying Harlem Stride Piano

On October 18, 1921, James P. Johnson recorded 'Carolina Shout' for Okeh Records (released 1922), codifying the Harlem stride piano style. Composed around 1918, the piece became the supreme test-piece for jazz pianists; both Duke Ellington and Fats Waller learned it note-for-note from a player-piano roll. Johnson, considered the father of Harlem stride piano, used the piece to establish the vocabulary of syncopation, ornamentation, and improvisation that defined 1920s jazz piano.