ENTERTAINMENT BRIEFS The fUm mt yoor typical IDImracw IoYc say. ., 1becu1t\n1 betwealan African-Amerlam woo' never been .,AfricamlanlOOianwm' De\Ubera., Dcmd be m 00 tbcrole ofDemctriusbeal be wanted ., ya JX2IOIl fir a dlIu9. FDmlrw on "MaIcoImX" rom­ pIeed mt it'll be in dam dis OI1iS11DL\. In 1be nanti� Drn- 2d says be doesn't lIM �xt projcctlincd �.Ik'll besperdng his 1iR mer.bing . soo' pee- wee team. Chav z ttl with Kravitz It _ beall� tIIlt singer­ songwriter Ingrid ChaVt:l will � both co--writing aedit aOO a share of the royalties from Madonna' hit single "Justify My . Love." Lenny Kravitz produced 1be IDOl and writing aedit Madonna. a.wz filed 1bD tinJuly « year, dIilDJw sbe wrote lydI;a b' '!1l .. dalmecl tIIltKravf1Z 1BIlcM1a'ink> � � acdif aOO royalties fOr Aa:o�"ClJavez, they had an affair aM he didn't want her b getaeditforfcarbis thenwife Usa Booet would flDl out. Jack on turns down Duke debate CNN 1alksmw Imt Revereoo Jesse Jackson turned down a $D),(XX) offer t) debate David Dulce on teicvmon. Now, � program's would-be executive producer Hanis Salamon says they were looking f share a stage or a platform with David Duke." The cx-KJamman is alJeady umer ron1ract to do the sbow, M>rton Downey Jr.· set b bost, On .the home front Jennifer Holliday has separated froql her husband­ JD8IIl8C" Billy Meadows. The two wed just _t year. Repom &Ie that a divm:e is likely. Hammer Married? The iIsue of iDIIerest fOr a lot of Hammer fans is whcther or oot � � rapper. lDIIricd. For m.e wm cam, my sowa:s (Usa Q)Uins) say be is. Manicd or rot, Hammer will bft the road begin­ nlngApril1 in VirgiIiaftramtbcr natiooal"ur. Opening willbe Boyz n Men, Jodcd mI Oakmwn 3·5*7. . M Icolm X - the movie Spike Lee's rot sa� all that much abolt his upoo� film, "MolcoImX", except to say that it ems in � � of South Africa, oot Harlem's Audubon beIlroom where he WM ted. Lee IS qultcd as saying, "I felt it would be a mis1alce k> em � film 00 the stage of � Audubon Ballroc:m where he WEsOOl. That wWd lIM made it ac:em liD tis idta died tIae m, am that's oot 1beC81C." - compiled by K. Barb - tpoei.l contributort: Ut. COlliDt (BebIDd.The-SceDeI) ud RadioScope. •. The ColulDD . '. W J m P. Johnson the in­ visible compo er, the mu ical counterpart to Ralph Ellison' In­ vi ible Man? Johnson, who died in 1955, holds the odd di tinction of not being remembered the composer of "The Charleston;" the musical emblem of the ro ring 20'. Jazz aficionado leno him as the father of Harlem tride piano and the com­ po er of the famou "Carolina Shout." But Johnson Iso composed 16 m ical, more than 200 ongs, a ymphony, a piano cocerto, two tone poems, even an opera. TOOugh the worts parallel the achievement of his contemporary George Ge hwin, they are virtually unknown. Johnson's jazz piano tyle haped the playing of hi protege Thomas (Fa ) Waller and the tyles of Art Tatum, Erroll Gamer, Thelonious Monk and Marcus Roberts. Duke Ellington, who, like Fletcher Henderson and Count Basie, learned "Carolina Shout" from the player piano, called himself a "close di - ciple" of Johnson'. "Jame was more than a beginning, It Ellington wrote. "He went right on up to the top. It Johnson's influence appears not only in Ellington's playing but also in many of his compositions, from "Block Beauty" to "A Portrait 0/ Bert Williams. " James Price Johnson, born in New Brunswick, N.J., in 1894, began to play ragtime and classical piano at an early age. By 1912, he was making a living as a pianist, playing at cabarets, movies and danCe halls in San Juan Hill - now the site of Lincoln Center, then a rough Black annex of Hell's Kitchen. SOON JOHNSON dominated the competitive world of rent-party "ticklers," playing a music that blended ragtime and the blues into a new style called stride. Unlike rag­ time, stride piano was improvised, and it swung. The striding left hand functioned as a rhythmic arabesques in ever-changing patterns. The tride P ani t a one-man jazz n. By the early 20' , Johnson e tabU hed hi pre-eminence in tride piano, and hi "CarolbuJ Shout" bec me the tes t for 11 prospective ticklers. Compared to Scott Joplin' rap, Johnson's tride compositions inhabited a larger and livelier universe - and they also demanded tly greater virtuosity. Johnson' recordings and piam roll demonstrate hi powerful rhythmic drive, light touch and breathtaking inventiven . A rare recording of his performance of 20 choI'USCS of Gershwin' "Lim" displays inex­ haustible resources as an improviser. Johnson alway viewed himself more than a pian! 1. In 1920, be met Gershwin - then on the verge of turning from the life of a ong plugger to that of a songwriter - when they were both making piano roll for Aeolian, and Johnson later recalled that tbey bared their ambi­ tion to write great mu ic on American theme. Both bad con­ tinued to tudy clas ical music while pursing their work entertainers. By 1924, Gershwin would write "Rhapsody in Blue" and "Lady, Be Good, " but by 1� Johnson had his firsthitshow, "Ru1Ulin'Wild, "which included the ongs "Old Fashioned Love" and "The Charleston." Gershwin paid Johnson the compli- _ ment of basing the first movement of PiaDo CoDceno 1n F (1925) on l'he Charleston." 10 in tum, emulated Gershwin's example with. his first symphonic composition, "Yamwaw: A Negro Rhapsody," which Waller performed at Carneige Hall on April 27, 1928. "Yamekraw," orchestrated by William Grant Still, is not a jazz piece, but it combines jazz, stri�e, ragtime, blues, spirituals and gospel in a symphonic overview of Africa� . American musical genres. Rudi Blesh, the authority on ragtime, wrote that the music has a "feeling of breadth and a racial pungecy that Gershwin missed, and its Afri.can. rhythms move with a forthright nobility." JOHNSON'S MUSIC has a charm and emotional warmth dis­ tinct from Gershwin's ophistication or d I their in r­ they livod in parallel universe. Gersh in, like many stylish Yo of the period, ould visit Harlem at night. The next day he could tum uptown traw in Broad y gold. Johnson lived nd worked in Harlem, and hi music came out of the traditio of that community, including the music of the ring- hout, a religious dance that went all the w y back to Africa. Gershwin was the toast of Broad­ way and, by 1924, was the favorite p rty pianist of the rich and famous. Johnson' show played on Black Bro dway, which w still ddled ith the racial stereotype of mini­ strelsy. Many ofms ongs are unper­ formable today because of their "blackface" lyrics - although there are undoubtedly many more on the level of such Johnson standards as "If I Could Be With You One Hour Tonight" and "A Porter's Love Song to a Chambermaid. " When Maurice Ravel visi ted New York in 1928, Gershwin took him uptown to hear the real jazz of the Harlem piani�. Later Ravel told American composers they could cre­ ate a great music out of their popular traditions. Was he speaking of Gershwin or Johnson? Gershwin received the upport of Paul Whiteman, Walter Damrosch and Serge Kousscviatzky, but Johnson wu not taken up by, any Ameri� conducto • . StUl, be • AltbOup be continued to play stride and compose songs and shows in the 30's and 40's, he devoted much of hi creative ef ... fort to symphonic composition, in­ cluding the "Harlem Symphony, " the piano concerto "Jazz-o-Mine," the overture "Drums," an "�rican Suite," based on W.C. Handy's "St. 'Louis Blues," and an opera, "The Org_anizer," written in collaboration with Langston Hughes for the inter­ national Ladies Garment Workers Union. The "Harlem Symphony" (1932) is probably Johnson's finest work. . 115 four movements, "Subway Ride, " "April in Harlem, " "NightClub" and "Baptist Mission, " giv� an overview of the secular and sacred, the inside and outside life of the community, with strong melodies, colorful or- A Jimmy McGriff Hi 1990 debut with Headfirst, "You Ought To 'l'IIlIIk About Me", w yet anolher Top 10 sUCcess for Mc­ Griff. Current release, "In A Blue Mood", has Mc­ Griff entering his 30th year in the music busiIlC with a contemporary flair to his cl ic blUC$ style. Jimmy McGriff continues to tour constantly, play­ ing to sell-out crowds worldwide. He has also per­ formed with Paul Shaffer's band on TM David Lettemfllll Show. As be be yet aootber decide In his career his signature bl playIna will continue to be sho cased to the world with more live and televised appearancea and additional acclaimed al ... bums. Jimmy McOrlff - -the master of the Ih;mmond B3 organ". z "They've always classified me as a jazz organist, whiCh I am not," states Jimmy McGriff. "I'm more of a blues organ player. That' really what I feel." With innumerable Top 10 best-selling albums to his credit, there is no mistaking McGrifrs status as a blues legend. A master of the Hammond B-3 organ, McGriff's renditions of known standards and new son� have made him a blue original. Since the 60's, McGriff's recordtngs of "I've Got A Woman" and "AllAbout My Girl'! have been radio and jukebox staples. . James' Harell McGriff was born in Philadelphia, a . city wrrlch bad become the organ town by the time he has grown. He was surrounded by music during his childhood. Both his mother and father were pianists, but McGriff started out on and su. By the time . be' d finished high school he w also playing drums, vibe and piano. McGriff then studied organ at Philadelphia' Combe College of Music and at Juil­ liard in New York. as well as privately with Jimmy Smith, Milt Buckner, and classical organist Sonny Gatewood. McGriff was playing at a club in Trenton, New Jersey when a talent scout was impressed with hi instrumental arrangement of Ray Csarles "J've Got A Woman" and offered him a contract., His recording of that song w purchased by the Sue label and became a smash reaching lIS on Billboard's R&B chart and #12 on the Pop chart. With that and such Subsequent hits as "A llA bout My Girl", "M.G. Bluu" and "Bump De Bump", McGriff staked out a musical tertitory all his own, somewhere between the jazz of Jimmy Smith and the R&B of Booker T. & the MFa. He toured for two years with the Buddy Rich band. MCGRIFF HAS cut many alburm forotber labe including a few with the late blues Inger Junior Parker and wi th alto saxophone great Ha� Crawford. JAMES P. JOHNSON chcstratfon and, in the finale, a reUgio\B intensity. Despite tbe title, tbe music does not put on symphonic airs. It is like, say, Gershwin's "American in Paris," written with a similar show-business know-how but from a different point of view. -among tbe seminal jazz figures" El­ lington, Basie and Jelly Roll Morton, but compared his classical ambitions to " a median lusting after the role of Hamelet." Yet Johnson, unlike his protege Waller, was not a comedian. For 2S years, despite ill health and little en­ couragement, he pursued symphonic compo ition. At the very moment of a revival of hi music in the 1940' , trokes ended his performing and composing activity. His name dropped out of the jazz literature. Downbeat magazine even published a premature Obituary. As i.t turned out, Johnson was not dead; he had imply disappeared. JOHNSON'S SYMPHONY provided a model for Duke Ellington' "Black, Brown and Beige" (1943) and "Tone Paral�l to Harlem" (1950). But where Ellington' extended compositio are always jazz works, written for jazz performers, Johnson, like Gershwin, scored jazz materials for the classical orchestra. His style stands halfway between tile dance ball and the concert ball. Some ..---------------. . critics thought this roecb both compromised the improvilational basis of jazz and lacked the formal complexity of symphonic music. Despite a Carnegie Hall tribute in 1945, his symphonic works dropped from sight. He died in 1955, after a series of paralyzing strokes. The concert by the Concordia Chamber Orchestra on Friday cul-: minates six years of sleuthing and . research by the conductor Marin Alsop and the pianist Leslie Stifel­ man. Little of Johnson's music is in print, and many of the orchestral ----------­ material were hidden away in fami- IN LOOKING FOR the music, lyarchives. Since 1986. Ma. A1aop Mt. Alsop and Ms. Stifelman unear­ and Ms. Stifelman cro cd the tbed much evidence of Johnson' country to track down unpubl bed pers tent arti tic devotion, tragic scores and parts. Their research led frustration - and j t plain b d luck . them to Scott E. Brown, the autborof TIley found stacks of rejection letters 1982 bi h"J P from the Guggenheim Foundation, a ograp y, ames . Fritz Reiner and even Paul Johnson: A Case 0/ Mistaken Iden- tity, " whose knowledge of Johnson Whiteman. Despite his uccesses on proved e ntial to assembling the Broadway, he could not find musical materials. employment in movie or radio. "When the ound films came in, they . In his research, Dr. Brown, now a hired white people," Johnson once Baltimaore phy ician, found that told an interviewer .. His final musi- Johnson w constantly confused with other musicians or with other cal, "Sugar Hill" (1948), never Johnsons. Even his date of birth dif- reached Broadway, despite a three- fered widely from one ource to month run in Hollywood. another. Critics, moreover, could Johnson' mu ic, M . Alsop not decide whether his music was finds, has a "personal quality that is ragtime or jazz, and almost none hard to put into words, a traightfor- took him serio ly as a composer. wardne that makes you feel as if Jazz critics, ay Dr. Brown, you know the man and tbat cor- pegged Johnson a throwback to respond to 11 the account of ragtime instead of eeing the way his Johnson written by people who knew music influenced the Wing bands of him well. You can really bear the Ellington, Henderson and Basie. intention of the music. It' political, The ually judiciOUS Whitney Bal- and it wan� the experiences it ex- lien, for example, placed Johnson press to be ta en' seriously." Johnson'S Music has a charm and emotional warmth distinct from Gerchwin's sophistication and glitter.