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(1918-1942), who in his two years with Ellington shaped a whole new role for his instrument in Jazz, both as a solo and ensemble voice; and
Billy

Strayhorn (1915-1967), composer-arranger and Ellington alter ego who contributed much to the band from 1939 until his death.

STRIDE & BOOGIE WOOGIE

Aside from the band, for which he wrote with such splendid skill,

Ellington's instrument was the piano. When he came to New York as a young man, his idols were James P. Johnson (1894-1955), a brilliant instrumentalist and gifted composer, and Johnson's closest rival,
Willie

(The Lion) Smith (1898-1973). Both were masters of the "stride" school of

Jazz piano, marked by an exceptionally strong, pumping line in the left hand. James P.'s prize student was Fats Waller. New York pianists often met in friendly but fierce contests--the beginnings of what would later be known as jam sessions.

In Chicago, a very different piano style came into the picture in the late

`20s, dubbed boogie-woogie after the most famous composition by its first significant exponent, Pinetop Smith (1904-1929). This rolling, eight-to-the-bar bass style was popular at house parties in the Windy
City and became a national craze in 1939, after three of its best practitioners,

Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson and Meade Lux Lewis, had been presented in concert at Carnegie Hall.

KANSAS CITY SOUNDS

Johnson was from Kansas City, where boogie-woogie was also popular.

The midwestern center was a haven for Jazz musicians through-out the rule of Boss Pendergast, when the city was wide open and music could be heard around the clock.

The earliest and one of the best of the K.C. bands was led by Bennie

Moten (1894-1935). By 1930 it had in its ranks pianist Count Basie

(1905-1984) who'd learned from Fats Waller; trumpeter-singer Oran (Hot

Lips) Page (1908-1954), one of Louis Armstrong's greatest disciples; and an outstanding singer, Jimmy Rushing (1903-1972). The city was to put its imprint on Jazz during the `30s and early `40s.

DEPRESSION DAYS

The great Depression had its impact on Jazz as it did on virtually all other facets of American life. The record business reached its lowest ebb in

1931. By that year, many musicians who had been able to make a living playing Jazz had been forced to either take commercial music jobs or leave the field entirely.

But the music survived. Again, Louis Armstrong set a pattern. At the helm of a big band with his increasingly popular singing as a feature, he recast the pop hits of the day in his unique Jazz mold, as such artists as
Fats

Waller and Billie Holiday (1915-1959), perhaps the most gifted of female

Jazz singers would do a few years later.

Thus, while sentimental music and romantic "crooners" were the rage

(among them Bing Crosby who had worked with Paul Whiteman and learned more than a little from Jazz), a new kind of "hot" dance music began to take hold. It wasn't really new, but rather a streamlining of the

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