James P. Johnson (1894 - 1955) is one of the great neglected figures of 20th century American music. He composed the "Charleston", accompanied Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters, was the acknowledged champion of the Harlem stride school of jazz piano, taught piano to Fats Waller, influenced Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Thelonious Monk, and wrote some of the first symphonic music by an African-American that sought to fuse European and American music into a coherent whole.

This book is the only full scale biography of Johnson to be written so far. As such it is a valuable addition to our knowledge. It was originally written as a senior honors project at Yale, and although expanded, still bears signs of its origins. It is strong on the development of the Harlem stride piano style and has a good chapter on Johnson's pianistic approach.

However, it also has some flaws: it is based largely on secondary sources, has little to say about Johnson's "serious" music (most of which was not rediscovered until after 1986), is unbalanced in its emphasis on the 1920s while neglecting Johnson's jazz revival in the 1940s, and offers only limited analysis of his recordings.

Bob Hilbert's discography is a very useful addition, although it is now 15 years out of date and therefore omits both CD releases and some recent discoveries.

For Johnson fans or those interested in the history of stride piano or in the New York jazz scene of the 1920s, this is well worth getting. However, it is not the definitive scholarly biography that Johnson's stature ultimately deserves.