born Feb. 1, 1894, New Brunswick, N.J., U.S.
died Nov. 17, 1955, New York, N.Y.
U.S. pianist and composer, a chief figure in the transition of ragtime to jazz .
Johnson was performing in saloons and at parties in New York City's African American community while still in his teens. He created the stride piano technique, a development of ragtime that used two-beat left-hand rhythms to accompany wide-ranging right-hand lines, in pieces such as "Carolina Shout" and "Harlem Strut." He composed and orchestrated music for stage revues, including Keep Shufflin' (1928) with his student Fats Waller . His songs include "The Charleston" (largely responsible for the 1920s dance craze) and "Old Fashioned Love"; his large-scale works include the Harlem Symphony (1932).