Jazz Performance Saturday - "Handful of Keys" - Stephanie Trick

The first Saturday of the month is usually reserved for a jazz piano performance instead of just the regular jazz performance with a group that I have been trying to display on Saturdays.

This months piano performance is by Stephanie Trick which took place when she was 22 years old in 2009. Trick began piano lessons at the age of five. Her teacher introduced her to some jazz piano pieces before high school and she was apparently hooked. She is now one of the foremost stride pianist in America. Trick has released eight CDS and one DVD.

Handful of Keys was first recorded, it appears, by its composer Thomas Waller in 1929. Waller is the legendary Harlem stride pianist Fats Waller who it is claimed copyrighted over 400 tunes many written in collaboration with Andy Razaf. His popularity hasn't flagged despite his early death at the end of 1943.

Stephanie Trick plays Handful of Keys at Sue Keller's
5th Annual Ragtime Piano Concert at the
Harald Viking Lodge Concert in Tinley Park, Illinois in 2009.

Thomas "Fats" Waller playing Handful of Keys, 1929.