Lyrica Chamber Music presents jazz pianist Aaron Diehl

Think of composers whose piano music has lasted for 100 years or more and you might come up with Beethoven or Chopin or Liszt. But there are also Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, Muddy Waters, and others who created the tradition of stride piano.

Aaron Diehl, a master of the style, will present a survey of this captivating music at Lyrica Chamber Music’s second concert of the season, Sunday, Nov. 23, at 3 p.m., at the Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township, 240 Southern Blvd.

Lyrica concerts are presented with the support of Morris Arts which seeks to build community through the arts.

The music Diehl will be playing still has a contemporary feel, even though Johnson’s “Eccentricity” dates back to 1921 and Waller’s “Viper’s Drag” is from 1930. Eubie Blake claims to have written the Charleston Rag in 1899 when he was 12 years old, although he didn’t get around to writing it down until 1915.

They laid the groundwork for stride piano.

“Stride piano became a descriptor of the East Coast Ragtime style, which evolved out of pianists’ desire to embellish the traditional Ragtime language,” Diehl says. “Eubie Blake, Charles ‘Luckeyth’ Roberts, and James P. Johnson could all be considered progenitors of the East Coast approach.”

Diehl’s program on Sunday will include seven pieces by Johnson, who lived from 1894 to 1955, building his reputation in New York City.

“James P. Johnson was affectionately named ‘The Dean of Harlem Stride,’ and was a significant influence on later generations of pianists, including Fats Waller and Art Tatum,” Diehl says. “His composition ‘Carolina Shout’ was canon for anyone seeking to play this demanding style.”

Johnson has been a mainstay of Diehl’s performance from his early years.

“Since learning some of his music in my teens, I’ve come to appreciate the unique challenges in balancing the rhythmic feeling, all while attempting to make compelling harmonic and melodic landscapes,” Diehl says.

Diehl is far from being exclusively a stride pianist. He’s equally comfortable in the classical realm and has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Cleveland Orchestra while working with conductors such as Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Marin Alsop and Alan Gilbert.

His performing style draws from both worlds.

“The goal is always to create a musical experience where no listener is certain whether a performance is through-composed or instantly created in the moment,” he says. “What are works like Chopin’s Fantasie-Impromptu or Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations but a suggestion of this approach? The music of Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk draw similar inspiration.”

Diehl has quietly re-defined the lines between jazz and classical, and built a global career around his nuanced, understated approach to music-making. He has been praised for his “melodic precision, harmonic erudition, and elegant restraint” (The New York Times), and his “traditional jazz sound with a sophisticated contemporary spin” (The Guardian).

A leader in contemporary jazz, the Philadelphia Inquirer exclaimed that “there’s an entire world of jazz in Aaron Diehl’s playing… He makes the case that jazz is not one style or genre but many, gliding gorgeously among decades of artistic influences.”

With an expansive, orchestral, lyrical approach to the piano that channels predecessors like Ahmad Jamal, Erroll Garner, Art Tatum, and Jelly Roll Morton, Diehl has headlined the Monterey, Detroit, and Newport Jazz Festivals, and had residencies at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Village Vanguard, SF Jazz, and many more. He counts among his mentors towering figures such as John Lewis, Kenny Barron, Fred Hersch, Marcus Roberts, and Eric Reed.

Tickets for Lyrica concerts are $35 ($30 for seniors), and students and children are admitted free. For more information about Lyrica Chamber Music, visit www.lyricachambermusic.com or call 973-309-1668.