Imagine Fats Waller, Willie "The Lion" Smith and James P. Johnson in the same room, each taking his turn at the piano and each trying to outplay the other. Thatwould be the mother of all cutting contests!

Cutting contests originated in New York City's Harlem neighborhood as "rent parties." If you felt you couldn't make the next month's rent, you would invite to your apartment as many friends and neighbors as you could (for a fee, of course) and hire the best pianists you could find to entertain into the wee hours of the night. The pianists would get their monetary due, the landlord would get his rent and you would hear to the best music possible ‹ in fact, the very best ‹ because each pianist would try to "cut" the prior pianist by outplaying him.

Sadly, since cutting contests occurred before the invention of the tape recorder, there are no recordings of them available. How unfortunate. However, through the magic of MIDI, I have recreated a cutting contest among the likes of Fats, The Lion, James P. and Jelly Roll Morton (although there is no evidence that Jelly Roll participated in them - indeed, he deliberately avoided them).

So, sit back, access my virtual Cutting Contest and you be the judge of the winner.