[Dixielandjazz] This Is Ragtime

[D and R Hardie]

Dear Dan,
                I'm glad you enjoyed the Waldo
book. I liked it too. I also liked Peter Gammond's
"Scott Joplin and the Ragtime Era" and I agree
with Don Kirkman's excellent extended list of
other sources. I recently saw a website dealing
with a Ragtime player called Blind Tom during a
Google search. The Blind Boone story is also
interesting.
               Incidentally the ODJB were not
alone in adapting ragtime tunes. When Bunk Johnson
heard Ory's band playing 'Ory's Creole Trombone'
he said something like: 'Sounds like Ory is trying
to play the Carbarlick Acid Rag.' His listeners
thought he had got the title wrong or at least
misspelled it, but a piece with that exact
spelling  was discovered. Later I found the score
of 'Carbarlick  Acid - Two Step' in the Tulane
Archive's Music collection. The second theme was
indeed  the same as the main theme of 'Ory's
Creole Trombone'. It says something about Bunk's
musical memory. It seems it was common practice ca
1910/13 for the early bands to make their own
versions of  what were then regarded as ragtime
tunes.

regards Dan Hardie

Check out the website at:
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~darnhard/EarlyJazzHistory.html

 

Dan Augustine wrote:

>      I wrote earlier that i had bought Terry
> Waldo's book _This Is
> Ragtime_ (Da Capo, 1976) that Leon Oakley had
> mentioned as having
> some quotations by Lu Watters. But it has a lot
> more than that,
> obviously.
>      I'm now immersed in the flow of other ideas
> and other kinds of
> 'jazz' musics that were mentioned in that book. 
> While i've been a
> ragtime fan for over 30 years (i arranged 20 of
> Scott Joplin's rags
> for brass quintet in the early 70's), i didn't
> know much about where
> ragtime came from or about its early and modern
> practicioners.  I'm
> now paying more attention to the music of our
> ragtime brethern (and
> sistern--wait, that doesn't sound right).
>      Here are some of the little nuggets i've
> found in Waldo's book:
> 1) John William ("Blind") Boone, a 19th-century
> black concert pianist
> from Missouri, who played not only Beethoven but
> "raggy Negro music".
> I find it fascinating that he "was able to
> duplicate, note for note,
> any performance of music he heard, even down to
> the mistakes...."
> 2) Euday Bowman, a Kansas City composer who
> wrote not only the "12th
> Street Rag", but rags named after other streets
> of that city, like
> the "11th Street Rag" and "rags in blues forms
> that feature
> unorthodox numbers of measures and very tricky
> bass figures."
> 3) James Scott, whose rags have been favorites
> of OKOM bands; Turk
> Murphy said he was "the most exciting of the
> classic rag composers".
> 4) Eubie Blake, who not only wrote and performed
> many rags, but
> studied with one of the subjects of my
> dissertation, Joseph
> Schillinger, completing the four-year program in
> two years (and
> paying handsomely for the privilege, i'm sure).
> 5) Joe Jordan, whose 1917 "That Teasin' Rag"
> "was taken note for note
> by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band as part of
> their big hit, 'The
> Original Dixieland One-Step,' without credit or
> compensation to the
> author." One of his rags ("Half and Half",
> written in 1915) was
> written in 5/4 meter.
> 6) Zez Confrey, who composed "Kitten on the
> Keys" among others, and
> Waldo says that "Poor Butterfly" "should
> properly be played slowly
> and sweetly by a choir of drunken soprano
> saxophonists." (Did Kenny G
> read this book?)
> 7) Arlo Guthrie wrote "an excellent rag called
> 'Week on the Rag'"; i
> seem to recall that he also wrote another rag
> called "Ring around the
> Rosy Rag".
> 8) Maria Muldaur "explored the roots of ragtime
> with some of her
> recordings, such as 'Work Song.'"
>      As i have long been a fan of Muldaur's, but
> didn't have any of
> her recordings, i bought the one called "Maria
> Muldaur" (Reprise CD
> 2148-2), which has on it not only "Work Song"
> (by Kate McGarrigle)
> but "Any Old Time" (by Jimmie Rodgers), both of
> which would make fine
> tunes for dixieland. Since i am nothing if not
> compulsive, i also
> branched out and bought Jim Kweskin's Jug Band's
> Greatest Hits CD, a
> CD by the Even Dozen Jug Band (with Maria
> D'Amato later Muldaur, John
> Sebastian, Steve Katz, and Joshua Rifkin), and a
> double-CD by The
> Memphis Jug Band.
>      The study of ragtime is full of surprises. 
> I'm sure that reading
> any good book on jazz history would also lead
> one out on multiple
> side-journeys, but that's my point.  My interest
> in "tickling the
> ivories" led me to discover an elephant-full of
> associated musical
> pathways.
>
>      Dan
> --
> **
> ---------------------------------------------------------------**
>
> **  Dan Augustine    Austin, Texas  
> ds.augustine@mail.utexas.edu **
> **    "If you can't say anything good about
> someone, sit right    **
> **     here by me."    -- Alice Roosevelt
> Longworth               **
> **------------------------
> ---------------------------------------**
>
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