[Dixielandjazz] Re: The Entertainer (was Maria Elena)

[Bill Haesler]

> However, the main object of this post is another track on the LP, viz. "The
Entertainer". The composer is given as J. Rosamund Johnson (brother of the
poet James Weldon Johnson). All other references that I have seen attribute
this tune to Scott Joplin.
Does anybody know if a final decision has been reached on who really is the
composer?<

Dear Robert,
Scott Joplin and J Rosamond were contemporaries and both contributed much to
the popular music scene in the US.
In 1902, when John Stark published Joplin's "The Entertainer", J R Johnson
wrote "Under The Bamboo Tree", "Didn't He Ramble" (as Will Handy) and
"Nobody's Looking But The Owl And The Moon".
If you do a Google search on both composers together the 1902 connection can
be read in the summaries. But these (as you know) are just that. Extracts
from articles where both composers are mentioned. When read in their
entirety the distinction is obvious.
What record do you have which credits 'The Entertainer" to J Rosamond
Johnson?
I suggest that it may be a record producer's error.
Unfortunately the Delmark Bunk Johnson CD omits composer credits and when I
obtained it I gave away my copy of the original Columbia Bunk Johnson LP.
Like a fool as, I found out later, it has several alternate takes not on the
Delmark CD. 
So I can't check the LP for composer credits.
I kept a photocopy of the original George Avakian notes, but the tunes on
the LP get scant mention.
Kind regards,
Bill.