Before There Was Jazz There Was Ragtime
Scott Joplin
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Before There Was Jazz There Was Ragtime
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It began as dance music in the red-light districts of New Orleans and St. Louis. It evolved from African American folk melodies, John Philip Sousa marches and a popular dance called the Cakewalk. Its main characteristic was its syncopated rhythm. All it needed was someone to publish it and to give it a name and in 1895, Ernest Hogan, a minstrel show entertainer did just that.
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Then in 1896, the first complete player piano was introduced in America and the following year, the Pianola was released and aggressively marketed. The time was ripe and when Scott Joplin published the "Maple Leaf Rag" in 1899, it was an instant success, which was followed by a string of his ragtime hits. Unfortunately, Jazz had to wait until the first recordings were made by "The Original Dixieland Jazz Band", in 1917, before it obtained similar popularity.
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Before There Was Jazz There Was Ragtime
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As Jazz gradually replaced ragtime as the music of the 1920s, it didn’t prevent it from influencing the popular dances of the day such as the Fox trot and the One-step and it also served as the roots for stride piano and novelty ragtime.
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Player Piano and Pedal Harpsicord
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In the 1950s, ragtime experienced a significant revival with recordings made in a light-hearted novelty style. Then in the 1970s, a compilation of Scott Joplin’s piano rags was nominated for a Grammy in the "Best Classical Performance by an Instrumentalist" category.
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The New York Public Library also released a two-volume set of "The Collected Works of Scott Joplin". Although ragtime is really written to be played on a piano, my absolute favorite ragtime recordings were made by E. Power Biggs using a pedal harpsichord.
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What is a Player Piano?
Scott Joplin's "Peacherine Rag"
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Finally, in 1973, the motion picture, "The Sting" was released with Marvin Hamlisch’s soundtrack of Scott Joplin songs. The movie won an Academy Award for his rendering of the 1902 rag "The Entertainer". I still prefer the E. Power Biggs version.
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Marvin Hamlisch
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Scott Joplin's The Entertainer
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