Who among the next generation will play the "Maple Leaf Rag?" Ragtime composer and aficionado Keeper mentions an upcoming documentary that poses a similar, if larger, question on the future of this most American music. It is beyond me to perpetuate ragtime. (I can't even remember to save the coupons from Dominos.) But I encourage others and hope they succeed. And while they're at it, bring back the straw boater.
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Friday, February 13, 2009
Keeper of the Ragtime
Who among the next generation will play the "Maple Leaf Rag?" Ragtime composer and aficionado Keeper mentions an upcoming documentary that poses a similar, if larger, question on the future of this most American music. It is beyond me to perpetuate ragtime. (I can't even remember to save the coupons from Dominos.) But I encourage others and hope they succeed. And while they're at it, bring back the straw boater.
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8 comments:
Those rag-time players are a bunch of characters! I can see how Keeper fits in with them now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h1Xz0iNsPs
Heh... They were a bit taken aback by that. I really murdered the tune, unfortunately. I have practiced it since and can do much better.
This is more like the sort of shenanigans we get up to:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZySwPx3t5M.
I can be heard playing stick-castanets with one hand and a kazoo clenched in my mouth while holding the camera with my other hand.
And wait'll you hear me sing the Red Rose Rag as Elmer Fudd... one day I shall record this. I keep threatening to. I need to practice it on the ukulele first or have a pianist work with me on the shtick I've choreographed into it.
Mike Stone, Rich's younger son, is an accomplished pianist who can play the living daylights out of the Maple Leaf Rag. It's alive and well, at least in his hands.
Keeper,
Nice multi-tasking.
Have you ever thought of crafting a Fudd Rag?
Bitterman,
Good to know the young Stone is carrying on.
Has the lad done any industry work?
Speaking of playing the living daylights out of Maple Leaf, check out what Adam Swanson and Frederick Hodges do to it:
First duet
Seven months later
And since I'm here, have a gander at Tom Brier playing one of his 200+ ragtime/novelty compositions, Razor Blades. Stunning.
That 15-year-old kid is scary good.
Would you believe he didn't touch a piano until he was almost 10?
There are a lot of video examples of his playing if you search "Adam Swanson" on YouTube. His own YT channel is "adamrag" but he posts old films of famous performers rather than anything of himself.
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