They All Played Ragtime - The True Story Of An American Music

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Rudi Blesh Harriet Janis THEY ALL PLATED RAGTIME The True Story of an American Music Alfred A. Knopf New Tork 1950 To the memory of SCOTT JOPLIN Here is the genius whose spirit., though diluted, was filtered through thousands of cheap songs and vain imitations. JOHN STARK S LIBRARY D ODDI Difisai ny MO.

PUBLIC LIBRARY mh go way man, I can hypnotize dis nation, I can shake de earth s foundation wid de Maple Leaf Rag Oh go way man, just holdyo breath a minit, For theres not a stunt thafs in it, wid de Maple Leaf Rag MAPLE LEAP RAG SONG Music by Scott Joplin Words by Sydney Brown ACKNOWLEDGMENTS IRITING the first book on ragtime presented special problems.

In the virtual absence of written source material, it was necessary, and in any event would have been desirable, to rely almost exclusively on personal interviews or correspond ence with the actual personalities who made ragtime one of the greatest musical crazes in history. The majority of these personalities were not easy to find.

Many, of course, were dead. Most of those who had survived, thirty years since the ragtime craze ended and over half a century since it began, had lapsed into obscurity. We were fortunate, however, in lo cating all the important surviving key figures and the relatives and friends of those who are dead.

Too profuse thanks cannot be given to the scores of people who talked with and played for us, for without the help they gave so enthusiastically this book would have been impossible to write. The story of Sedalia, the cradle of ragtime, and much of that of St. Louis, its quondam capital, are from the words of Arthur Marshall, G.

Tom Ireland, the Reverend Alonzo Hayden, C. W. Gravitt, and William G. Flynn. TheSedalia picture was filled out by correspondence with Charles R. IX THEY ALL PLAYED BAG-TIME Hanna, music critic of the Sedalia Democrat, and Mrs. Julia Cross, sister of Scott Hayden. S. Branson Campbell The Rag time Kid, an early friend of Scott Joplin, generously furnished us with a part of the early stories of Joplin and Sedalia and permitted us to quote from his short history.

When Ragtime Was Young which appeared in installments in the Jazz Journal, London, St. Louis history was unfolded by Sam Patterson, Artie Matthews, Charley Thompson, George Reynolds, Webb Owsley, Lester A. Walton, Mrs. Edward Mellinger, Charles Warfield who also contributed to the Chicago picture, Sylvestre Chauvin, nephew of Louis Chauvin, and the St.

Louis ragtime enthusiast Dr. Hubert S. Pruett. The New Orleans chapter was filled out by George Pops Foster, Miss Ida Jackson and Mrs. Mariah Sutton sisters of the late Tony Jackson, Sammy Davis, Tony Parenti, and Dr. Edmond Souchon, and by Jelly Roll Morton posthu mously through his interviews with Alan Lomax and the 1938 documentary records he made for the Library of Congress archives.

The rights to use this material were granted to Circle Records by the Morton Estate and its Executor, Hugh E. MacBeth, thus making it available to the authors. Invaluable, too, in the New Orleans connection were the reminiscences of the perennial prophet of ragtime, Roy J. Carew. To him also go our thanks for permission to quote from one of his published articles, for access to his sheet-music collection, and for his patient hours of playing the old rag time masterpieces for us.

The life story of the late James Scott of Neosho and Kansas City was reconstructed from interviewsand correspondence with his sister, Mrs. Lena King, with his brothers, Howard and Oliver, and with his cousins, Mrs. Patsy L. Thomas, Mrs. Ruth Callahan, and the late Ada Brown, and with a fellow musician of Scotts, Lawrence Denton.

Chicagos large part in ragtime was related by Nettie Compton, Glover Compton who also contributed much about Louisville, Charlie Elgar, Hugh Swift, Hurley and Horace Diemer, and George Filhe. The story of the first and most successful of the chains of ragtime schools was told by X ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Carle Christensen for his father...