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| 25 new of 256 responses total. |
remmers
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response 100 of 256:
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Mar 20 11:27 UTC 1998 |
I phrased that ambiguously. There's no "Japanese style" of ragtime
that I know of. "Seashore Rag" employs parallel fourths in the
first and final strains, giving an oriental flavor to the harmony.
This in addition to the middle strain based on the Japanese folk
song.
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remmers
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response 101 of 256:
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Mar 25 02:01 UTC 1998 |
At the Tom Turpin conference in Savannah last October, I met
someone who is quite a collector of old ragtime sheet music.
She had a ton of Xeroxes of the stuff that she let me look
through and take whatever I wanted, so I grabbed a bunch of
things that looked interesting. Except for one piece -- Joe
Jordan's "That Teasin' Rag" -- it's all been sitting in my
piano bench for the last few months, unused. A few days ago
I started looking through it again and came up with a couple
of George Botsford gems: "Rag, Baby Mine" and "Boomerang Rag",
from 1913 and 1916 respectively. They're happy, bouncy little
numbers with the infectiousness that characterizes Botsford's
compositions (e.g. the above-mentioned "Hyacinth Rag"). They're
really quite similar in feel, although the 3rd strain of
"Boomerang" has a Missouri "folk" feel that is unusual for
Botsford and reminds me a good bit of Arthur Marshall.
I plan to make both of these pieces part of my "from memory"
repertoire.
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remmers
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response 102 of 256:
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Apr 21 16:39 UTC 1998 |
This weekend there's a ragtime event close to home: the annual
Zehnder's Ragtime Festival in Frankenmuth, Michigan. Dates are
Thursday, April 23 through Sunday, April 26.
The featured entertainers are Bob Milne, Sue Keller, Kerry Price,
and Bo Grumpus.
Milne, Keller, and Bo Grumpus appeared at last year's festival
and are all splendid. Bo Grumpus is actually a three-person
ensemble of guitar, washboard, and string bass. The guitarist
also does vocals. Marty Eggers, their bassist, is also a pretty
fair ragtime piano player.
I've not encountered Kerry Price before. Her bio is interesting.
She has a masters in music from the University of Michigan and
teaches choral music and jazz history. In the past she's been an
accompanist, singer, and cellist. Currently she writes and performs
one-woman programs in the Detroit area and has recorded several
albums with area jazz bands. I look forward to hearing her.
Events:
o Vaudeville Night - Thursday, 7pm. $15/person
o Seminar: Ragtime and the Working Musician - Friday, 11-12 (free)
o Seminar: Ragtime and the Blues - Friday, 1:30-2:30 (free)
o Friday Dinner Concert - Friday, 6pm (cash bar), 7pm (buffet
dinner), 8pm (concert). $35/person.
o Silent Movies w/live accompaniment - Saturday, 11, 12, 1 ($3 each)
o Meet the Artists - Saturday 3-5pm
o Saturday Dinner Concert - same schedule & pricing as Friday
o Brunch and Concert - Sunday, 10am. $20/person
Plus there will likely be afterhours sessions and other impromptu
"open mike" sessions where non-scheduled performers can play. I did a
bit of that last year, and imagine that I (and others) will do it again.
I'll be attending the whole festival, unfortunately with the exception
of the seminars due to a commitment back home on Friday morning. When
it's over, I'll file a report here.
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remmers
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response 103 of 256:
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May 3 23:56 UTC 1998 |
...and here's my report. [WARNING: 120 lines long]
This year's Zehnder's Ragtime Festival in Frankenmuth Michigan
was great fun with some fine musical highlights. The performers
were Bob Milne, Sue Keller, Kerry Price, and Bo Grumpus. Most of
the events took place in Zehnder's Restaurant, fabled for its
chicken dinners.
I'd not encountered Kerry Price before. She turned out to be a
blues, ragtime, and jazz singer/pianist from Detroit who was
active in the southeast Michigan musical scene in the 1960's and
1970's but who pretty much dropped out to become a full-time
music teacher at Detroit Country Day School. Her appearance in
Frankenmuth was something of a comeback, I gather. She's a fine
blues singer with a strong voice that carries a lot of emotion,
and I was happy to have the opportunity to hear her. She is also
something of a scholar on the musical history of the period --
this was evident from her comments at one of the seminars held
as part of the festival. I figure that those 8th graders at
Country Day must be getting a wonderful musical education. The
music scene's loss is education's gain, or something like that.
Bo Grumpus is actually a three-person band: guitarist (and
occasional vocalist) Craig Ventresco, string bass player Marty
Eggers, and washboardist Pete Devine (in addition to washboard,
he also plays cymbals and gourds for the group -- no drums
though). They're based in San Francisco and travel around the
country with their act. They're excellent musicians who
specialize in old-time ragtime tunes that you probably never
heard of, and they do them in an entertaining style that seems
just right.
Milne and Keller I've commented on earlier in this item. Milne
is a splendid ragtime/boogie-woogie/stride/whatever player with
a unique style and prodigious technique. He lives in Lapeer,
Michigan and used to play restaurants, saloons, etc. all over
the Southeast Michigan area in the 1960's, 1970's, and
1980's.(and has written an amusing book on his experiences as a
"journyeman piano player"). He's established enough of a
reputation that he can restrict his appearance mostly to concert
halls and festivals these days. Keller is an accomplished
pianist/singer from New York City (recently moved to Chicago)
who specializes in ragtime and other vintage popular styles.
(Keller was also scheduled to get married the week following the
festival. I assume that this event took place.)
I attended the entire 4-day festival this year, from Thursday's
"Vaudeville Night" through the Sunday morning brunch and
concert. At Thursday's performance I met up with Audrey Van
Dyke, a ragtime enthusiast and BIG TIME sheet music collector
who lives in the Washington DC area and whom I'd met at last
October's Savannah festival. Her parents live in Michigan and
she'd brought them along. For about ten years she's been going
to antique stores, estate sales, and the like, seeking out piano
sheet music from the early ragtime era through the popular
styles of the 1920's and 1930's. She's amassed quite a
collection and likes to give out xerox copies to people whom she
figures can make good use of it. Luckily I am on Audrey's list
of such people. She handed me a package of music about an inch
and a half thick and said there would be more coming on
subsequent days. Since an inch and a half was more than I
expected to get in toto, I found myself wondering just how much
music she was going to bestow on me but didn't press the
subject.
In addition to being a collector, Audrey plays piano and is a
decent interpreter of Scott Joplin's music. After the scheduled
performers were done and most of the audience had cleared out
(except for Audrey's parents and a few stragglers) Audrey and I
decided to commandeer the piano and try out various pieces we'd
been working on. Among other things, I played some George
Botsford pieces I'd acquired from Audrey in Savannah, Joe Lamb's
"Old Folks Rag" (which brings in the theme from Stephen Foster's
"Old Folks at Home" at the end), and Lamb's unpublished "Ragged
Rapids Rag". After I'd done "Old Folks", Bob Milne walked into
the room (he'd been listening out in the lobby, unbeknownst to
me), said he liked my playing, and encouraged me to play some
more in the Tap Room, which was going to be set up on subsequent
days for "after hours" activities. I thanked him for the kind
words. After I was done, Audrey played a couple of Joplin pieces
-- "Searchlight Rag" (one of my favorites) and "The Nonpareil",
both of which she did in fine style, with some creative and
highly appropriate embellishments on the repeats.
On Friday, my stack of photocopied sheet music from Audrey had
grown to about 9 inches in thickness, and on Saturday -- to my
utter astonishment -- she handed me another 9 inch stack. I
haven't counted but figure there must be hundreds of individual
pieces in the lot. My plan is to work through them gradually,
separating the wheat from the chaff and adding the ones I like
to my playing repertoire. The process is going to take a while.
Friday and Saturday nights were devoted to dinner concerts in
Zehnder's main dining room. If you're not familiar with
Zehnder's, they are into quantity as well as quality, and the
buffet dinners featured a huge array of wonderfully prepared
dishes to choose from. After stuffing themselves to the gills,
the audience is treated to an evening of music from the
headliners. On Saturday, Mary came up from Ann Arbor to join me,
and we attended the Saturday evening and Sunday brunch concerts
together. On Saturday we found ourselves seated across from Bob
Milne's in-laws from Olivet, and I learned that Bob's wife Linda
-- who accompanies him to all the festivals and helps sell his
sheet music, CD's, and tapes -- is herself a ragtime player.
All the concerts were good, but Saturday night's was especially
so -- the performers were in top form and their energy level was
high.
I took advantage of the "open piano" opportunities in Zehnders'
lounge to play some more pieces, include Sue Keller's "Cranberry
Stomp" with Keller in the room. I've always been prone to
nervousness performing in public and find that informal
opportunities like after-hours sessions at ragtime festivals are
a good opportunity for more experience, which seems to help get
the anxiety level under control. "It gets easier", as they say.
Audrey Van Dyke has also filed a report on the Frankenmuth
festival, in the newsgroup news:rec.music.ragtime. It doesn't
seem to have been indexed by Altavista yet, but when it does
I'll post the URL here.
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lumen
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response 104 of 256:
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May 12 23:51 UTC 1998 |
John, I'm working on composing a ragtime piece. It's simple and somewhat
cliche, but let me know if you'd like to take a look at it.
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orinoco
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response 105 of 256:
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May 13 02:15 UTC 1998 |
A conspiracy of the Johns, eh? :)
I'd be interested in seeing that piece when it's finished, lumen...
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remmers
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response 106 of 256:
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May 13 10:12 UTC 1998 |
Sure, I'd like to take a look at it.
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lumen
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response 107 of 256:
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May 16 00:41 UTC 1998 |
I have the first couple of phrases done. Not sure what I should do next--
I'll need an address.
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remmers
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response 108 of 256:
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May 22 12:49 UTC 1998 |
"Ragtimist" Bob Milne was in good form before an appreciative
audience last night at Kerrytown Concert House in Ann Arbor.
The first half of the program focused on Missouri ragtime of
the "ragtime era" (roughly 1890's through 1910's). The
selections after intermission were more wide-ranging and
featured a couple of Milne's own compositions: "Ragged Music
Box" (a rag in the manner of Mozart) and "Mimi". As usual,
the music was interspersed with Milne's entertaining and
insightful historical and biographical observations. One
always comes away from a Milne concert with a better
understanding of where this remarkable music came from --
the people who created it, the culture of the times.
Most of what he did I'd heard him do before, but it's always
a pleasure to hear such show-stoppers as his dazzling version
of the "Missouri Waltz", "Ida, Sweet as Apple Cider" (played
in imitation player-piano style), Euday Bowman's "Twelfth
Street Rag", and Meade Lux Lewis' "Honky Tonk Train Blues".
Milne is not a play-by-the-notes kind of musician. He always
adds a generous helping of his own embellishments to such
familiar pieces as Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" or James
Scott's "Frog Legs Rag". Nothing wrong with that; piano
performers of the ragtime era tended to have their own
signature styles and perform popular pieces in their own
unique way.
So when he played a piece I hadn't heard him do before --
Harry Kelly's "Peaceful Henry" (1901) -- and I heard hints in
one of the strains of the "Old Man River" tune from the much
later musical "Show Boat" -- I thought that might have been
something he added to the piece. So after the concert I asked
him about it, and he said that it was part of the score, not
something he'd added. I believe I have "Peaceful Henry" some-
where in my sheet music collection -- I'll check this out when
I get a chance.
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remmers
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response 109 of 256:
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Jun 1 12:03 UTC 1998 |
In two days, I'll be leaving to attend a five-day immersion in
ragtime music known as the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival. Held
in Sedalia, Missouri -- home of the Maple Leaf Club, the 1890's
saloon where Scott Joplin played piano and composed "The Maple
Leaf Rag" -- it's one of the largest and reputedly one of the
best of the annual ragtime events. Not having attended before,
I'm really looking forward to it.
Scheduled performers and lecturers are a mixture of folks I've
seen before and folks I haven't. Familiar faces: John Arpin,
Jeff Barnhart, Mimi Blais, Scott Kirby, Terry Waldo, Bob Darch,
Trebor Tichenor, Dave Jasen, Nan Bostick, and the Bo Grumpus
group. New faces (to me): Morten Gunnar Larsen, Jack Rummel,
Max Schiltz, Tony Caramia, Neville Dickey, Jan Hamilton Douglas,
Brian Holland, Marit Johnson, Molly Kaufmann, Ian Whitcomb, and
Ed Berlin (among others).
In addition to concerts and lectures, there are tents set up
around town, equipped with pianos, where unscheduled folks like
me can have at it. And there are after-hours sessions that go on
far into the night.
I'll file a full report here after I get home. Maybe even live
reports if internet access is available from Sedalia.
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remmers
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response 110 of 256:
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Jun 10 16:23 UTC 1998 |
There wasn't any internet access from Sedalia that I could find,
not that I'd have had much time for it anyway. But I'm home now
and will file a detailed report on the happenings when I have
time. Suffice it to say for now that it was a great festival and
I was in pig heaven.
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remmers
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response 111 of 256:
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Jul 19 14:01 UTC 1998 |
I'm obviously way behind on writing up reports of my festival
experiences. I've been to one festival since Sedalia -- the
first annual Egbert Van Alstyne Ragtime Festival, in Woodstock,
Illinois.
Who was Egbert Van Alstyne, you ask? He was a very successful
ragtime and popular song composer of the early 1900's through
1920's. His "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree" is a standard,
but other than that, his music is largely forgotten. His
ragtime compositions are almost *entirely* forgotten. But he
was an important and influential composer of the ragtime era,
whose work influenced other composers, including such big
names as Joseph Lamb and James Scott. We know this now thanks
to the diligent research done by Tracy Doyle, producer of the
festival. She's planning on bringing out a folio of Van Alstyne's
ragtime compositions, all but one of which have been out of
print for decades.
Why was the festival held in Woodstock Illinois? Well, Van
Alstyne grew up near there, as did Tracy. Plus, Woodstock -- a
far northwest suburb of Chicago, not far from Rockford -- has
excellent facilities for something like this: a beautiful
restored opera house, built in 1890, and a nearby pub with
a piano for the "after hours" sessions that characterize
ragtime festivals. Both are situated on a picturesque town
square that you may have seen without realizing it --
Woodstock was the site of location work for the movie
"Groundhog Day", and the town square was prominently
featured. Another factoid about Woodstock is that Chester
Gould, creator of the "Dick Tracy" comic strip, lived there
for much of his life. There's actually a Dick Tracy Museum
on the town square, and the Van Alstyne festival coincided
with a local "Dick Tracy Days" celebration.
More detail on the festival itself later. (Hopefully not too
much later.)
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happyboy
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response 112 of 256:
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Jul 19 18:12 UTC 1998 |
Does anybody here know where I might find some recordings
of Fred Van Eps?
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remmers
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response 113 of 256:
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Sep 28 11:44 UTC 1998 |
A sad note -- University of Michigan music professor William Albright
died several days ago at age 53. He was chair of the Composition
Department at the music school and a highly respected composer, pianist,
and organist.
I knew Albright mainly for his connections with ragtime music, of which
he has been a performer and promoter since the 1960's. He has released
numerous recordings in the genre, including an edition of the complete
piano rags of Scott Joplin a few years ago. He was a primary organizer
and perpetual emcee of the annual Christmas Ragtime Bash at the Ann
Arbor Unitarian Church, which has brought in top Michigan ragtime
performers for well over 20 years.
Although I knew Albright personally only slightly, he was kind enough to
listen to and critique my playing back in the 1970's when I was first
getting into ragtime music. His observations and suggestions were most
helpful to me.
He'll be missed.
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lumen
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response 114 of 256:
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Sep 29 02:02 UTC 1998 |
Not to interrupt, John, but you never sent a critique of that composition I
wrote and sent to you. I know it needs work and I need help.
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remmers
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response 115 of 256:
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Sep 30 12:44 UTC 1998 |
(I'll do it, lumen. Sorry for the delay.)
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remmers
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response 116 of 256:
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Oct 21 21:06 UTC 1998 |
Next week I'm off to another festival - the Tom Turpin Ragtime
Festival in Savannah, Georgia. Four days of ragtime immersion.
Featured artists are Jeff Barnhart, "Ragtime Bob" Darch, Sue
Keller, Terry Waldo, Terry Parrish, Richard Zimmerman, John
Arpin, David Jasen, and Max Morath. A truly stellar lineup,
plus the delightful Savannah ambiance. I'm disappointed, though,
that Bob Milne and Glenn Jenks won't be there this time.
This will be my third visit to the Turpin festival. Hopefully
I'll get around to posting a report on this one. I've neglected
to do that for the last few festivals. The problem is not that
nothing worth reporting on occurred, but the opposite: There's
been so much interesting stuff that I find the idea of writing
reports on it a bit daunting.
Speaking of John Arpin, it seems I have a physical resemblance to
him. I was mistaken for the distinguished ragtimer from Toronto on
several occasions at last year's Turpin festival, the Scott Joplin
Festival in Sedalia, Missouri, and the Van Alstyne festival --
and Arpin wasn't even *at* the Van Alstyne festival. I find this
puzzling, since although we have a similar build and arrangement
of facial hair, I don't think we look all that much alike. In any
case, I'll know I've arrived as a ragtime performer when *he*
starts getting mistaken for *me*. :)
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remmers
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response 117 of 256:
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Nov 2 04:59 UTC 1998 |
I'm back from the Savannah festival, and t'was enormously enjoyable.
More detail later, including how I got to be John Arpin's warmup
act.
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remmers
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response 118 of 256:
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Nov 11 14:50 UTC 1998 |
REPORT: Tom Turpin Ragtime Festival, Savannah GA, Oct 28-Nov 1, 1998
This was my third Turpin festival. Both the festival and Savannah
are starting to feel like old friends. Besides the historic southern
charm, one thing I like about Savannah is its compactness: If you
stay in the historic district, everything - festival events, good
restaurants, interesting shops, historic buildings and monuments,
the riverfront - is walking distance. No need for a car. And for a
northerner, Savannah in late October supplies a welcome last taste
of summer. The weather this year was picture-perfect: Sunny every
day, highs in the upper 70's to low 80's.
These ragtime festivals tend to be small affairs as compared to,
say, rock festivals. The ragtime circuit feels like a community. The
performers are mostly a friendly, outgoing bunch, quite willing to
talk to folks one-on-one. After attending a few festivals, besides
having new friends among the other attendees, I'm comfortable
calling some performers by their first names who formerly were just
highly-admired icons on CD's and sheet music.
The format of this year's Turpin festival was like the others -
evening concerts at the Savannah Theater, followed by after-hours
sessions at a nearby pub. During the day, "Pianos in the Parlors"
(intimate concerts at various homes in the historic district),
a riverboat concert, other miscellaneous events.
I arrived late Wednesday afternoon (by myself; Mary followed two
days later), checked into my B&B, then headed over to the Welcome
Reception at the Six Pence Pub. I was a bit early and didn't
see any ragtimers I recognized, so I got a table and ordered some
dinner. Then Jeanie Wright, music director of the Sedalia festival,
showed up. We'd become acquainted at last year's Turpin festival. She
joined me and, after describing her bus trip from Sedalia through
the beautiful Ozark Mountains, filled me in on plans for next June's
Scott Joplin Festival in Sedalia. It's going to be a biggy. Since
1999 is the 100th anniversary of the publication of Joplin's
"Maple Leaf Rag", the festival will be a full week long, bringing
in soloists from all over the U.S., Europe as well, plus three
ragtime orchestras. I, of course, wouldn't miss it for the world.
Various performers straggled in. I spotted Sue Keller, Jeff Barnhart,
Mike Schwimmer, Terry Parrish. Jeff is one of the best of the younger
players, with a highly extroverted style, prodigious technique,
enthusiasm bordering on the obsessive, and a range to his repertoire
that impresses me more each time I hear him. After setting up the
piano to his liking, he sat down and played a couple of numbers,
including an energetic rendition of James Scott's "Great Scott
Rag". Alas, because of a scheduling snafu he was bumped from the
stage by a blues singer who had no connection with the festival.
So after some grumbling, we all headed over to McDonough's, a pub
with Irish pretensions that was this year's official after-hours
site. McDonough's turned out to be a great choice - big room, lots
of table space, a stage set up with two upright pianos back-to-back
(can't have a proper ragtime after-hours without two pianos),
and a manager willing to accomodate ragtime players at any hour of
the day or night. Jeff played a few more tunes until it was time
for him to leave to get ready for the evening concert. In the lull
that followed, I decided to try out the piano myself, so I got up
and did Brun Campbell's folk-style "Barrel House Rag". The piano
proved to be quite playable.
[To be continued. In the meantime, any questions?]
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remmers
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response 119 of 256:
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Jan 6 02:49 UTC 1999 |
Hm, I never seem to get around to finishing my festival reports.
Oh well, maybe someday. In the meantime, if you have a MIDI plugin
set up for your web browser and you're in the mood for some diversion,
you might want to check out "Stormi's Touch Web Creations" at
http://www.stormi.com/
an eclectic personal site put together by a professional web
designer who also happens to be a ragtime fan. Open any page and
you're treated to a ragtime midi. Most of them are pretty good.
The main page is accompanied by a terrific arrangement of Ed
Claypoole's 1915 tune "Ragging the Scale", sequenced by George
Bogatko.
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lumen
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response 120 of 256:
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Jan 15 19:08 UTC 1999 |
Thanks, John! I checked out the website and it's just lovely.
I'm still waiting for some critique..haven't had time to compose a second part
in B flat..
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lumen
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response 121 of 256:
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Jan 15 19:09 UTC 1999 |
the composition I sent you, that is. I think my original and some of the
copies are buried in storage. Had to happen when I got married :/
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remmers
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response 122 of 256:
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Jan 26 21:52 UTC 1999 |
Last weekend (January 22-24) I was in Muscatine, Iowa for the
"Muscatine Ragtime Weekend," aka "Eagles and Ivories". Going was a
spur-of-the-moment decision. I'd just learned about it a few days
beforehand. It's been a few months since my last ragtime festival
and a few more months until my next one, so I've was feeling kind of
strung out with a real need for a Festival Fix. An additional
inducement was that one of the performers was to be Virginia
Tichenor, whose first and only CD (so far) is one of my current
favorites. She's the daughter of Trebor Tichenor, a ragtime scholar,
composer, and performer whose sheet music anthologies for Dover
Publications ("Ragtime Rarities", "Ragtime Rediscoveries", etc.)
are invaluable treasure troves of vintage music. So off I went into
the middle of nowhere (it seemed) in the dead of winter.
Featured performers were Bob Milne (from Lapeer, Michigan),
The Etcetera String Band (from Missouri), Virginia Tichenor
(from San Francisco), and Tichenor's husband Marty Eggers. The
"Eagles" part of "Eagles and Ivories" refers to the birds who
hang out by the Mississippi River near Muscatine at that time
of year. The weekend also featured birdwatching expeditions,
which I skipped due to the cold, and the intermittent snow. But
I heard that the weather was a picnic compared to most of the
previous four Muscatine festivals.
Bad weather and cancelled flights delayed me a few hours; I finally
made it to Muscatine too late for Friday night's concert but in time
for after hours in the ballroom of the Hotel Muscatine, a venerable
establishment on the riverfront. Arriving at the ballroom before
much of anyone else was there, I decided to warm up the piano, an
upright that had clearly been around for a while. But the touch was
okay and I played a few tunes: Brun Campbell's "Barrel House Rag",
May Auferheide's "Richmond Rag,", and James Scott's "Princess Rag".
By that time Marty Eggers and some more audience members had arrived.
I yielded the piano to Marty.
The rest of the featured musicians showed up shortly after, and the
evening consisted of pleasant music-listening and socializing.
Virginia Tichenor and husband Eggers did some nice duo-piano stuff,
including a rousing version of Brun Campbell's "Chestnut Street in
the 90's". I chatted with Tichenor for a bit and learned about the
trials and tribulations of being a musician with a full-time day job
in accountancy.
The piano was not the most stable of instruments -- by the time I
took a second turn at it, the B above middle C had bit the dust,
though I'm not sure any of the listeners noticed. Being an
early-to-bed (more or less) type, I left around midnight while the
Etcetera String Band -- whom I like more every time I hear them --
was holding forth with Eggers sitting in on piano.
Made it to Saturday's concert, at the local Methodist church. Pretty
good turnout. The sanctuary was nearly full; I'd guess about 300
people. Most of them were probably local, although there were a few
folks like me who'd traveled some distance. Tichenor's sets included a
couple of her father Trebor's compositions, Tom Shea's "Brun
Campbell Express", and some more duo-piano with Eggers, including
Jelly Roll Morton's "Naked Dance." Etcetera's segments included
some lovely Caribbean music in addition to folk ragtime. Milne was
in good form with several of his showpieces, including James P
Johnson's "Charleston" and Meade Lux Lewis's "Honky Tonk Train
Blues". A novel highlight was a piano-organ duet of George
Botsford's "Black and White Rag" with Milne on piano and Bob Ault
(of Etcetera) playing the church organ. Very enjoyable evening.
After hours at the hotel followed. By this time the piano had lost
more notes, and it proceded to lose a few more as the evening went
on. As a result, the piano-playing headliners didn't play much. Bob
Ault diagnosed it as a glue problem, which he couldn't fix due to
lack of glue. Some folks played anyway, including myself and a
couple of other audience members.
Return trip to Ann Arbor was uneventful. A very nice two days. I'm
glad I went and would like to go again, schedule and weather
permitting.
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remmers
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response 123 of 256:
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Mar 16 13:03 UTC 1999 |
Karen Milligan teaches ballet in Dearborn. She heard me playing the
piano (ragtime of course) at a party and asked if I'd like to come and
do piano accompaniment for one of her classes sometime. She thought
Scott Joplin & such would work well. I'd had no experience accompanying
dancers but, feeling adventurous, said yes anyway.
A few weeks ago we managed to synchronize on a date and I made the trek
to Dearborn one evening. Was impressed to discover that she has her own
building with "Milligan School of Ballet" in big letters over the door.
The piano turned out to be an upright in decent shape, painted bright
red.
Following Karen's instructions, I played a succession of pieces -- all
ragtime -- while half a dozen young ladies (mid-teens) went through
various ballet exercises. Started out with Joplin's "Bethena - a Concert
Waltz" played at a slow tempo for a warmup. Moved on to Brun Campbell's
"Barrel House Rag", then more up-tempo stuff such as Charlie Johnson's
"Crazy Bone Rag", James Scott's "Ragtime Oriole", Joplin's "Maple Leaf
Rag".
Great fun, the kids seemed to enjoy it, and Karen said it was really
good for them to work with live piano instead of the CD's that she
usually plays. And I learned a little about how ballet classes work. I
may do further guest appearances for Karen's classes in the future.
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tpryan
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response 124 of 256:
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Mar 21 14:48 UTC 1999 |
And the mid teen ladies might discover there is more than one
or two ragtime tunes.
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