response 106 of 256:

May 13 10:12 UTC 1998

Sure, I'd like to take a look at it.

response 108 of 256:

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.

response 110 of 256:

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.

response 112 of 256:

Jul 19 18:12 UTC 1998

Does anybody here know where I might find some recordings 
of Fred Van Eps?

response 114 of 256:

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.

response 116 of 256:

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*.  :)

response 118 of 256:

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?]

response 120 of 256:

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..

response 122 of 256:

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.

response 124 of 256:

Mar 21 14:48 UTC 1999

        And the mid teen ladies might discover there is more than one
or two ragtime tunes.

response 126 of 256:

Apr 11 18:07 UTC 1999

I attended my first ragtime festival two and a half years ago.
In that short space of time I've become addicted to them. Why
else would I have dragged myself to Muscatine, Iowa in the dead
of January (see an earlier response)? This spring and summer, I
have four festivals on my plate:

(1) Zehnder's Ragtime Festival, Frankenmuth, Michigan. April
22-25. This will be my third time at this annual event. Lineup:
Bob Milne, Jeff Barnhart, Molly Kaufmann, Tony Caramia, Kerry
Price. I expect I'll be whipping off a couple of tunes myself
at the after-hours in Zehnder's Tap Room. Got email from my
friend Audrey the music collector, who's also attending and
says she'll be bringing me another "big stack of sheet music,
as usual."  Eek! Where will I put it all? I still haven't sorted
through the ton of stuff she gave me last year.

(2) Scott Joplin Festival, Sedalia, Missouri.  First week of
June. This is the biggest and best of all the festivals.
This year it's even bigger and longer in celebration of the
hundredth anniversary of the publication of Scott Joplin's 
"Maple Leaf Rag" -- a full week of concerts, afterglows,
and other events. International in scope, this festival
attracts performers and attendees from all over the world.

(3) The 2nd Egbert Van Alstyne Festival, Woodstock, Illinois.
Second week of June. Last year's festival was a pleasant little
event, with concerts held in Woodstock's historic 1890's opera
house. I expect this year's will be the same. Performers include
Richard Zimmerman, Sue Keller, "Ragtime Bob" Darch.

(4) Rocky Mountain Ragtime Festival, Boulder, Colorado. Mid-July.
This will be my first visit to this annual festival. Like the
Joplin festival, it's one of the "big" ragtime events. Featured
performers include Scott Kirby, Frank French, Glenn Jenks, David
Thomas Roberts, Virginia Tichenor, and a rare festival appearance
by Joshua Rifkin, who started the ragtime revival in the early
1970's with his recordings of Scott Joplin's piano rags. I'm
especially looking forward to the Ragtime Institute, three days
of master classes, seminars, and private lessons, held on the
University of Colorado campus just prior to the festival.
Figuring that the opportunity to be coached and critiqued by
the likes of Scott Kirby and Glenn Jenks was just too good to
pass up, I've enrolled in the Institute as a performer. Wish me
luck.

I'll let you know how all of the above went, after they've
happened.

response 130 of 256:

Apr 15 04:31 UTC 1999

Curiously enough, ragtime was influenced quite heavily by military march 
music, i.e. Joplin was very influenced by Sousa.