Adam Swanson, left, and Frederick Hodges, at right, played "Swipesy
Cakewalk" by Scott Joplin and Arthur Marshall on the decorated stage
under the Stark Pavilion Tent in the Sedalia square for the Scott Joplin
Ragtime Festival. Murray Bishoff/times-news@monett-times.com
Saturday, June 17, 2017
By Murray Bishoff times-news@monett-times.com
36th annual Scott Joplin Festival brings magic to Missouri
Editor's note: More photos from the festival may be found in a gallery at: http://www.monett-times.com/gallery/30423
Fans of ragtime music experienced one of the most satisfying incarnations of the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival during the first week in June in Sedalia, seeing new features contributing to understanding the music, embracing a revival of past favorite features, and hearing an unprecedented amount of Joplin's music over the course of the four-day event. Even the weather cooperated.
The Scott Joplin Festival is the biggest ragtime
performance event anywhere, held in Sedalia, where Joplin in 1899 signed
the first contract with a music publisher giving musical rights to an
African American composer. That piece, "Maple Leaf Rag," ushered in the
first truly original American musical form. Ragtime marked the dawn of
American popular music that evolved into jazz and other forms of popular
syncopated music, including rock n' roll. The Missouri musical showcase
brought performers from as far away as France, in pianist Sebastien
Troendle, and Montreal pianist Mimi Blais. Pianist Jeff Barnhart and his
wife, flutist Ann Barnhart, who live in Connecticut, flew in directly
from England. Others of the 34 paid performers gathered from both coasts
and many states in between for the festival.
This year marked the 100th anniversary of Joplin's death. The festival brought out many surprises. One, repeated with every indoor concert, was a first: two Steinway pianos on stage. Richard Dowling, an official Steinway artist, had access to the pianos from Schmitt Music in Overland Park, Kan. The festival only had to cover the $1,500 shipping charge. Pianists used to playing on instruments of quite varied quality raved about the sound and ease of playing the Steinways provided.
Performer Bill Edwards, who goes by the nickname of "perfessor" and hosts the research website RagPiano.com, undertook making high resolution copies of the covers of Joplin's published music. Large reproductions were made of 28 of those covers. Musicians carried the reproductions from the site of the Maple Leaf Club, at one end of downtown Sedalia, to the square, next to where publisher John Stark had his office in 1899, in a parade to start the festival.
At the suggestion of board member John Simmons, the cover reproductions were spread across the stage of the Stark Pavilion tent in the square, the largest outdoor venue for free concerts. They made a striking backdrop for all the performances.
Edwards subsequently found cover photos from most of the music played at the Friday and Saturday concerts, which were projected over the pianos, providing dates and composers' names, details that have been hard to catch in the past. The effort made it much easier to see where ragtime music fit into the continuum of American musical life. There were funny moments, too, like Dalton Ridenour playing the 1919 hit "Satanic Blues." Recorded by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, the piece was reissued on an off-label with the record number 66606, cannily noted by the master of ceremonies, Jeff Barnhart.
The occasion offered another centennial celebration: the recording of the first jazz records by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. The Friday night concert offered a platform for performers to play music recorded by the ODJB. Played in the context of ragtime, performers showed the early jazz recordings were "really only ragtime played by a band," as host Barnhart characterized it, not a radical departure as historians might suggest.
Another special feature gave pianist Scott Kirby an opportunity to present a project that has preoccupied him for several years. Kirby has developed into a stunning painter, focusing on small town rural life and scenes of the High Plains, reminiscent of Van Gogh, Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton. He played original piano music written to accompany a presentation of his vivid water colors and video shot over several years of grain fields blowing in the wind and deteriorating rural townscapes. His music ranges in style from French cafe music to Philip Glass-like intense minimalist passages for storms.
Over a period of chapters, Kirby showed "aspects of my love for America." From small town baseball games, churches and one-room schoolhouses, Sousa's band, the dawn of ragtime and landscape vistas, Kirby's presentation left his audience amazed and in search of words as he concluded. Copies of the DVD of the presentation sold out.
As the 100th anniversary of Joplin's death, the festival offered an exceptional opportunity to play much of Joplin's work. Richard Dowling alone played all 53 published piano pieces plus an excerpt from his opera "Treemonisha." The early Saturday night concert gave 10 pianists and the duo of David Reffkin on violin and David Majchrzak on piano the chance to play 19 Joplin pieces in one concert. Pianist Mimi Blais even offered a rap version of the "Maple Leaf Rag" song, an act that bewildered the audience as much as anything.
Editor's note: More photos from the festival may be found in a gallery at: http://www.monett-times.com/gallery/30423
Fans of ragtime music experienced one of the most satisfying incarnations of the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival during the first week in June in Sedalia, seeing new features contributing to understanding the music, embracing a revival of past favorite features, and hearing an unprecedented amount of Joplin's music over the course of the four-day event. Even the weather cooperated.
This year marked the 100th anniversary of Joplin's death. The festival brought out many surprises. One, repeated with every indoor concert, was a first: two Steinway pianos on stage. Richard Dowling, an official Steinway artist, had access to the pianos from Schmitt Music in Overland Park, Kan. The festival only had to cover the $1,500 shipping charge. Pianists used to playing on instruments of quite varied quality raved about the sound and ease of playing the Steinways provided.
Performer Bill Edwards, who goes by the nickname of "perfessor" and hosts the research website RagPiano.com, undertook making high resolution copies of the covers of Joplin's published music. Large reproductions were made of 28 of those covers. Musicians carried the reproductions from the site of the Maple Leaf Club, at one end of downtown Sedalia, to the square, next to where publisher John Stark had his office in 1899, in a parade to start the festival.
At the suggestion of board member John Simmons, the cover reproductions were spread across the stage of the Stark Pavilion tent in the square, the largest outdoor venue for free concerts. They made a striking backdrop for all the performances.
Edwards subsequently found cover photos from most of the music played at the Friday and Saturday concerts, which were projected over the pianos, providing dates and composers' names, details that have been hard to catch in the past. The effort made it much easier to see where ragtime music fit into the continuum of American musical life. There were funny moments, too, like Dalton Ridenour playing the 1919 hit "Satanic Blues." Recorded by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, the piece was reissued on an off-label with the record number 66606, cannily noted by the master of ceremonies, Jeff Barnhart.
The occasion offered another centennial celebration: the recording of the first jazz records by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. The Friday night concert offered a platform for performers to play music recorded by the ODJB. Played in the context of ragtime, performers showed the early jazz recordings were "really only ragtime played by a band," as host Barnhart characterized it, not a radical departure as historians might suggest.
Another special feature gave pianist Scott Kirby an opportunity to present a project that has preoccupied him for several years. Kirby has developed into a stunning painter, focusing on small town rural life and scenes of the High Plains, reminiscent of Van Gogh, Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton. He played original piano music written to accompany a presentation of his vivid water colors and video shot over several years of grain fields blowing in the wind and deteriorating rural townscapes. His music ranges in style from French cafe music to Philip Glass-like intense minimalist passages for storms.
Over a period of chapters, Kirby showed "aspects of my love for America." From small town baseball games, churches and one-room schoolhouses, Sousa's band, the dawn of ragtime and landscape vistas, Kirby's presentation left his audience amazed and in search of words as he concluded. Copies of the DVD of the presentation sold out.
As the 100th anniversary of Joplin's death, the festival offered an exceptional opportunity to play much of Joplin's work. Richard Dowling alone played all 53 published piano pieces plus an excerpt from his opera "Treemonisha." The early Saturday night concert gave 10 pianists and the duo of David Reffkin on violin and David Majchrzak on piano the chance to play 19 Joplin pieces in one concert. Pianist Mimi Blais even offered a rap version of the "Maple Leaf Rag" song, an act that bewildered the audience as much as anything.
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