A Ragtime Primer

(Pianomania Music Publishing, Roseville, CA, 1995)

Status: Out of Print

Track listing & Liner Notes (for DTR-played pieces)

    Folk Ragtime

  1. Harlem Rag (By Tom Turpin, Pianist Trebor Tichenor)
  2. Tickled To Death (By Charles Hunter, Pianist David Thomas Roberts). While Turpin was playing his urban style of ragtime in St. Louis, Charles Hunter was developing a rural counterpart in Nashville, Tennessee. In contrast to the fast, showy Turpin style (in tune with the hectic atmosphere of his St. Louis ragtime mecca, The Rosebud Bar), Hunter's "original" Nashville sound was more bucolic, with a more lyrical emphasis and a syncopated country march flavor, a truly "southern fried" ragtime concoction. Tickled To Death became a most popular early rag along with Maple Leaf and Bowery Buck, and the composer's greatest success. It was originally published in 1899 by Frank G. Fite in Nashville and later sold to the Charles K. Harris catalog in New York. Hunter worked for the Jesse French Piano Company in Nashville as a tuner, was transferred to St. Louis, fell into the thoughtless sporting life and was dead by January, 1906. This trip down the primrose path was chosen by many of the itinerant pioneers, including the most legendary of all St. Louis pianists, Louis Chauvin, "The Black Paderewski" and "King of Ragtime Players." The tune achieves a country hoe-down flavor.
  3. Dixie Queen (By Robert Hoffman, Pianist Trebor Tichenor)
  4. Texas Rag (By Callis W. Jackson, Pianist David Thomas Roberts). If the term masterpiece can be applied to folk ragtime, Texas Rag would be a prime candidate. It was composed by one Callis Welborn Jackson and published in Dallas, Texas in 1905. The original score picturing a large dark blue Texas lone star is a rarity, but the tune was apparently an early piano roll favorite. Never have the blues and folk rag elements been more movingly combined than in the D strain here. Though conceived in traditional 16 bar ragtime strains, the tune has a strong blues feeling.

    Classic Ragtime

  1. Sunflower Slow Drag (By Scott Joplin/Hayden, Pianist Scott Kirby)
  2. Hilarity Rag (By James Scott, Pianist Frank French)
  3. Cottontail Rag (By Joseph Lamb, Pianist Scott Kirby)

    Popular Ragtime

  1. At a Georgia Camp Meeting (By Kerry Mills, Pianist Richard Zimmerman)
  2. Black and White Rag (By George Botsford, Pianist John Gill)
  3. Waiting For The Robert E. Lee (By John Muir, Pianist Richard Zimmerman)
  4. The Georgia Grind (By Ford Dabney, Pianist Tex Wyndham)
  5. Sunshine Capers (By Roy Bargy, Pianist Elliot Adams)
  6. Kitten On The Keys (By Zez Confrey, Pianist Max Morath)
  7. Memphis Blues (By W. C. Handy, Pianist Richard Zimmerman)
  8. Rooster Rag (By Muriel Pollock, Pianist Max Morath)

    Eastern Ragtime

  1. Charleston Rag (By Eubie Blake, Pianist Morten Gunnar Larsen)
  2. Steeplechase Rag (By James P. Johnson, Pianist Max Morath)

    Jelly Roll Morton

  1. Perfect Rag (By Jelly Roll Morton, Pianist Morten Gunnar Larsen)
  2. King Porter Stomp (By Jelly Roll Morton, Pianist Morten Gunnar Larsen)

    New Ragtime

  1. Through The Bottomlands (By David Thomas Roberts (1980), Pianist David Thomas Roberts). Bottomlands are defined as low-lying areas near rivers containing rich alluvial soil. But for me the connotation is far richer than the definition. The word "bottomlands" evokes wetlands as well as farmland; it recalls rural isolation, tiny half-tilled farmlands bordering swamps, the poverty of families reliant upon meager vegetable outputs, dreams of the land and its human tenants existing inseparably...
  2. Polyragmic (By Max Morath, Pianist Max Morath)
  3. Belle of Louisville (By Frank French, Pianist Frank French)

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