RAGFEST 2006: AN ENTERTAINING WEEKEND
By Fred Hoeptner
The seventh annual RagFest, sponsored by the Friends of Jazz and organized by the event’s founder, host and MC, Eric Marchese, attracted a sizable audience of enthusiasts to Fullerton in Orange County for two days of syncopated musical delights. The Friends of Jazz is a non-profit whose goal with this event is to preserve and to generate local support for ragtime music and to foster an interest in it among music students and young musicians. Revenue from the event funds endowments to promising young pianists, and according to Chief Financial Officer Nick Batinich, this year’s results represented an all-time high.
Spanning two days, October 20 and 21, with three venues for listening—Steamers Jazz Club (headquarters), the Fullerton Library, and Mo’s Music—and the Imperial Ballroom for dancing, the event featured a variety of popular music styles characteristic of vaudeville from the early part of the twentieth century, including jazz and ragtime. Comprising a sampler of the talents of the performers, the more formal Saturday night variety show was held at the Fullerton High School Little Theater.
While most of the musicians hailed from Southern California, the festival imported headliner Tex Wyndham, jazz and ragtime authority, pianist, and cornetist from Mendenhall, Pennsylvania. Sharing the feature spotlight with Wyndham was local favorite blues and boogie specialist Carl Sonny Leyland. Dancers (and listeners too) applauded the Albany Nightboat Ragtimers and the Heliotrope Ragtime Orchestra. Led by Bruce Vermazen and Bob Pinsker, the 11-piece Heliotrope group was celebrating the issuance of its first CD “It’s a Bear” on the Stomp Off label but was, unfortunately, missing four of its members. Another disappointment was the absence of Ian and Regina Whitcomb, whose appearance was prevented by family illness. Pianist Brad Kay presented his popular show “Those Syncopating Songbirds” (four women and three men) in a program of vocal impressions of vaudevillians from the 1920s, capped by “Oh, By Jingo” with the entire ensemble participating.
Tex Wyndham opened the weekend’s festivities at Steamers with “Tin Pan Alley – The Sequel,” a continuation of his popular retrospective on Tin Pan Alley which he began at RagFest 2005. His monologue, accompanied by musical examples, covered numerous subjects, including animal dances (the grizzly bear, the turkey trot), the numerous songs generated by prohibition (“’Way Down on Bimini Bay”), boogie-woogie (“Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar”), and a wide variety of composers (Abe Olman, Gus Kahn, Richard Whiting, Hoagy Carmichael). Following Wyndham, vivacious Erika C. Miller, in elegant period attire, displayed her entrancing operatically trained voice in a set of vintage hits, among them “Everything is Ragtime Now,” “Cubanola Glide,” “Everybody’s Doing It,” and “The Grizzly Bear,” accompanied by Eric Marchese on piano.
Seeking a quiet, more intimate ambiance, I wandered two blocks to the Fullerton Library. The Bradshaws, a husband-and-wife team who attain a brilliant sound with four hands on one piano, were starting their first set with a series of great rags including “Kangaroo Hop” (Melville Morris), “Binks’ Waltz” (Joplin), “Music Box Rag” (Roberts), and “Sedalia Stomp” (Wilkes). Nan Bostick followed with the festival’s only formal seminar presentation, an illustrated lecture on publisher Jerome Remick, “the colossus of Detroit,” who converted a nearly bankrupt music firm into one of the world’s largest and who published many rags. Nan’s photos of Detroit at the turn of the century, of sheet music sales areas within the department stores, of the elaborate sheet music covers, and of Remick and his associates enlivened her presentation, as did her musical examples. Young Andrew Barrett offered a set of folk and classic rags including Joplin’s “Nonpareil,” played slowly and languidly, and Cobb’s catchy “Cracked Ice Rag.” When the scheduled performer failed to appear for the next set, audience member Danny Macleith, announcing that he was a fan of Robin Frost, contemporary composer of novelty piano pieces, offered to fill in. This he did admirably, performing flawless versions of two difficult Frost compositions – “Space Shuffle” and “Three Sheets in the Ocean, a Foot in the Sunset, and You” – as well as Confrey’s “Kitten on the Keys” and Joplin’s “Pine Apple Rag.”
Also held at the library venue was the festival’s first-ever Youth Forum. A showcase for young, promising ragtime performers age 18 or under, the 90-minute concert attracted seven pianist entrants: Andrew Barrett, 18; Brett Torres, 18; Joel Hill, 15; Vincent Johnson, 13; Carl Finkel, 12; Drew Hinckley, 11; and Anthony Savitt, 9. Although their skill levels varied widely, most performed very competently. Johnson, a frequent performer at the Rose Leaf Ragtime Club for the past several years, rendered Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” and Scott’s difficult “Grace and Beauty” with aplomb. Following the concert, the Friends of Jazz awarded Andrew, also a frequent performer at the Rose Leaf Club who plays at a professional level, a $500 endowment, Brett Torres $200, $100 apiece to Hill and Finkel and $50 to Savitt.
The fast-paced Saturday night variety show played to a nearly full house at the Fullerton High Little Theater. A theatrical set with five doors added a bit of merriment as performers entered and exited from all portals. Tex Wyndham led the parade of entertainment with “Sailing Away on the Henry Clay” (Van Alstyne, 1917). He followed with “Huggin’ and Chalkin’” in tribute to its composer Clancy Hayes, vocalist and banjoist with the Lu Watters Yerba Buena Jazz Band, who had played a major role in a ragtime revival in the 1940s. Classically trained Brett Torres, promising young ragtime pianist who seems to favor bombastic arrangements and chords, contributed Hoagy Carmichael’s “Georgia on My Mind,” which he erroneously attributed to Ray Charles. Bob Pinsker returned to ragtime singing Gene Greene's 1912 tune “Stop that Bearcat, Sadie!” Nan Bostick, adorned in elegant vintage red finery, performed her impassioned elegy to recently deceased ragtimers, “That Missing You Rag.” Bill Mitchell competently essayed Artie Matthews’ “Pastime Rag No. 5,” followed by Jack and Chris Bradshaw with Galen Wilkes’ “Cakewalking Through Kansas,” a 1992 composition emulating an earlier era. Andrew Barrett sensitively accompanied Bob Pinsker on violin in Bob's arrangement of Lamb’s beautiful “Alaskan Rag” for violin and piano. Accompanied by Eric Marchese, Erika Miller warbled Irving Berlin’s humorous “If that’s Your Idea of a Wonderful Time (Take Me Home),” enhanced with appropriate gestures. Appearing with a tuba, Pat Aranda began concertizing “Three Blind Mice,” but soon put down the tuba and went to the piano, where he launched James P. Johnson’s “Jingles” at a torrid tempo but with amazing accuracy. The xylophone, popular during the ragtime era largely because it recorded well on acoustic equipment, was moved to center stage where Morris Palter, music professor and renowned authority on the instrument, performed George Hamilton Green’s “Jovial Jasper” accompanied by Bob Pinsker on piano. Brad Kay returned to classic ragtime with Joplin and Hayden’s “Sunflower Slow Drag.” Carl Sonny Leyland roused the audience with “a little boogie” to lead into the intermission.
Tex Wyndham led off the second half with a tune acknowledging the military actions of black American soldiers in World War I originally introduced by vaudevillian Bert Williams, “You’ll Find Old Dixieland in France.” Andrew Barrett offered Charles L. Johnson’s “Crazy Bone Rag,” to which he added some chordal enhancements in extra repeats of the final strain. Xylophonist Morris Palter, accompanied by Bob Pinsker on piano, returned with “Log Cabin Blues” by George Hamilton Green. Eric Marchese rendered “The Saratoga Glide,” a rare piece of Chicago ragtime dedicated to that city’s Saratoga Hotel circa 1910. Doug Haise offered Joe Lamb’s novelty rag, “Hot Cinders,” remarking on the piece’s “jarring” G minor chord. Pat Aranda took over the synthesizer and duetted with Carl Leyland on James P. Johnson’s “Old Fashioned Love,” with vocal, and the pop tune “Three Little Words.” Eric Marchese had revised the lyrics for “The Fullerton Glide,” his composition from several years ago, to acknowledge the role of the railroad in Fullerton’s past, and Erika Miller vocalized it, with Eric on piano. Leyland and Aranda returned with “China Boy” from 1922. Brad Kay, piano, and David Barlia, playing his own creation, a cigar box ukulele, played and sang a pair from 1928, “Chinese Firecracker” and “Digga Digga Doo,” the latter including the seldom-heard verse. Brad then invited out Marea Boylan, in her manly vaudeville attire, to sing about dividing up World War I reparations, “Give Me the Sultan’s Harem,” replete with dance routine and monologue about his thousand wives. Tex Wyndham then entered, cornet in hand, and invited all performers onstage. Praising Eric Marchese for his role in preserving ragtime in Southern California, he led all 15 performers in a rousing “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” Erika’s vocal chorus sparked the performance and capped an exciting evening.
A black room, seemingly haphazardly decorated with random artifacts, “The Cave” at Mo’s Music is an eccentric venue new to the festival this year. I began my Sunday attendance there with Bob Pinsker, who began by posting photos of Eubie Blake and James Blythe, and then by featuring their compositions, including Eubie’s original waltz version of “I’m Just Wild about Harry.” After a spirited set by the duo of Bill Mitchell and Carl Leyland, I returned to Steamers to hear Brad Kay, in orange fedora, entertain with a set of jazz and pop favorites from the 1920s including Ellington’s spectacular “Jubilee Stomp.” Tex Wyndham followed with a set from the late teens and twenties, including Walter Donaldson’s paean to the giddy frivolity that followed World War I, “How Ya Gonna Keep ’Em Down on the Farm?”
I wandered about a block east to the Imperial Ballroom to find a festive crowd of about 10 couples dancing to the Heliotrope Ragtime Orchestra. Although vintage attire prevailed (though not required), when I asked one elegantly attired couple if they preferred it to today’s dress, they remarked on its inconvenience—“buttons, buttons, and more buttons.” The Heliotrope group sparkled with its authentic arrangements of “Walking the Dog,” “Alabama Jubilee,” and other period favorites. Then I toured the other venues and caught two great sets at the library, Doug Haise’s featuring Joplin and Kerry Mills, and Andrew Barrett’s, including performances of “Hot House Rag” by Pratt and “Top Liner” by Lamb. At Mo’s, Marc Sachnoff contributed a fine “Little Rock Getaway” per Bob Zurke and Pat Aranda a flashy “Fingerbreaker” (Morton) and “Troublesome Ivories” (Blake).
I returned to Steamers for the festival climax, where Carl Sonny Leyland was wowing the audience with a set of vintage pops and blues including “Cow-Cow Blues,” “One Sweet Letter from You,” and his own “Rat Catcher’s Blues.” Tex Wyndham appeared and invited all festival performers onstage. Tex, on cornet, led the group through “Waiting for the Robert E. Lee” and “Back Home Again in Indiana.” Again praising Eric Marchese’s role in organizing the festival and promoting ragtime, Wyndham invited him up for a few words. Noting the festival’s success at furthering ragtime among young performers, Eric reported his goal to see it all still vibrant in 10 or 15 years.
I greatly enjoyed the festival, which surely served its stated purpose and attracted an enthusiastic crowd, seemingly larger than previously. However, I have one cavil: Even using a very liberal definition of “ragtime,” by my count at the performances that I attended, omitting the youth forum, I counted 56 selections out of 120 performed that could legitimately be categorized as “ragtime.” Thus, it wasn’t really a ragtime festival; rather, it might more accurately be termed a festival of vaudeville. Perhaps this should be explained for the benefit of novices unfamiliar with vintage popular music genres.