RAGFEST 2007: A HARMONIOUS AFFAIR

By Fred Hoeptner

The eighth annual RagFest transformed downtown Fullerton into syncopation central for the weekend of October 20 and 21 as a sizeable crowd of enthusiasts gathered to delight in a variety of popular music styles characteristic of vaudeville from the early part of the twentieth century including jazz and ragtime. Sponsored by the Friends of Jazz and organized by host Eric Marchese, RagFest is a fund-raiser for the nonprofit, whose goals with this event include preserving and generating local support for ragtime music and fostering an interest in it among music students and young musicians.

Continuing venues for listening were the convivial Steamers Jazz Club (headquarters), the sedate Fullerton Library, and the cavernous Mo’s Music Center. Additions included the intimate Rutabegorz Restaurant and the austere Fullerton Museum auditorium on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Both dancers and listeners enjoyed the festive ambiance at the Imperial Ballroom. While all sites are in the downtown area, they are sufficiently spaced that an automobile is convenient if one wishes to relocate while missing a minimum of the action.

Although most of the performers hailed from Southern California, the festival imported headliners Tex Wyndham, jazz and ragtime authority, pianist, and cornetist from Mendenhall, Pennsylvania, and “Perfessor” Bill Edwards from northern Virginia. Sharing the feature spotlight were local favorite blues and boogie specialist Carl Sonny Leyland, singers and entertainers Ian and Regina Whitcomb, and pianist Brad Kay with his mini vaudeville show “Those Syncopating Songbirds.” The eleven-piece Heliotrope Ragtime Orchestra from San Diego, co-led by Bruce Vermazen and Bob Pinsker, sparkled with authentic period arrangements of tunes from the ragtime era. Bill Mitchell’s more improvisatory Albany Nightboat Ragtimers (piano, banjo, tuba, and percussion) completed the roll of performing groups. For the second year, the festival presented educational seminars, one each day, and a “Youth Forum” was featured. Open piano for anyone who plays ragtime and wishes to do so for an audience was available for the first time, as were a pre-festival reception, a Saturday night after-hours session and a Sunday wind-down dinner at the Wyndham Hotel a few blocks from downtown.

Saturday

Tex Wyndham opened festivities at Steamers with an hour-long continuation of his popular retrospective on Tin Pan Alley’s golden age begun some years ago. Opening with a song espousing his philosophy, “There’ll Be No New Tunes on This Old Piano,” his monologue, suffused with musical examples, took the audience down a path starting in the pre-ragtime 1890s and continuing through ragtime and vaudeville to prohibition and beyond.

Pianist Richard Abraham began the next set with a beautiful rendition of the Chauvin-Joplin classic “Heliotrope Bouquet.” Enter then his wife, Debbi, possessor of a powerful and compelling voice in the black gospel tradition, who explained that she would take the audience on a voyage from stride to rag. She showed her stuff with “Bill Bailey,” a group of songs from Fats Waller, and Eubie Blake and Andy Razaf’s comedic “My Handy Man Ain’t Handy No More.” She topped the set with the vocal version of “Maple Leaf Rag,” the lyrics coming thick and fast.

“Perfessor” Bill Edwards began fast and furiously with the difficult “Calico Rag” and continued with offerings ranging from Joplin (“Gladiolus Rag,” his favorite) to Handy’s “Memphis Blues” played Paul Lingle style to a “My Merry Oldsmobile” sing-a-long. He capped his set with Marzian’s flag waver “Lion Tamer Rag.” The mood shifted as vivacious Erika C. Miller, in elegant period attire and accompanied by Eric on piano, displayed her entrancing operatically trained voice in a set of vintage hits, among them “Everything Is Ragtime Now” and “If That’s Your Idea of a Wonderful Time (Take Me Home),” enhanced with appropriate gestures, as well as the less frequently heard “Babe, It’s Too Long Off” (Chauvin-Bowman), “Oklahoma Oil Field Blues” and Joplin’s “Treemonisha” finale, “A Real Slow Drag.”

Seeking a quieter, more intimate ambiance, I wandered two blocks to Mo’s Music Center, where classically trained Randy Woltz, erstwhile Disneyland pianist, was entertaining. He explained, “[At Disneyland] they don’t want ragtime, just recognizable songs.” He demonstrated with a Gershwin medley (“Swanee,” “Lady Be Good,” and “I’ve Got Rhythm”) and his arrangement of “It Had to Be You.” Next up was Galen Wilkes, whose presence I have missed at recent ragtime events. Galen performed several of my favorites, including his compositions “Wisteria Rag” and the charming “Niantic-by-The-Sea.” I enjoyed his arrangement of the eccentric folk “Felix Rag,” which brought a sense of cohesiveness to the five seemingly unrelated strains. I then sauntered another block east to check out the Rutabegorz Restaurant venue where I found teenage piano prodigy Vincent Johnson performing to an appreciative audience. His “Kitten on the Keys” (Confrey) and “French Pastry” (Les Copeland) were pleasers.

The first of the seminars was about to begin, so I hurried to the library for Galen Wilkes’ fascinating illustrated lecture “The World of Phonograph Cylinders.” Unfortunately only seven attendees were present to view his display of $4,000 worth of cylinder phonographs and associated equipment and to listen to some rare cylinders as he explained the technical details of the recording process. A few rags were recorded on cylinder but as performed by banjos, xylophones, and orchestras rather than pianos. According to Galen, pianos did not record very well on acoustical equipment, but more pertinently they were ubiquitous in homes so that there was little demand for piano recordings.

Meanwhile, I was wishing that I could be in two places at once. Failing that, I was told that back at Steamers, Brad Kay and his eleven Syncopating Songbirds were revisiting vaudeville. The team of Evans and Rogers opened with “Turn off Your Light, Mr. Moon Man,” followed by James Parten singing the “Red Rose Rag.” The car—or rather flivver—culture then took center stage with kittenish Janet Klein singing “My Gasoline Automobile” and Suzy Williams with “Take Me for a Buggy Ride” originally popularized by Bessie Smith, horn effects courtesy of Charles “Chuckles” Gardner. Other performers included David Barlia and his ukulele (“Pack up Your Sins and Go to the Devil”), Indira (“Whoa, Tillie, Take Your Time”), Mikal Sandoval (“Jazz Baby”), Claudia Rose with David Barlia (“My Castle in Spain is a Shack in the Lane”), a Parten and Gardner duet (“International Rag”), and Marea Boylan (“I Want a Mechanical Man”). Evans and Rogers, “the hottest new act in vaudeville,” closed the program with a Norworth and Bayes number, “Come Along My Mandy.”

The Evening Show

Although the Saturday night extravaganza “Ragtime Revue,” hosted by Eric Marchese, had to be moved unexpectedly at the eleventh hour from the high school auditorium to the more informal library venue this year, the performances suffered not at all. Tex Wyndham led off the fast-moving show with “Doc McCoy’s Ragtime Bagpipe Band” (1920) and one from George M. Cohan, “(All I Want Is 50 Million Dollars and) Then I’d Be Satisfied with Life.” Classic ragtime emerged with Bill Mitchell—Scott’s “Pegasus,” and Doug Haise—Marzian’s “Lion Tamer,” performed with the appropriate vim. The tempo slowed a bit as Ian and Regina Whitcomb duetted vocally with ukulele accompaniment on Kortlander’s “Tell Me,” wisely choosing to eschew the microphone. Sonny Leyland then wowed the crowd with a boogie version of “Hindustan” to enthusiastic applause. Shirley Case offered “Eubie’s Classical Rag” (Blake) and Vincent Johnson “Daintiness Rag” (James P. Johnson). Again the mood shifted as Erika Miller beautifully warbled Scott Joplin’s first published composition, “Please Say You Will.” Calling Zez Confrey the greatest innovator after Scott Joplin, Brad Kay demonstrated with “Coaxing the Piano.” Pat Aranda sped through “Fingerbuster” (Willie Smith) and Sonny Leyland followed with “Cow-Cow Blues” (Davenport), eliciting screams of acclaim. Introduced as capable of playing all genres of music, Bill Edwards began classically but soon broke into ragtime with “Hungarian Rag” (Lenzberg) followed by “Blacksmith Rag” (Pinder). Announcing that after that “lurid display of pianism” they were going to sing, Brad Kay with David Barlia and his ukulele performed a pastiche entitled “Operatic Syncopation,” originally popularized by Jones and Hare, leading into the intermission.

Tex Wyndham opened the second half with the naughty “I Love to Go Swimmin’ with Women” (Romberg). Andrew Barrett followed with the bluesy “Rocky Mountain Fox” (Copeland), Eric Marchese essayed Joplin’s ambitious “Euphonic Sounds,” Ian and Regina Whitcomb sang the dulcet “Sweet Cider Time” with ukulele accompaniment, and Galen Wilkes offered a medley of strains from his rags. Bob Pinsker with violin joined Andrew Barrett, piano, on Joplin’s waltz “Bethena,” thrush Erika Miller returned with Berlin’s “International Rag” (slipping in new chorus lyrics by Eric), Bill Edwards essayed “Tiger Rag” with appropriate roar and vigor, Pat Aranda commandeered his trombone to play Turk Murphy’s “Trombone Rag” accompanied by Brad on piano, Ian and Regina returned to harmonize “Do I Love You” (an Ian original) and “Honeybunch” (Cliff Friend), and Sonny Leyland stomped through “Yearning,” which he dedicated to the late clarinetist Ron Going. The climax finale featured Tex Wyndham, cornet in hand, leading the entire cast through “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.”

Sunday

I began Sunday morning with a visit to Mo’s Music Center for Bob Pinsker’s set. As usual, he preceded each piece with an explanation of its historical source or context. For example, he had learned “Lock and Key” from a transcription by the late John Farrell from the composer’s (James P. Johnson) accompaniment to Bessie Smith’s vocal on a recording. Then I sauntered two blocks to the Fullerton Museum auditorium for Andrew Barrett’s set. Disappointingly, the instrument was a keyboard, but even so, Andrew was not disappointing, performing Lodge’s “Tokio Rag,” Pratt’s “Springtime Rag,” Jordan’s “Pekin Rag,” his own “Cantering Along,” and several others under somewhat difficult conditions, including an inadequate music rack.

I wandered three blocks to the Imperial Ballroom to find a festive crowd of eleven couples dancing and a sizeable crowd listening to the Heliotrope Ragtime Orchestra. Although it wasn’t required, elegant period attire prevailed.

As I arrived at the library, the second seminar was underway as “Perfessor” Bill Edwards presented “Ragtime Performance: The Beginning of Entertainment as an Industry.” Bill’s explanation of how the popularity of ragtime together with developing recording and sound technology helped to catapult music into an industry fascinated the sizeable audience. Starting with the 1893 depression and panic, and the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago with few musical celebrities and no syncopation, Bill demonstrated that by the time of the 1904 St. Louis Fair, the popularity of ragtime was playing a major role in bolstering the economy by motivating the purchase of pianos and phonographs and the patronizing of sites of public entertainment such as theaters, taverns, and amusement parks. Celebrities suddenly became key in sheet music and record sales, and by the late 1910s entertainment had become a full-fledged industry.

Immediately following the seminar, at the same venue, was the Youth Forum. A showcase for young, promising ragtime performers, the Youth Forum embodies the festival’s major philanthropy. This year it attracted six entrants: Andrew Barrett, 19; Vincent Johnson, 14; Alex Lee, 14; Carl Finkel, 13; Drew Hinckley, 12; and Will Hinckley, 10. Although their skill levels varied widely, most performed very competently. Andrew, who plays at a professional level, offered Cobb’s “Chromatic Capers” and his own “Cantering Along.” Later he added his latest composition, “Flying Rhino,” very modernistic in concept with fascinating harmonies, and my composition “Audacious Harmonies.” Vincent offered a pair of novelties — “Kitten on the Keys” (Confrey) and “Cat’s Pajamas” (Jentes) — and later added “Grace and Beauty” (Scott), “French Pastry” (Copeland) and his own composition “Painted Lady.” Carl offered “Sunflower Slow Drag,” “Weeping Willow” and Tex Wyndham’s “Dream of Sedalia,” Alex “Search Light Rag” and “The Cascades,” Drew “That Fussy Rag” (a 1940s rag by Victor Smalley) and his brother Will “The Entertainer.” All six performers received cash awards from Friends of Jazz and certificates of thank-you from the Fullerton Theatre League.

Meanwhile, back at Steamers, festival musicians were gathering onstage for the climax. Thanking Eric for his role in organizing the festival and promoting ragtime, Tex Wyndham, with cornet and trademark red glove, led the aggregation in “Waiting for the Robert E. Lee,” “Dill Pickles,” and the capper, “Maple Leaf Rag.” See you all next year when vaudeville and ragtime again revive in Fullerton!