Features and Reviews
Rocked in the Cradle of Ragtime
By Fred Hoeptner
PART II
The Blind Boone Ragtime and Early Jazz Festival, held this year June 5-7, is the brainchild of Dr. Lucille Salerno, social psychologist, instructor at the University of Missouri Columbia, expert grant writer, and lifelong promoter of ragtime and early jazz, which she features on a weekly Sunday morning program on KOPN. Sponsors included the Columbia Convention and Visitors' Bureau, KOPN, several local businesses, and individuals.
The legendary John William "Blind" Boone was a black Missourian who had such great technical facility on the piano that he could replicate any piece played for him upon a single hearing. Although his concerts were mostly devoted to classical music, Boone would encore with syncopated pieces such as his "Southern Rag Medley No. 1: Strains from the Alleys" and "Southern Rag Medley #2: Strains from Flat Branch." Salerno has led a successful campaign for the city to purchase Boone's former residence and restoration is currently underway.
All festival events except the afterglow gatherings are held at the historic Missouri Theater, once a monument to the opulence of the 1920s but now showing its age and in serious need of renovation. This year's main attraction for me was the Ophelia Ragtime Orchestra from Oslo, Norway, led by Morten Gunnar Larsen; undoubtedly the premier ragtime orchestra in the world today. The Ophelians' repertoire, however, is somewhat more diverse, including also show tunes of the 1920s and early 30's. Other headliners were Reginald Robinson, pianist raised in the Chicago ghettos and recent recipient of a prestigious $500,000 "genius" grant from the MacArthur Foundation; Terry Waldo, Eubie Blake biographer, author of This Is Ragtime, and Broadway musical composer; and ragtime regulars Scott Kirby, Mimi Blais, and John Petley. A Dixieland band, Cornet Chop Suey, was scheduled for the Tuesday evening concert. The late evening after-hours events were held in a large meeting room at the headquarters hotel, the Ramada Inn and Conference Center.
Upon arrival in Columbia, I headed for the theater where the Sunday Music Fair had just started. The daily free "fairs" are very informal—a series of performers, some new to me, playing several pieces each while emcee Steve Standiford keeps things moving along. Some of the performers were pianists Jim Andris, Bob Ault, Rich Egan, Dave Tucker, Dave Majchrzak, John Remmers, Dalton Ridenour, Ragtime Sue Schmidt, and Adam Swanson; vocalist Helen Burns, regular with the Pacific Coast Ragtime Orchestra; and The Toms, a well-rehearsed fiddle and guitar/mandolin duet.
Just as was Blind Boone's wont, the evening concert, attended by a sizeable audience, opened with a spiritual—pianist Larsen, cellist Mikko Lampila, and vocalist Staale Ytterli performing the beautiful "Going Home." Then Larsen soloed on "Waterloo Girls" and Scott Kirby joined him for some duets including a beautiful arrangement of Roberts' impassioned "Roberto Clemente." Kirby continued with a solo set, with violinist Sophie Rivard occasionally joining him. Larsen on a second piano and the Ophelia orchestra's drummer on tambourine and woodblock joined Kirby for several pieces by Lionel Velasco leading into the intermission. The Ophelia Ragtime Orchestra took the stage for the second half, starting with a medley of "What You Gonna Do When the Rent Comes 'Round (Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown)" and "Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" to clamorous audience approval. Next was the ragtime waltz "Echoes from the Snowball Club" followed by Cole Porter's "It's Delovely," vocal by the agile and imposing Ytterli, who dances as he sings. Following two Gottschalk selections, the orchestra launched into a group of pieces from the European cabaret composed by Kurt Weill and others concluding with "Auf Weidersehen" from 1932. Reverting to 1920, the orchestra played a stirring rendition of "Hindustan" including the seldom heard verse as a clarinet solo. A standing ovation elicited an encore, "How About Me," an Irving Berlin 1928 opus with lyrics beginning "It's over, it's over..." Following the concert, Lucille Salerno received well-deserved accolades.
Word had been passed about an unexpected bonus for the Monday afternoon music fair—an extra, informal, appearance by the Ophelia Orchestra. The scheduled performers begot an enjoyable first half, including Rich Egan's performance of "Blind Boone's Camp Meeting Medley" and The Toms' "Beaumont Rag." The Ophelia Orchestra then assumed the stage, eschewing their usual formal garb for more practical traveling clothes, as they were about to leave for the airport. Their opener, "I Found a New Baby," elicited shouts of joy from the audience. The spirited "Chevy Chase" included some high-jinks among the musicians. Blake's "Love Will Find a Way" featured a lush cello solo. Gershwin's 1924 "Somebody Loves Me" was a real showpiece including a vocal by drummer Birger Mistereggen and a double-time out chorus.
The first of two seminar events was a memorial to the late Ralph Allen, humorist, playwright, theater historian, burlesque expert, Broadway producer, Tony award nominee, patron of the Boone festival, and inveterate ragtime fan, given by Terry Waldo and Reginald Robinson. Allen had initiated a fund to purchase a piano for Robinson, who in gratitude composed the piece "Tears of Joy" for him. Afterward I made a hurried trip to a local restaurant and returned to the theater for the Monday evening concert featuring Mimi Blais, John Petley, Reginald Robinson, Terry Waldo, and Two Pianos Alive. When I questioned Robinson at after hours about his musical activities since winning the MacArthur fellowship, he responded that he was having a creative mental block. I can certainly sympathize.
Tuesday morning dawned warm and humid. On the agenda was a guided tour of local sites around Columbia related to Boone including an archive at the University, the local museum where his piano is housed, his home, and his grave. Those who tried playing the piano, which had survived many tribulations following his death, remarked on the extreme stiffness of the action. Back at the theater, after the music fair, the second seminar, "Birth of the Blues" was given by Mike Montgomery. Illustrated with sheet music covers, his presentation demonstrated the evolution of the term "blues" over a 20-year period emphasizing the development of the standard "blues" chord progression and the 12-bar format (as compared to the standard 16-bar format of most pop tunes of the day). Early pieces with "blues" in the title were, often as not, merely songs or rags. The 1903 "One O' Them Things," by Chapman and Smith, labeled a two-step, contains the earliest scored 12-bar blues found to date. Later, pieces such as "Dallas Blues" by violinist Hart Wand from 1912, and W.C. Handy's "Memphis Blues" from the same year, tended to standardize the blues format.
After a dinner break at a local eatery with other ragtimers, and dodging a few large raindrops, I returned to the theater for the evening concert by Cornet Chop Suey, a seven-piece Dixieland band popular on the festival circuit, their first half program featuring the music of Louis Armstrong. They played in a four-beat Chicago style not to my admittedly particular taste, and the sound volume was excessive. Several people questioned why they needed two cornets in their front line, since the two played seemingly independently. I am told that the sound problem was somewhat ameliorated in the second half, but I decided to return to the hotel for "after hours" where others had also gathered and where I had the opportunity to play several rags.
I spent Wednesday at the Missouri Historical Society doing some research for another project. While there I accessed microfilm of some Sedalia newspapers from the turn of the century, including the black newspaper Sedalia Times which contained many items about the Queen City Cornet Band led by Tom Ireland, in which Joplin once played cornet (and of which the editor was a member). It's interesting to see how journalistic practice and writing styles have changed over the century. Wednesday afternoon and evening the long threatening skies finally opened to a torrential downpour that made staying dry impossible despite a functioning umbrella.
Thursday morning I drove back to Kansas City for the evening concert of the Ophelia Ragtime Orchestra at the Gem Theater sponsored by Kansas City Ragtime Revelry. Constructed in 1912 as an African-American movie house but now completely redesigned and refurbished to contemporary standards, the Gem is located in the 18th and Vine Historic District, recently a blighted area now in the throes of urban renewal. After a hurried meal at a friendly nearby restaurant I strolled to the theater and found the intimate 500-seat house a bit more than half full.
Ophelia played an essentially different program, duplicating only three items from their Columbia concert. It included the orchestra's namesake "Ophelia Rag;" a group of Eubie Blake tunes "Baltimore Buzz," "Charleston Rag" "Weary," "Memories of You," and "I Wonder Where My Sweetie Can Be," the last three with vocals by Staale Ytterli; Weill's "September Song" introduced with a lush cello solo; Roberts' "Impressions of Helen"; a medley from Weill's Threepenny Opera; and a group of Latin flavored pieces by Gottschalk and Nazareth. The orchestra capped its concert with Fats Waller's 1931 "I'm Crazy About My Baby" to a standing ovation, followed by its usual encore.
It was time to bid the cradle of ragtime farewell until next summer.
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