Features and Reviews
25th OTMH Ragtime Festival, 2000
By Bill Mitchell
There were three performances of this always popular festival, two on Saturday, June 24 and a matinee on Sunday, June 25. We attended the Saturday evening show, which was nearly sold out, as I presume the others were too.
Over the years an efficient game plan has been established, with each pianist playing two or three solo numbers, then inviting the next performer to join in a duet before taking over the solo piano. Robbie Rhodes opened the program this year with James Scott's "Frog Legs Rag," played briskly, with a Wally Rose feel.
Robbie followed this classic with something new to most of us, a charming and sunny sounding obscurity called "Milkman's Rag," by one Shep. Camp. Rounding out the solo set was Artie Matthews' "Pastime Rag #5," a gem brought out of obscurity and first recorded over fifty years ago by Wally Rose of the Lu Watters band in San Francisco. Robbie called for the next performer, Alex Hassan, to join him in a duet on Walter Donaldson's "Changes." This old song celebrates intriguing chord progressions ("beautiful changes in every key"), and the team of Rhodes and Hassan delivered a complex and fascinating arrangement.
The State of Virginia's gift to ragtime, Alex Hassan, specializes in novelty piano, the 1920s style that carried ragtime to a new level of urban sophistication and technical demands. Alex opened with "The Sleepy Piano," composed by an Englishman, Billy Mayerl. Roy Bargy's "Jim Jams" was Alex's next offering, one of the classics of novelty piano. He concluded his first set with a curiosity, a medley he put together from forgotten ditties written for the Warner Brothers' Vitaphone musical short subjects of the early to mid 1930s. He called this "The Vitaphone Fantasy, Part I."
Jim Turner, who has been featured in all twenty-five of the ragtime festivals at OTMH, paid homage to Jelly Roll Morton by playing two of his finest compositions. "Buffalo Blues," a.k.a. "Mr. Joe," was a somewhat modernized version, with intriguing chords and progressions contributed by the performer. Likewise, "The Perfect Rag" was "Turnerized" into an elegantly stylized showpiece. Jim then called upon Kathy Craig to join him in a four-hand arrangement of Lampe's "Creole Belles."
Miss Craig selected Lamb's "American Beauty," played with taste and sensitivity, as an opener."Swipesy Cakewalk," credited to Joplin (but probably Arthur Marshall wrote 3/4ths of it), was given a first-class interpretation.
A spectacular eight-handed version of "Hiawatha" brought the first half of the program to a close, and OTMH patrons were invited to visit the "pharmacy" to fill their "prescriptions" for coffee and cookies, or whatever.
Jim began the second half with some music by James P. Johnson, known as "the father of stride piano." "A Flat Dream," however, features an unstride-like boogie bass beneath a lilting melody. Jim followed this with another superb performance, one of his favorite pieces, Johnson's haunting "Lonesome Reverie." He completed his set with a tango by Ernesto Nazareth, "Odeon." A contemporary of Scott Joplin, Nazareth was a Brazilian whose syncopated tangos have become favorites of the terra verde ragtimers (Roberts, Kirby, French, etc.)
Robbie played one you don't hear every day: "Blue Goose Rag," by Raymond Birch (Chas. L. Johnson). Another Johnson, James P. to be exact, was the composer of "Snowy Morning Blues," Robbie's next selection. He invited Kathy to join him on Frank Himpsl's recent (1997) tribute to the turn-of-the-century, "Millennium Rag." This is a rousing, catchy number that is growing in popularity.
Kathy soloed on James Scott's masterpiece, "Grace and Beauty," a title which just happens reflect the characteristics of her playing. She then performed a number by E. T. Paul, who is known for the grandiose and colorful covers of his sheet music, dramatic titles, and bombastic marches and gallops. "The Ben Hur Chariot Race" had it all. Kathy called on Alex to join her on an early Joplin rag, "Peacherine."
Alex played a Gershwin rarity, "When Do We Dance?" (1925), an arrangement transcribed from a 78 record. He concluded his solo stint with Part 2 of the "Vitaphone Fantasy" begun during his early solo segment. This culminated in a dazzling show of virtuosity.
As is the tradition at OTMH ragtime festivals, all the performers joined forces to wind things up. The finale commenced with eight hands on "Oh, You Beautiful Doll," with Bill Coffman joining in on the Mighty Wurlitzer to make it ten. As an encore, the ensemble played a mystery rag, title unknown, transcribed by Robbie Rhodes from a recording of a Dutch street organ. The versatile Robbie left the piano bench to play a baritone saxhorn on this one.
Thus ended the 25th annual Ragtime Festival. This year a souvenir program was provided for the audience, and it will go into at least one scrapbook as a memento of this memorable occasion.
More OTMH Ragtime Festival Reviews:
2006 Festival
2005 Festival
2004 Festival
2003 Festival
2002 Festival
2001 Festival
1999 Festival
