Features and Reviews
27th OTMH Ragtime Festival, 2002
By Eric Marchese
Old Town Music Hall's 27th annual Ragtime Festival got underway with the matinee performance Saturday, June 22. Though the crowd wasn't large, it was enthusiastic and all four of the artists were well received.
This year's festival (the event is more accurately a two-hour concert, with two encore performances given over the course of the weekend) featured three well-known locals: Kathy Craig, Bill Mitchell and Robbie Rhodes – and an East Coast talent, Alex Hassan. All four are known to the ragtime world for their many recordings and performances at various ragtime events throughout the nation.
Bill Mitchell opened the show by noting that he was among the first performers at some of the theater's earliest annual ragtime concerts and that it felt good to be back. He gave some background on composer Shelton Brooks, who was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1886 and died in Los Angeles in 1975. Brooks became famous when Sophie Tucker began singing one of his songs, "Some of These Days." Bill also recalled a 1975 Maple Leaf Club meeting that featured the music of Brooks and of Joe Jordan, including performances by Jim Hession "and a very young Robbie Rhodes," Bill remarked.
He then delivered a Brooks medley that included "Cosey Rag," "Walkin' the Dog," "Some Of These Days," and the number Bill said was probably Brooks' most famous—"Darktown Strutter's Ball." The transitions between the numbers were smooth and Bill worked in plenty of hot piano licks in "Some Of These Days" and lots of walking tenths in the bass in "Darktown Strutter's Ball."
Bill then switched to the Classic Rag mode with one of the last handful of intricate rags by James Scott, the "Rag Sentimental" from 1918, a piece that uses the minor tonality in interesting ways. Bill closed his solo set with the 1901 Charles Hunter piece "Queen of Love," a cross between a standard brass band march and the more typical Nashville sound associated with Hunter, played with verve by the estimable Mr. Mitchell.
Bill was then joined on stage by Southern California's first lady of ragtime, Kathy Craig. The two delivered, in a two-piano duet, some new twists to the familiar "Pine Apple Rag" by Scott Joplin. Kathy then promised to round out the field with rags by the two remaining "Big Three" composers of Classic Ragtime – Joseph Lamb and James Scott. She gave an up-tempo version of Lamb's march-like "Champagne Rag," and showed off her terrific technique in Scott's "Grace and Beauty," which demonstrates the immense craftsmanship that went into every Scott rag.
Kathy wrapped up her set with the popular 1904 rag "St. Louis Tickle," credited to "Barney and Seymore" but known to have been composed by Missouri rag writer Theron C. Bennett. Kathy tweaked the piece nicely with her improvisations in the left hand.
Robbie Rhodes launched his set with a very up-tempo version of Turpin's landmark 1897 composition, "Harlem Rag" and a strong rendering of Spencer Williams' "Hock Shop Blues," played a la Willie The Lion Smith but representative of a more sensitive, mellow blues style. Robbie's surprise choice was a Turk Murphy original called "Little John's Rag," a piece Robbie said is "tough to play whether you're in a band or on the piano." He then proceeded to master its many intricacies, adding minor-key embellishments and Harlem-like licks.
Alex joined Robbie, taking up his position at the Boesendorfer and declaring that it was time for the audience to get "Happy Feet." The duo launched into a rollicking duet that really got the afternoon rolling. Alex then rolled out one of his many famous medleys -- this one of the immortal works of Harry Warren, with Alex asking us to see how many we could recognize. Using unforced transitions from one piece to the next, and with outstanding technique and expression, Alex treated us to "We're in the Money," "Petting in the Park," "Cheerful Earful," "I'll String Along With You," "The Words Are In My Heart," "You're an Education" and "42nd Street."
With his typical air of self-deprecation, Alex then announced that he would offer "the end of one of my eternal medleys" – this one, his grand medley of music from Vitaphone shorts, which normally runs some 18 minutes. This version included the last three tunes, all of which Alex had to learn off the soundtracks of the old Vitaphone shorts since no scores exist to many of the tunes used. The piece were "Chatterbox," "They Put a Top Hat on the Moon" and Sanford Green's "I Haven't Got a Hat." Alex's piano arrangements of these pieces are very full, using the entire keyboard. As before, he created highly listenable tempo changes between each piece and demonstrated a virtuoso command of the keyboard.
To close the show's first half, Kathy joined Alex at the Boesendorfer and Robbie and Bill manned the Steinway as the four delivered an eight-handed version of the Joplin classic "Peacherine Rag."
Kathy opened the second half two Scott Joplin collaborations: the early "Swipesy," co-written with Joplin student Arthur Marshall, and the exquisite 1907 piece "Heliotrope Bouquet," which Joplin notated to preserve two beautiful themes by the peerless Louis Chauvin, adding a trio and final strain as a farewell to friend Chauvin, who passed away a year before "Heliotrope" saw publication. Kathy gave both pieces the appropriate degree of verve and sensitivity.
Alex then hit the Steinway grand so that the duo could render a four-handed version of Confrey's "Dizzy Fingers," with Kathy essentially playing the written score as Alex improvised his way up and down the keyboard. Soloing, Alex then announced that he'd like to "slow down" the tempo with one of his all-time favorite rags, Lamb's "Cottontail," written some time during the original ragtime era but unpublished until 1964, four years after Lamb's death. He performed the piece with an aptly measured tempo and the right degree of expression, embellishing the final strain first with some elements of the one-step, then swinging the rhythm and, finally, ending the piece in a grandly romantic style.
Next, Alex tackled Roy Bargy, generally regarded as one of the most talented composers of the Novelty genre (if not the most talented). He delivered the jaunty 1923 piece "Sweet and Tender" with lots of pep and many creative embellishments. He closed his set with what he said was "the results of becoming tired of playing a piece and beginning to noodle with it." The piece was Joplin's immortal 1899 masterpiece "Maple Leaf Rag." Bored with it by the 1980s, Alex re-wrote it as the "Maple Leaf Hora," re-casting the entire piece in the minor key and shifting some of the rhythms. Calling it "either an homage or the ultimate sacrilege," his performance provided plenty of enjoyable shtick, yet this version was and is surprisingly faithful to the original and easily recognizable as the piece that put Scott Joplin on the map.
Continuing with the Joplin theme was Bill Mitchell, who offered the 1909 masterpiece "Euphonic Sounds," which Bill said had been likened by one of Bill's friends as similar to the music of Bach. Next was the prolific Charles L. Johnson's "Snookums," featuring the typical folksy Johnson sound but in a more sophisticated model. It's a number Mr. Mitchell really cooks on. He finished his solo set with a modern masterwork, Frank French's ever-popular 1990 creation "Belle of Louisville." Bill said the original paddle-wheeler that the piece is named for was scuttled, then eventually re-floated, but he wasn't sure if it was currently in operation. Bill plays the piece with flair - even the tricky third strain, which is more of a down-home boogie than anything typifying ragtime.
Robbie then joined Bill so that the two could deliver a lively two-piano, four-handed version of Morton's "Grandpa's Spells." Both performers provided plenty of welcome improvisation, especially in the piece's final two themes.
Robbie then soloed on the number he said was "the first rag I ever learned as a kid, at the age of six" - Scott's early composition "Sunburst Rag." He then featured a rare contemporary rag, Butch Thompson's "Ecuadorian Memories," inspired by Butch's days in the service in Ecuador and Peru. Though with a strong South American flavor, Robbie reminded us that "it's still ragtime!" and, indeed, the piece is very raggy and heavily syncopated. He wrapped up his last solo set with "the happiest rag I can think of, and my favorite of all the Scott Joplin rags" - the 1899 piece "Original Rags," Joplin's first published rag and the only one of his that resembles a folk rag. Robbie's rendition was very up-tempo, with lots of improvisations in the left hand and an ending, very high in the treble that sounded like a music box.
All four performers then took to the stage for the grand finale, with Kathy and Alex on the Boesendorfer and Bill on the Steinway and Robbie standing (with his back to Bill) at the Wurlitzer upright piano. They gave a rocking version of Scott's wonderful 1914 composition "Climax Rag." The audience wouldn't let them go, so they encored (Robbie joining Bill at the Steinway grand) with the hit Walter Donaldson song "How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm?" and another vintage pop song, "Take Your Girlie to the Movies." Proprietor Bill Field then made an appearance at the Might Wurlitzer theater organ, and the five musicians delivered socko versions of "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" and "In the Good Old Summertime."
The performance over with, a few stragglers visiting with the musicians were treated to some impromptu performance of Bargy numbers by Alex on the Boesendorfer, frequently joined by Robbie's improvisations on the Steinway. It was proof positive that ragtime tunes are just like potato chips – you just can't get enough!
More OTMH Ragtime Festival Reviews:
2006 Festival
2005 Festival
2004 Festival
2003 Festival
2001 Festival
2000 Festival
1999 Festival
