Features and Reviews
Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival 2001
By Fred Hoeptner
The sight of flooded fields marred an otherwise uneventful drive from the Kansas City airport to Sedalia. That and reports of intense rainfall earlier in the week had generated concern for the festival. Fortunately, the weather gods smiled and delightful if sometimes steamy weather in the 80s with fleecy white clouds prevailed, except for a brief downpour Sunday morning.
Musical Director this year was Scott Kirby, organizer par excellence. Scott and Jeannie Wright, longtime member of the foundation board and festival manager, had begun planning the concerts months before, and the preparation showed. The concerts proceeded without a hitch. In addition, as usual continuous free events were also available at four sites scattered around downtown Sedalia.
Thursday morning the festival officially opened with the "stroll" from Liberty Center to Maple Leaf Park, site of the former Maple Leaf Club. Led by Bob Ault dressed in 1897 full dress with top hat and playing the accordion, the parade included flivvers, large-wheeled bicycles, and costumed strollers. From a roadster stepped Mayor Jane Gray, who proceeded to the stage and welcomed visitors. Following introduction of political notables, Mimi Blais started the musical festivities with this year's theme rag "The Easy Winners."
The "Kickoff Concert" in Liberty Center Auditorium followed with the theme "a tribute to David Thomas Roberts". Brian Keenan started with three of Roberts' compositions, "Forest County", "The Child", and "Madison Heights Girl". Host Scott Kirby described his initial encounter many years ago with Roberts who was playing in a noisy, smoky, New Orleans bar with none of the patrons paying much attention to the music. Scott was enthralled by Roberts' performance of his composition "Roberto Clemente". Kirby and Morten Larsen then duetted on this very piece and on "Kreole." Larsen then described a very similar meeting in 1977. He followed with the dramatic pieces "For Mollie Kaufman" and "La Donna". Roberts himself played "Memories of a Missouri Confederate" and "Washington County Breakdown" and duetted with Brian Keenan on "Lily Langtree Comes to the Midwest". Roberts then credited Larsen with influencing him to de-emphasize folkish content in his compositions and to emphasize lyricism and romanticism and demonstrated with "Through the Bottomlands" and "Mississippi Brown Eyes". A standing ovation followed. Plaudits are due to Jeannie Wright for conceiving this memorable concert.
The afternoon "Cradle of Ragtime" concert, hosted by Jan Douglas, curator of St. Louis' Scott Joplin House, focused on the Missouri roots of ragtime. John Petley, late of Britain but now a U.S. citizen, played some rollicking folk rags by Brun Campbell from the early 1900s and by Tom Shea from the 1960s. Douglas followed with a sensitive rendition of Clarence Woods' "Slippery Elm". Brian Keenan returned to folk ragtime with tunes by Brun Campbell, Bob Ault, and Trebor Tichenor. Australian John Gill played rags by Arthur Marshall and James Scott, and Gale Foehner followed with folk rags, one his own "Carondelet". The concert was topped by the "Tichenor dynasty", pianists Trebor Tichenor and his daughter Virginia, with Virginia's husband Marty Eggers on bass and piano in various combinations, stomping through five Missouri folk rags.
The Thursday evening "Ragtime Dance" returned to the exhibit hall at the fairgrounds after two years in a smaller venue. Dance master Jim Borzym and partner Susan Frontczak led the festivities and demonstrated elegant dance styles of the early 1900s to the music of the incomparable Ophelia Ragtime Orchestra from Norway led by Morten Larsen. The strains of "Creole Bells" accompanied the cakewalk contest, the three winning couples all receiving decorated cakes.
The symposium sessions began Friday morning, held as usual in the comfortable United Methodist Church. Professor Tony Caramia of the Eastman School of Music analyzed the ragtime resources available to piano teachers for students at various levels from elementary to advanced. Author Ed Berlin reported his recent discoveries of early appearances in print of the word "rag". His research into African-American newspapers revealed its use in 1893 referring to a ball, and in 1895 to an old-time country dance. A December 8, 1894, newspaper article complained, "Kansas City girls can't play anything on the piano except rags." He finished with a plea for more research into Black newspapers. Ragtime authority and author Trebor Tichenor presented readings from John Stark's monthly magazine "Intermezzo", published in 1905 and 1906 and containing musical scores and general articles on musical subjects as well as Stark's typical hyperbolic praise of ragtime. An article in his first edition explained "What Ragtime Is", and chided ragtime's critics for mistaking "the coon song and the cake walk for the real thing".
Friday afternoon's "Tribute to Scott Joplin" concert featured a spectrum of diverse interpretations of Joplin. These ranged from fairly literal (Scott Kirby, Roy Eaton, and Philip Dyson), to significantly embellished (Tony Caramia and John Arpin). Of special note was the amazing whistling performance of "Bethena" by Sedalian Mary Francis Herndon, recently inducted into the Whistler's Hall of Fame, which brought down the house.
The Friday night "Easy Winners" concert at "Joplin Hall", a converted part of the exhibit hall at the Fairgrounds, was hosted by Tony Caramia and featured John Gill, Mimi Blais, David Thomas Roberts, and Brian Holland, each playing four or five of their specialties. Gill remarked, "too much music, too little time" and took it literally, speeding through Maple Leaf Rag and several others with technical precision prompting Tony Caramia to comment afterward, "Is there a fire extinguisher in the house?" Roberts played his famed "Roberto Clemente". After intermission, the Ophelia Ragtime Orchestra of Norway played a full program of twelve selections, some enhanced superlatively by vocalist and dancer Ståle Ytterle, followed by a standing ovation and an encore.
Saturday's symposia began with Nan Bostick's segment on the craze for "Indian intermezzos" in the first decade of the 1900s. It began with the tune "Hiawatha" composed by her uncle, Charles N. Daniels, whose biography she is writing. Terry Parrish then surveyed May Aufderheide's life and music. Roy Eaton, man of many talents who emphasizes the spiritual aspects of music, spoke on "Joplin's Classical Roots". He surmised the classical pieces which Joplin's teacher Julius Weiss, a graduate of the University of Saxony, would have taught him based on the pedagogical practices of the time and showed how they appear to have influenced Joplin's compositions. Meanwhile, Tony Caramia hosted a student concert at Maple Leaf Park featuring four promising young ragtime performers: Neil Blaze, Elise Crane, Marit Johnson, and Emily Sprague.
Tony Caramia introduced the Saturday afternoon "Ragtime Revelations" concert, to focus on "new trends, new treatments of old ideas, and new talents". Reginald Robinson opened with two of his newest compositions. "Mose", written for his father, is tuneful and much more in the classic ragtime mold than most of Reggie's output. Sue Keller followed with sensitive performances of Galen Wilkes' "Last of the Ragtime Pioneers" and David Thomas Roberts' seldom heard "Muscatine". Nick Taylor played Kathy Craig's "Romantic Rag". Jan Douglas followed with Hal Isbitz's "Opalescence" and a Robin Frost novelty piece "What a Relief!". Then Nora Hulse announced the results of the ragtime composition contest. The Joplin Foundation had received 16 entries and passed twelve on to judges Dr. Wesley True, Head of the Music Department, Central Missouri State University; Dr. Nora Hulse, retired Associate Professor of Keyboard Studies at Central Methodist College and ragtime pianist; and Bill Long, music instructor and former board president. The judges independently rated each composition in order of preference, and the composition with the lowest total was declared the winner. Nora Hulse played the third-place winner, "Valedictory Rag" by John Brown of England. Second-place winner Hoyle Osborn of Aztec, New Mexico, a professional pianist, played his own composition "Trickster", which he described as depicting the coyote, the agent of chaos in American Indian legend. Tamás Ittzés of Hungary garnered first with his "Sedalia Rag", which Tony Caramia performed. Tony then played a very dissonant 2001 composition, "Rio Rag," by Brian Dykstra of the College of Wooster in Ohio. Next, he introduced 12-year-old Emily Sprague of Missouri, who played Eubie Blake's "Chevy Chase" with all the dynamics and assurance of an adult professional. Jeannie Wright presented a deserving Emily with the Scott Joplin Scholarship Award. Brian Keenan played his folk rag "Big Creek". Terry Parrish followed with two of his novelty rags. Finally, Tony Caramia and Emily Sprague duetted on Joplin's "Elite Syncopations" to standing applause.
Scott Kirby hosted the evening "Entertainer Concert" at Joplin Hall. The first half featured Reginald Robinson, Philip Dyson, and John Arpin each playing a set of four or five tunes. Notable were Reginald Robinson's new composition in 6/8 time, "The Daredevil Gallop" and John Arpin's Eubie Blake medley. After intermission the trio Bo Grumpus played a set of pop and ragtime tunes from the century's first two decades in their own unique manner.
Late Saturday night The Ragtime Music Hall capped the festival with the expected high jinks. The scene was "Le Chat Noir" or "The Black Cat", a cabaret where proprietress (or perhaps madam) Mimi Blais, bedecked in feathered black underwear and cape, greeted customers, who also turned out to be entertainers. "Mademoiselle Susette", Sue Keller, in an elegant fringy blue outfit, abetted the festivities. Other performers were John Gill, Brian Holland, Bo Grumpus, and John Arpin. As a finale, Mimi and John Gill on one piano, Sue and Brian on another, and Bo Grumpus played the "Easy Winners". Pete Devine, percussionist with Bo Grumpus, slowly lay down while playing, and the tempo became slower and slower until all fell asleep. Suddenly awakening and finding some stray feathers on the floor, Sue Keller ad-libbed the funniest line of the evening: "She molts, you know".
The festival wound down with the usual Sunday ragtime brunch at Best Western Motel and the Summer Breeze Concert at Liberty Park. I asked Jeannie Wright for comments on the festival. She agreed that attendance at the paid events was down this year. Consensus of the board attributed that to the weak economy. However, the free events in the tents were all crowded. Perhaps one-third of the attendees were first-timers. We both agreed that the 2001 festival had been a rousing success.
More Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival Reviews:
2006 Festival
2004 Festival
2003 Festival
2002 Festival
2000 Festival
