Features and Reviews
13th West Coast Ragtime Festival Highlights
By Fred Hoeptner
The thirteenth annual West Coast Ragtime Festival opened at noon Friday, November 12, at the Red Lion's Sacramento Inn and closed Sunday, November 14, at 5:00 p.m. According to festival director Merv Graham, attendance surpassed all previous levels. Performers and attendees alike seemed generally pleased with the management of the festival. Unlike the other two major ragtime festivals (in Sedalia and Boulder), West Coast features no major concerts but rather continuous individual performances of thirty minutes to an hour duration in three different rooms of the hotel and continuous dancing in the ballroom. A occupied another room where CDs and current and vintage sheet music could be purchased.
Performers included a mix of talent from within and without the West Coast region. In accordance with festival policy to rotate the performers from outside the region annually, this year they included ragtime regulars pianists Jeff Barnhart, Mimi Blais, Glenn Jenks, Brian Keenan, Scott Kirby, Terry Parrish, and Jack Rummel. Young pianists appearing for the first time were 16-year-old Missourian Marit Johnson and 18-year-old Neal Blaze from Wisconsin. Others were vocalist Susan Boyce, vocalist, pianist and entertainer Molly Kaufmann, and the Elite Syncopators, a trio of piano, banjo, and tuba. West Coast performers included pianists Paul Asaro, specialist in stride; Alan Ashby; John Bennett; Nan Bostick, grand niece and biographer of ragtime composer Charles N. Daniels; Tom Brier; Dan Grinstead; Eric Louchard, noted classical pianist; Eric Marchese, regular at the Rose Leaf Club; Alan Rea and Sylvia Park O'Neill, classical performers duetting on a single piano; Virginia Tichenor; Galen Wilkes; and Richard Zimmerman. Others were Bo Grumpus, unique trio featuring guitar, bass, and percussion; the Fresno High School Band; the six-piece Pacific Coast Ragtime orchestra featuring vocalist Helen Burns; the seven-piece Porcupine Ragtime Ensemble; the Smalltimers, a sub unit of the Pacific Coast Orchestra; the Sullivans, a piano and mandolin duet; and entertainers Ian and Regina Whitcomb.
The festival included six one-hour seminar sessions. Glenn Jenks reviewed the life and music of Cuban Ignacio Cervantes (1847-1905), composer composer of syncopated piano music and student of Gottschalk. Jenks theorized that Joplin's hearing of Cervantes' music while working in a music store in New York City influenced him to compose "Solace." Galen Wilkes detailed the findings of his research project to elucidate the life of L. Edgar Settle, composer of the folk rag classic "X.L. Rag." Settle's only other significant composition, the "Missouri Waltz," was stolen by an orchestra leader for whom he worked for a time. Jack Rummel discussed the use of the xylophone in ragtime with historical recorded examples. Ian Whitcomb discussed the history of the ukulele which became a fad following its introduction to the mainland from Hawaii at the Pan Pacific exposition in 1915; however, the relation to ragtime was unclear. Scott Kirby explained how ragtime composers incorporated devices common to orchestral and band music in their compositions. Jeff Barnhart discussed his philosophies on the use of improvisation in ragtime. He varies the repeats in order to "put my own personal stamp on it" but is careful to explain for novices what he is doing. He demonstrated some fairly extreme improvisations of others.
The following were worth noting: a special show, "Maple Leaf Rag 100th," featuring performances of the namesake rag and other rags written in the same year; Tom Brier's performances of obscure but worthwhile rags ignored by others such as "That Hand-Played Rag" (Silverman and Ward), "Rubies and Pearls" (Tierney), "Bridal Cakewalk" (Maresh), "Candlestick Rag" (Ohlman), and "Hardwood Rag" (Sight); Mimi Blais's dramatic performance of "Belle of Louisville" replete with yells; and Dan Grinstead's performance of his own ragtime composition in 7/4 meter.
This year's festival was held a week early because of a scheduling conflict with the hotel. Next year the festival returns to its normal November 17 - 19 period, one week before Thanksgiving.
More West Coast Ragtime Festival Reviews:
2000 Festival
2001 Festival
2002 Festival
2003 Festival
2004 Festival
