Features and Reviews
14th West Coast Ragtime Festival
By Fred Hoeptner
The fourteenth annual West Coast Ragtime Festival, and the fourth to be held in Sacramento under the aegis of the West Coast Ragtime Society, opened Friday, November 17 2000, for three days at the Red Lion Sacramento Inn. According to festival director Merv Graham, attendance was about the same as last year, with about 600 total badges sold. As usual, the festival ran concurrent performances for listening in three rooms and continuous dancing in the hotel ballroom.
Performers included pianists Mimi Blais, Frank French, Sue Keller, David Thomas Roberts, the Tichenor family trio (Trebor, daughter Virginia and her husband Marty Eggers) and Dick Zimmerman, all familiar names to ragtime fans. Others perhaps less familiar included Paul Asaro, a stride specialist from Seattle; Alan Ashby, from the Sacramento area; Yvonne Cloutier from Scottdale, Arizona, a music teacher who formed the Lake Superior Ragtime Society in 1984; Nan Bostic, grand niece and biographer of ragtime composer Charles N. Daniels; Brian Holland, classically trained and named three-time world old-time piano-playing champion at the annual contest held in Decatur, Illinois; Eric Marchese from Tustin, occasional performer at the Rose Leaf Club; Robbie Rhodes from Etiwanda, ragtime and jazz pianist with the former South Frisco Jazz Band who has performed often at the Old Town Music Hall; and Nick Taylor of Colorado Springs, who is rapidly becoming a favorite on the festival circuit. Teen-age pianists Neil Blaze, Marit Johnson and Elise Crane were audience favorites.
The Swiss Ragtimers, a duo of pianist Martin Jager and Felix Furher, washboard and miscellaneous percussion (including Swiss cowbells), received enthusiastic response. Although not ignoring classic ragtime, they featured the compositions and arrangements of Winifred Atwell, British ragtime and boogie pianist of the 1950s. Alan Rea and Sylvia O'Neil, a piano duo playing at a single piano, presented an outstanding Gottschalk program. Tom Brier from Merced, a spirited pianist whose specialty is reading rare ragtime scores as if he had known them all his life, performed such obscurities as Chippewa Rag by Myrtle Hoyt, Bluegrass Beauties by Kaiser, Peanuts Frolic by Phillip Severin, Crimson Rambler Rag by Harry Tierney, Boiled Owl Rag by Margaret Wooden, and Black Feather by Irene Giblin in addition to many compositions of his own and of Eric Marchese. New York's Terry Waldo entertained in his inimitable manner (Nagasaki as a sing-along yet!), as did Ian and Regina Whitcomb. Pianist Brian Keenan attended as a guest and filled several vacancies in the schedule. Dancers and listeners in the elegant ballroom were treated to the music of the nine-piece Pacific Coast Ragtime Orchestra with thrush Helen Burns, the six-piece Porcupine Ragtime Ensemble, the seven-piece Humboldt Ragtime Band and the Fresno High School Band.
The festival featured a full schedule of seminars. Rea and O'Neil profiled "Gottschalk - his Life and his Music." Irene Ujda (Mademoiselle Irene), a paralegal in daily life, presented a lecture on copyright law, largely as it applies to contemporary use of music from the ragtime era. Nan Bostick presented "Harry P. Guy and Detroit Ragtime," illustrated with numerous photographs of that city from the ragtime era. Ian Whitcomb played some interesting and obscure recordings, largely non-ragtime but including syncopated tunes played on the ukulele and the steel guitar, in "From Rags to Rock - The 1920s to 1965." Tex Wyndham reviewed "The Music of Walter Donaldson," and Sue Keller "The Music of Charles L. Johnson."
The Saturday night "special show," "A Celebration of Women in Ragtime," emceed by Mimi Blais sporting a straw hat, sport coat, pants and mustache, filled the venue and was a real audience pleaser. Among others Marit Johnson and Elise Crane duetted on Blake's Chevy Chase, Virginia Tichenor played her father's Bucksnort Stomp, Mimi played Craig's Romantic Rag, Petra Sullivan (piano) and Julia Riley (flute) played That Cheery Rag, and pianist Dana Chrisman played Scott's Grace and Beauty. The climax was a bit of interplay between Mimi and Sue Keller. Sue accompanied by Mimi sang the words to Joplin's Easy Winners vaudeville style and then snatched Mimi's mustache after which Mimi took off. Sue played a rag, and then duetted with a returning Mimi in elegant dress on French's Belle of Louisville.
The WCRS has a tradition of excellent planning and organization, and this year was no exception. Hope to see all of you there next year.
More West Coast Ragtime Festival Reviews:
1999 Festival
2001 Festival
2002 Festival
2003 Festival
2004 Festival
