Features and Reviews
West Coast Ragtime Festival 2002 is Another Winner
By Eric Marchese
This year's West Coast Ragtime Festival (Nov. 22-24), the 16th consecutive such festival, was one of the biggest—and best—of all. The Red Lion was again the festival HQ, as it has been since WCRF moved from Fresno to Sacramento five years ago.
The festival's five venues—one small performance venue, two medium-sized ones, one large-scale venue, and a grand ballroom—offered continuous live entertainment from noon Friday through 4 p.m. Sunday, with an hour-long "Festival Farewell" in the ballroom to end the weekend from 4 to 5 p.m. Sunday.
I was invited as a speaker, to deliver a seminar, and also invited to participate as a performer. This report, therefore, is of quite a limited scope—my overall impressions of the festival from a performer's perspective, and not intended as a comprehensive review.
Special events included a Friday evening Festival Sampler, giving patrons a chance to hear a wide variety of performers, and a "Tribute to Bob Darch," held Saturday evening and featuring such performers as Bob Ault, Mimi Blais, Dan Grinstead and Virginia Tichenor.
One-hour seminars were held all day Saturday, from noon to 6 p.m. I led things off with "A Whirlwind History of Ragtime," in which I covered the birth of ragtime music from its heyday in the mid-1890s through to the late teens and early '20s, when the music was, technically, no longer in vogue. The seminar was quite well-attended and seemed to draw a great deal of interest from many of the more casual ragtime fans who frequent WCRF each year.
Richard Zimmerman's seminar on "Chicago: The First City of Ragtime," convincingly made the argument as to why that great city should be accorded the title of "first city of ragtime," covering the huge number of "firsts"— performance, publication, piano roll production and live recordings—that marked Chicago's landscape and history during the ragtime era. Immediately following Dick's talk was that of Tracy Doyle, covering her extensive research in the often-neglected ragtime pioneer, Egbert Van Alstyne. Tracy showed the wide-ranging influence Van Alstyne had on such composers as Joe Jordan, Tony Jackson and Brun Campbell. Both seminars were well-structured and chock-full of interesting and often amazing information. Saturday also offered seminars on ragtime dance steps (by Stan Isaacs), ragtime banjo music (by Bob Ault) and a piano master class led by Frank French and Petra Sullivan.
Many of the individual performers offered special "theme" sets, including a Billy Mayerl centenary by British pianist Philip Dyson, celebrating the 1902 birth of the prolific English pianist and composer who was heavily influenced by American Novelty piano. Most impressive, though, was Mimi Blais: All seven of her solo sets were specialty theme sets, including "Women Composers of Today and Yesterday," "Made in Quebec," and "Mimi plays Eubie."
In addition to a solo set and a well-attended, enthused response to a duet set with Tom Brier, I was invited to sit in on the Friday evening "WCRF Jam Band" during its performance of "Prometheus Rag," a piano piece I wrote in 1994. Also, Brier and I were asked to take the ballroom stage during the Farewell for a rendering, by the Porcupine Ragtime Ensemble, of "Meatballs," a folk-style rag Tom and I co-wrote in 1994.
During the weekend, I was captivated by the playing of Philip Dyson (in his first WCRF appearance), Mimi Blais, and David Thomas Roberts, and the steady and often spectacular pianism of Frank French, Sonny Leyland, Brad Kay, Virginia Tichenor, Elliott Adams and Tom Brier. Another standout was ragtime newcomer Christoph Schmetterer. A 24-year-old classically trained musician from Vienna, he has proven himself a true ragtimer. His skill at the piano and his prolific compositional talents (he has already written more than 50 rags) are true proof of ragtime's international appeal—all the more astonishing considering that Schmetterer has only been playing piano since 1998.
This year's WCRF had all kinds of variety, with equal helpings of instrumental, vocal and dance ragtime to supplant the garden-variety piano performances. The Festival Reception, held on Thursday evening, gave many of us a chance to say hello and catch up with others not seen in one or more years, and the festival made two pianos available for the occasion, leaving the door open for all kinds of improvised performances. The Friday and Saturday night after-hours sessions were likewise popular for socializing, although as far as performance is concerned, they were more formally structured and less spontaneous than typically intended. General feedback all around—from performers to patrons and volunteers—was strongly favorable, which certainly bodes well for WCRF #17. Mark your calendars for that one, because it's already scheduled for Nov. 21-23, 2003.
More West Coast Ragtime Festival Reviews:
1999 Festival
2000 Festival
2001 Festival
2003 Festival
2004 Festival
