September 2024: OCRS Commemorates Maple Leaf Rag's 125th Anniversary

The September 2024 Orange County Ragtime Society meet at Half Off Books in Fullerton started out with a commemoration suggested by OCRS founder Eric Marchese: the 125th anniversary of the publication of Scott Joplin's seminal "Maple Leaf Rag". Here is the copyright registration card from the files of the Library of Congress:

Bob Pinsker stepped in as master of ceremonies due to Eric's being under the weather, and he started by in requesting the afternoon's first performer, Vincent Johnson, begin with a rendition of what has been called the National Anthem of Ragtime, the Maple Leaf Rag. Vincent mentioned that he had not expected to play this piece but he, like most ragtime performers, had it under his fingers as a matter of course. His rendition at an appropriate Classic Rag tempo of 94 beats per minute was altogether in the style which we might have expected the composer to play it 125 years ago, with subtle variations on the repeat of each strain. Having gotten into the Classic Rag groove, Vincent decided to complete his first three-piece set with representation of the remainder of the 'Big Three' of the idiom - his next selection was Joseph Lamb's 1913 masterwork "American Beauty Rag", again taken at a tempo (quarter note = 75) and style close to the composer's performance. Unlike Joplin, who never had the opportunity to make an audio recording, Lamb was fairly extensively recorded in his last decade, so we know just how he felt his pieces ought to be performed. To complete the triumvirate, Vincent concluded with a piece of James Scott's -- "The Ragtime 'Betty'" from 1909. Like most of Scott's early work, it is very clearly inspired by Joplin's yet imbued with Scott's own personality. Vincent's beautiful rendition at about the same tempo he'd taken the Lamb piece featured a distinct sustained tenor line created with his left thumb anticipating the beat very slightly and use of the sustain pedal.

Bob took the stage for the next set, after mentioning that he had been forced to miss the previous meet due to having come down with COVID-19 in July. He polled the audience to find that by now *almost* everybody had had at least one bout with the endemic illness. The relevance of this fact was only that Bob had developed a backlog of a number of different pieces that he wanted to share with OCRS audiences in his absence of a wide range of genres. His first piece was a recent piano roll transcription of the extremely rare "Delia" by Lemuel Fowler, which was the last Fowler roll issued by the piano roll manufacturer QRS in 1932. Bob observed that whenever there is any kind of series issued by a publisher or producer, one can be sure that the last one issued is the rarest one and consequently the hardest to find, because if it had been a popular success it would not have been the last one! This is certainly the case with this roll - no copy of the 88-note original version of the roll has been found to date (2024). Fortunately a version of the roll exists in a 10-tune nickelodeon roll certainly based on the same master, and that was the source Bob used to transcribe the piece.

For his second selection, he stayed in the same period (late 1920s) but went to almost the opposite extreme in terms of popularity, playing a very well-known song by Jerome Kern as an instrumental. He didn't identify the piece but as soon as he finished playing it, several audience members called out its title in unison: "Can't Help Lovin' That Man" from the musical "Showboat". Bob then completed his set with a tune that he said was perhaps best-known today from its use to accompany a hilarious eccentric dance by Laurel and Hardy in the 1937 film "Way Out West". The tune was "At the Ball, That's All" by the African-American composer J. Leubrie Hill, which was a hit in 1914, originally from a show entitled "My Friend from Kentucky". Like many popular songs of that period, its publisher capitalized on the song's success by issuing an instrumental version, which is what Bob played. Like many such adaptations, a kind of a 'trio' section introduces another song's chorus, in this case "Rock Me in the Cradle of Love" also by Hill from the same show.

Barry Blakeley took over the keyboard next, sporting a magnificent beard he'd grown since June but he told us that this was the beard's last day of existence. This disappointed audience members who told Barry that he ought to keep the beard at least through the holidays because he could make an excellent Santa! (Though he would need a lot of padding around his middle to pull that off . . .) Barry started with the pop tune "Yes Sir, That's My Baby" (Walter Donaldson, 1925) as arranged by sometime RagFest performer Perfessor Bill Edwards. This is a flashy, excellent arrangement complete with a key change for the 'out' chorus, expertly rendered by Barry. Next up was a classic Joplin rag arranged in a decidedly non-Classic Ragtime way: Dick Wellstood's version of Joplin's "The Entertainer" (1902) as a slow, bluesy, gospel-style piece. Like many of Wellstood's wonderful arrangements, this one was transcribed by Riccardo Scivales, the Italian master transcriber of stride and other jazz styles. Barry completed his set with another Wellstood arrangement transcribed by Scivales: the 1903 song "Ida, Sweet as Apple Cider" (Munson). Though Wellstood (1927-1987) sometimes recorded rags in a completely authentic Classic Rag style (for example, his recording of Joplin's "Fig Leaf Rag"), he mostly played in a very jazzy stride piano style of which both of these arrangements played by Barry are excellent examples.

After Bob checked that there were no other prospective performers lurking in the audience, Vincent started the second round of sets by introducing the audience to his very long-term and ambitious goal of learning every single piece listed in Jasen and Tichenor's book "Rags and Ragtime" by memory. Since there are over a thousand compositions listed therein, this is likely to occupy Vincent for many years to come! Today's composer was Theron C. Bennett, whose best known composition today was "St. Lous Tickle" (1904), published under the pseudonym "Barney and Seymore". Vincent did not play that one today, but started with "Sycamore Saplin' Rag" from 1910. This rag features a very folksy-sounding tune in the trio section, which is followed by an extended minor-key interlude and then a reprise of the trio strain.

Next, Vincent played a Bennett tune with a well-known title, but the well-known tunes by this title are completely different ones. This was "Pork and Beans" from 1909, as opposed to the famous early stride number by Luckey Roberts (1913) or the alternative rock song by Weezer from 2008 (which starts with a verse "They say I need some Rogaine to put in my hair . . .") Bennett's tune is another folksy rag of a similar ilk to "Sycamore Saplin'". Vincent's set of Bennett rags was rounded out with one of Bennett's earliest successes, "Satisfied (An Emotional Drag)" from 1904. Despite the subtitle, it does not sound like a slow drag but instead another sprightly two-step.

Bob's next set started with a left-over from our favorite February OCRS (or even the one or two that follow February, which we like to call "Virtual February"), in that it is a song by February birthday composer Joe Jordan -- "Take Your Time" from 1907. Bob performed this as the first vocal of the day with his own piano accompaniment. Given the slightly anti-matrimonial sentiment of the second chorus, especially since Bob's wife Lisa was in the audience, he felt that he had to remark that "it's only a song!" when he was done! Next was a followup to Bob's May 2024 Fats Waller organ pieces set, Waller's first recorded organ solo, entitled "Lenox Avenue Blues". The tune was originally entitled "Church Organ Blues" but Victor gave it a more commercial-sounding name. The arrangement Bob played was done by the Australian professional musician Michael Dunn, who has transcribed a very large fraction of the keyboard solos (even from the band recordings) Fats Waller recorded. Dunn says about himself on his website "In his leisure time, Michael is an amateur cellist and an obsessive specialist in the piano playing of Fats Waller and is currently compiling a Fats Waller Stride Compendium in an attempt to document this joyous piano style." Bob then returned to Lemuel Fowler piano rolls with a premiere performance of his transcription (again from the nickelodeon roll version) of the next-to-last release of a Fowler roll by QRS, "Scat, Mr. Sweetback." Fowler copyrighted the song on which the roll is based in 1925, while the 88-note roll was issued in August 1931. Bob pointed out that the roll was doubtless edited by J. Lawrence Cook, who added an interlude that begins with a quote from J. Russel Robinson's song "Aggravatin' Papa", doubtless a sly allusion to the lyrics of Fowler's song, the chorus of which begins with "Scat, Mr. Sweetback, you were my sweetback but you turned sour on me; Was wild about you, couldn't do without you, but you wouldn't hear my plea." Also, Cook must have contributed the hot-one-step ending to the roll arrangement, which seems to be in the best Pete Wendling style.

Barry Blakeley's last set of the afternoon began with a thoroughly classical style performance of Joplin's greatest waltz - "Bethena" from 1905. Barry's heartfelt rendition was filled with expression and tasteful variations of tempo. He continued in a similar vein with a piece he had intended to play for Eric Marchese, which was Eric's own "An Autumn Memory", published in 1991 though written a couple of years earlier. When Eric most recently played the piece for us, in November 2023, he had mentioned that the intention was to evoke fall foliage in his native New England. Barry told us after he'd played it that it was a favorite of his wife's. Barry's final piece was about as different as could be from the classic rag style of Marchese's piece. It was "Kansas City Frank" Melrose's best-known piece, "Pass the Jug", first recorded by the composer in 1929. The way Barry learned this piece was rather round-about. New Orleans pianist David Boeddinghaus recorded his version of the piece in a recording that was featured in the soundtrack to the 1994 documentary "Crumb" (about the famous cartoonist [and ragtime/jazz fan] Robert Crumb). That recording was transcribed by British piano roll arranger John Farrell for issuance as a roll. Barry learned the piece from a MIDI of Farrell's transcription (of Boeddinghaus's version of Melrose's piece!) and Barry re-edited the arrangement to bring it closer to Melrose's original record.

At any rate, "Pass the Jug" is a wonderful example of barrelhouse piano with a heavy influence of Melrose's idol Jelly Roll Morton. It's a two-strain number, with the first strain a dark C minor stomp and the second strain (sort of the chorus) in the relative major of E flat. Bob subsequently described the fact that Frank Melrose was the kid brother to Walter Melrose, who was Jelly Roll Morton's main publisher in the 1920s, and Lester Melrose, who was a long-time record producer. Frank was sort of the black sheep of the family. Frank passed away at only 33 under mysterious circumstances in 1941, leaving a wife and three small children, the youngest of which, Ida Melrose Shoufler is very much alive and well, and is quite active on social media today.

Vincent Johnson's last set of the day started with two more Theron C. Bennett compositions. Bennett's "Chills and Fever" rag from 1912. Vincent pointed out that Bennett reused some ideas from "St. Louis Tickle" in parts of this tune. The stock orchestration of "Chills and Fever" was recorded by the Heliotrope Ragtime Orchestra on their StompOff CD "That's Going Some!". Vincent's final piece of Theron C. Bennett was "Pudnin' Tame" from 1909, which again recycles parts of St. Louis Tickle. Vincent told us about his research into the title, which would take us quite far afield to go into here (ask Vincent!)

Vincent then told us that next he'd play a piece somewhat 'against [his] better judgement,' which turned out to be Bix Beiderbecke's 1928 masterpiece "In a Mist", notated by Paul Whiteman's arranger Bill Challis. This certainly was an impressionistic piece different from anything else anybody played this afternoon. The audience was glad Vincent went against his 'better judgement' to favor us with this performance.

When asked to play one more, Vincent asked whether there were any requests, to which Bob immediately chimed in with the request for Arthur Schutt's 1929 "Piano Puzzle", a real show-stopper for Vincent for years. Vincent's performance of this incredible piano novelty was, as always, superb.

Bob had the final set of the afternoon, starting with another addition to an extensive set from earlier this year. He had done a lot of research on Edwin E. Wilson (see his webpage at Edwin E. Wilson) and played a substantial number of Wilson's compositions at OCRS previously, but one piece had eluded him until a few months ago. This was an early fox trot from 1914 entitled "Red Fox Trot", which Bob proceeded to play for us. Next, Bob did another vocal, on Tony Jackson's "Ice and Snow" (1917). This tune is an example of what Bob and Andrew Barrett both call 8-to-the-bar fox-trot style, or sometime Bob calls "1910s rock and roll". Next, for a complete change of pace, Bob played a James P. Johnson song from 1947 entitled "Far-Away Love", from the show "Meet Miss Jones", later retitled in a revised version "Sugar Hill". Though this song has lyrics, Bob played it as an instrumental in ballad style. Jumping back to the ragtime era proper, Bob essayed "Soup and Fish Rag" by Harry Jentes and Pete Wendling from 1913, which Bob called "a very strange piece". Indeed, Jasen and Tichenor, in "Rags and Ragtime", called this piece "a wandering labyrinth of strange harmonies." The meet concluded with another piano roll transcription, this time of James Blythe's "47th Street Stomp". This piece appears on a 10-tune nickelodeon roll with this title (Capitol A2225, tune 8), but it has nothing whatever to do with the two audio recordings of Blythe's "47th Street Stomp" with small bands! Instead, the first strain is closely related to the tune Blythe recorded as "Armour Avenue Struggle" (A strain), and the second strain is an example of the heavy influence of the last part of James P. Johnson's seminal piano roll of "Loveless Love" on both Blythe and on his colleague Clarence Johnson. At any rate, it's a great three-strain piece in 1920s Chicago style, and it wrapped up the afternoon.

All in all, the three pianists performed 27 selections, three by Joplin, five by Theron C. Bennett (all done by Vincent), 2 by Fowler and the rest by a wide variety of ragtime and ragtime-adjacent composers.