![]() ![]() I love Scott Joplin work, the first ragtime my mother played-and encouraged me to try to play. Louis: “The Maple Leaf Rag.” You can hear the Maple Leaf, played by Scott Joplin in a recording for player pianos on this YouTube clip (playing below). His most famous was written in Sedalia, Missouri, before he moved to St. One of his pieces was called “The Cascades” and was written to celebrate the water feature at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. His ragtime pieces were favorites for the sheet music trade-although you had to be a pretty good piano player to take on a ragtime piece. By 1910, he had moved on to New York City. Louis is associated strongly with ragtime. One of my novels centers on the ragtime scene in St. People also played violins and mandolins and other instruments at impromptu home entertainments.Īnd, of course, there was ragtime. Plenty of music stores-many of them located on Olive Street downtown-sold “sheet music.” Young and old pianists bought up their favorites and practiced so they could play the latest popular numbers when company visited. I don’t have the numbers but I think many more people learned to play the piano back then for this very reason: someone who could play the popular music of the day was a hit at any party. It was a common home entertainment to have a piano. You could go to a park in good weather and hear a concert by a singing society, doing anything from what we call barbershop quartet to folk music (such as Stephen Foster songs) to popular ballads.Īnd, you could hear music at home if someone in the house played an instrument. The various singing societies also provided music. (If you want to know more about Sousa, check out the PBS page on him.) Schools traditionally had bands that played in parades there were community organizations as well where adults played (and sang) together. ![]() This was the era of John Phillip Sousa’s march music (although he wrote other kinds of music as well.) In fact, Sousa was one of the first recording artists, recording for the Victrolas. Where could you hear music? Well, you could wait for a parade to come along. Wealthy families might have a Victrola, but the music recorded for that device was limited. But in 1910, most music people heard had to be live. A Pandora station is always playing in the background as I write. ![]() Today, I can listen to music in my car (not subject to the radio), while I’m out walking, virtually anyplace. Even as a baby-boomer, I could take a transistor radio (look that one up, younger readers!) and hear music on a variety of radio stations. He has established himself as one of the preeminent interpreters of the Great American Songbook in his working trio and as musical director and arranger for the remarkable vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant.I think this is one of the hardest ideas for people, from baby-boomers on, to understand: you could not hear music wherever you were. Diehl has collaborated with living masters ranging from jazz greats Wynton Marsalis and Benny Golson to 20th-century classical titan Philip Glass. Johnson, Thomas 'Fats' Waller, Willie 'the Lion' Smith, and other luminaries from the 1920’s.Ī classically trained pianist and composer, Aaron Diehl has made an indelible mark on the jazz world over the last 17 years. Pianists would often have "cutting contests,” many times at Harlem Rent Parties, where performances occurred in homes to help the tenants and musicians make ends meet.Īaron Diehl connects that history to our current time with a concert featuring compositions by James P. With the characteristic leaping left hand (hence the name), and its heavy use of improvisation and syncopation, it was highly competitive. Stride is one of the most athletic forms of jazz piano from the early 20th Century. ![]()
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