Maple Leaf Rag Day 2018
On this Easter Sunday of April 1st, 2018, celebration of “the quintessential ragtime piece written by that great master Scott Joplin” continues.
Terry Waldo provides a nice historical review of Ragtime and early Jazz where he observes that the Maple Leaf Rag “has continued to this day to be the quintessential rag”. A student of the great Eubie Blake (a Joplin contemporary), Terry plays a flowing, Eubie-inflected rendition of the M.L.R., as well as the Charleston Rag, and discusses the finer points of syncopation and how “to rag” a tune:
Ragification continues with Jonny May in an interview with Robert Estrin covering the historical development of ragtime. Jonny, who served for many years as the main ragtime player at Disneyland, notes that the M.L.R. was the most requested ragtime song at Disneyland:
Additional history of Ragtime is covered by Allysia of PianoTV who notes a number of precursors of Ragtime including banjo playing, cakewalks, and British Isles dances (“jigs”):
Happy Maple Leaf Rag day!
Vive la Ragtime ♫ ♪
King Of Ragtime 