![]() ![]() As one of the few surviving musicians from the Ragtime era, Blake became a beloved celebrity and torchbearer for the music. ragtime, propulsively syncopated musical style, one forerunner of jazz and the predominant style of American popular music from about 1899 to 1917. The release of The Eighty-Six Years of Eubie Blake gave Blake’s career a second wind. He collaborated with Noble Sissle on the Broadway musical Shuffle Along (1921), which renewed the popularity of Black musical comedies and launched the careers of many Black actors including Josephine Baker, Florence Mills, and Paul Robeson. Prior to this double-LP, Blake had a successful career as a songwriter with hits such as Charleston Rag (1899), I’m Just Wild About Harry (1921), and Memories of You (1930). In 1969, Columbia Records released The Eighty-Six Years of Eubie Blake. There are several important projects that contributed to the Ragtime revival of the 1970s, several of which will be outlined here. However, the most impactful Ragtime revival occurred in the 1970s, the events of this time truly securing the art form’s place in the United States culture. 1950 was also the year in which scholars Rudi Blesh and Harriet Janis published their seminal history book entitled They All Played Ragtime. (I intend for this to be the topic of a future blog post.) There was a brief revival of Ragtime in the 1950s, but much of the music was highly commercialized and played on out-of-tune pianos to mimic old-time saloons. Its popularity was displaced by Jazz, though the nature of this transition is disputed (Schuller, Early Jazz, p. Ragtime is characterized by a steady, syncopated rhythm, often with a strong emphasis on the off-beat. It is a syncopated, syncopated style of music that combines elements of African-American music, such as blues and jazz, with European classical music. Ragtime is often considered the first popular music originating from the United States, reigning prominent from the 1890s until the mid-1910s. Ragtime is a style of music that originated in the late 19th century in the United States. They include the release of new recordings, the formation of ragtime societies and clubs, oral history projects, various publications, and live stage and television performances.This blog post is part of my Ragtime Project, which encompasses an upcoming EP of Ragtime-inspired music, blog posts about the history of the music, and a forthcoming self-published collection of essay about what in this music and its history resonates with me as a performer and composer. The popularity of ragtime began to wane by the first decade of the 20th century, but there have been various revival efforts since the 1940s. As leader of the all-Black 369th Infantry “Hellfighters” Band, he began ragging the melodies and applying instrumental techniques that varied the timbre (as in “Memphis Blues,” 1919). James Reese Europe also introduced the ragging style and a new sound to US military bands. Hear all the best new Ragtime album releases and their best songs each week at New Releases Now. Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” was widely performed by pianists and instrumental ensembles and led to ragtime as a standard in the repertoire of many society bands, such as Clef Club Orchestra. The success of his “Maple Leaf Rag” (1899) and others that followed placed Joplin squarely in the American mainstream as a ragtime composer. Scott Joplin, dubbed “The King of Ragtime Writers” by his contemporaries, is the best-known composer of ragtime. Tom Turpin’s “Harlem Rag” (1897) is the first ragtime song published by an African American. Many songs commercially marketed under the ragtime label were not of this tradition. The broader society became acquainted with ragtime only after it appeared in print form and publishers targeted the white middle-class and upper-class piano players as its consumers. Printed versions of ragtime simplified the improvisatory quality of the original style, which changed the organic character of the tradition. Beginning in 1897, ragtime became available in a written tradition when African American ragtime players and their white counterparts began transcribing and writing original rags to be published and sold as sheet music. Itinerant African American musicians developed ragtime as a playing style of music spontaneously created while performing in brothels, saloons, bars, and other venues where they played after the Civil War.
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