7/28/2023 0 Comments Ragtime artists and songsStill, the bouncy and lighthearted nature of ragtime blues shouldn’t detract from its impact. In a way, these novelty songs took something based on the honored traditions of the blues and ragtime and made it all feel like kind of a joke. Successful as they may have been at the time, it’s difficult to look back on them now and not think that they played a part in delegitimizing the music. Satirical, bawdy, and comical songs became popular commodities, evident in tracks like Bo Carter’s “Your Biscuits Are Big Enough For Me” and the Allen Brothers’ “Salty Dog Blues”. The charming quality of this style made it a commercial favorite, popular in dance halls, bars, and bordellos. Regardless, energy is evident on songs like Reverend Gary Davis’ “Have More Faith in Jesus” and Blind Boy Fuller’s “Piccolo Rag”, classic works that epitomize the ragtime blues sound. Sadly, by no fault of the performers, this leaves little room for nuance. Admittedly, the primitive quality of these historic recordings (most tracks are likely taken from wax cylinders) reduces them into one-dimensional artifacts of Piedmont’s origins. The rambunctious bounce of Piedmont pushes the guitar and elevates it from a strummed folk instrument to one that can dance like Joplin’s piano. There’s an undeniable joy captured in tracks like “Southern Can Is Mine” by Blind Willie McTell and Big Bill Broonzy’s “Guitar Rag”. With the Rough Guide to Ragtime Blues, the focus is on this specific style from the Southeast, one that still influences practitioners today both within and removed from the greater scope of the blues. From Portuguese Fado and Arabic Jazz to Celtic folk songs and Psychedelic Bollywood soundtracks, the series highlights notable artists and works that define sounds from around the ever-evolving global village. At the same time, they peripherally demonstrate how music from contrasting cultures grew out of common themes ranging from joy to sorrow and introspection to exploration. The World Music Network’s Rough Guide series has quietly exposed mainstream listeners to genres and styles of music that would otherwise go undiscovered. It’s a style that challenges the guitar more than it simply speaks through it, a test of a musician’s ability to play in a technically challenging manner while retaining a sense of musicality. Unlike the more country-influenced stylings of delta blues, Piedmont traditionally prized faster tempos and “ragged” rhythms (hence, the “rag” of “ragtime”). A precursor to jazz, this syncopated sensibility eventually found its way into the hands of Southeastern blues guitarists. Popularized by Scott Joplin, the ragtime piano style features a fast and rhythmically challenging take on balancing melody, harmony, and bass lines all on one instrument. Ragtime, in fact, is often unhurried, and Joplin made a habit of writing on his music: "Ragtime should never be played fast." The Greatest Ragtime is an excellent collection and a fine introduction to a joyful music fashioned over 100 years ago.Ragtime blues, a subset of the blues linked to the Piedmont guitar style, involved adapting the piano techniques of ragtime jazz to its six-string counterpart. Morton delivers a spunky take on "Sweet Man," his only recovered performance on a Capitol piano roll, while Waller cuts loose on a spry version of "Nobody But My Baby." Of course, no ragtime collection would be complete without Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag," perhaps the best-known rag of its time, and Blake's "Charleston Rag." One thing that may surprise those only slightly familiar with this classic style is how evenly paced many of these piano pieces are. Each of 16 selections once graced a player piano sometime between 19. Johnson, and Jimmy Blythe assures that the disc lives up to its billing. If the title sounds a bit ambitious, the inclusion of the above-mentioned names along with Scott Joplin, Fats Waller, James P. While both ragtime and player pianos have passed from the scene, post-millennium listeners can return to that heady time by simply picking up a copy of The Greatest Ragtime of the Century. During the genre's most popular period, 1910-1920, patrons could drop a coin in a player piano and hear the latest by Eubie Blake and Jelly Roll Morton. The happy, rhythmically infectious music known as ragtime flourished internationally between the late 1890s and 1920.
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