A Life in Ragtime

A Life in Ragtime PDF Author: Reid Badger
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019506044X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
James Reese Europe is one of the important transitional figures in American music. As a composer at the height of ragtime, he had a strong influence on the first generation of jazz musicians who were to follow. Europe's life reveals much about the role of black musicians in American culture in a period when it was presumed they had little place.

A Life in Ragtime

A Life in Ragtime PDF Author: Reid Badger
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019506044X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
James Reese Europe is one of the important transitional figures in American music. As a composer at the height of ragtime, he had a strong influence on the first generation of jazz musicians who were to follow. Europe's life reveals much about the role of black musicians in American culture in a period when it was presumed they had little place.

King of Ragtime

King of Ragtime PDF Author: Stephen Costanza
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1534410376
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description
A stunning, rhythmic picture book biography of African American composer Scott Joplin, whose ragtime music paved the way for jazz. There was something special about Scott Joplin… This quiet kid could make a piano laugh out loud. Scott, the son of a man who had been enslaved, became a king—the King of Ragtime. This celebration of Scott Joplin, whose ragtime compositions paved the way for jazz, will captivate audiences and put a beat in their step, and the kaleidoscope-like illustrations will draw young readers in again and again.

King of Ragtime

King of Ragtime PDF Author: Edward A. Berlin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019983914X
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
In 1974, the academy award-winning film The Sting brought back the music of Scott Joplin, a black ragtime composer who died in 1917. Led by The Entertainer, one of the most popular pieces of the mid-1970s, a revival of his music resulted in events unprecedented in American musical history. Never before had any composer's music been so acclaimed by both the popular and classical music worlds. While reaching a "Top Ten" position in the pop charts, Joplin's music was also being performed in classical recitals and setting new heights for sales of classical records. His opera Treemonisha was performed both in opera houses and on Broadway. Destined to be the definitive work on the man and his music, King of Ragtime is written by Edward A. Berlin. A renowned authority on Joplin and the author of the acclaimed and widely cited Ragtime: A Musical and Cultural History, Berlin redefines the Scott Joplin biography. Using the tools of a trained musicologist, he has uncovered a vast amount of new information about Joplin. His biography truly documents the story of the composer, replacing the myths and unsupported anecdotes of previous histories. He shows how Joplin's opera Treemonisha was a tribute to the woman he loved, a woman other biographers never even mentioned. Berlin also reveals that Joplin was an associate of Irving Berlin, and that he accused Berlin of stealing his music to compose Alexander's Ragtime Band in 1911. Berlin paints a vivid picture of the ragtime years, placing Scott Joplin's story in its historical context. The composer emerges as a representative of the first post-Civil War generation of African Americans, of the men and women who found in the world of entertainment a way out of poverty and lowly social status. King of Ragtime recreates the excitement of these pioneers, who dreamed of greatness as they sought to expand the limits society placed upon their race.

Ragtime

Ragtime PDF Author: John Edward Hasse
Publisher: MacMillan Reference
ISBN: 9780333405154
Category : Ragtime music
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
Ragtime explains ragtime music, examines the lives of its practitioners, looks at the debate that the music engendered, and probes the history of the genre.

This is Ragtime

This is Ragtime PDF Author: Terry Waldo
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ragtime music
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description


They All Played Ragtime

They All Played Ragtime PDF Author: Rudi Blesh
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781258516529
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description


Ragging it

Ragging it PDF Author: H. Loring White
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595340423
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 435

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Book Description
Ragging It takes the reader on a lively, historical journey back to the days of vaudeville, fancy women, amusement parks, lynch mobs, saloons, and cabarets--a time when the upbeat music of ragtime was a craze that permeated our culture. Author H. Loring White, a former history professor, focuses on the vastly contrasting biographies of Theodore Roosevelt and Scott Joplin, while showcasing the uniqueness of ragtime--the first popular syncopated music of the masses. In 1900, times began to move more quickly. With citizens no longer isolated on farms, ragtime was eagerly accepted by the world's first generation of popular culture, which also reveled in cakewalks; coon songs; and animal dances, such as the Grizzly Bear, Turkey Trot, and Bunny Hug. White recounts true stories about show business, political events, the repression of African-Americans, the world's fairs, and the triumphs of technology. Although ragtime disappeared abruptly in just a few years with the emergence of jazz, White never lets you forget the vital role that ragtime played in the Progressive Era of American culture. With its new and vital interpretation of the Roosevelt era, he will take you back to a lively time in history when everyone was Ragging It!

Kansas City Jazz

Kansas City Jazz PDF Author: Frank Driggs
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780195307122
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Ranging from ragtime to bebop and from Bennie Moten to Charlie Parker, this work aims to capture the golden age of Kansas City jazz. It showcases the lives of the great musicians who made Kansas City swing, with profiles of jazz figures such as Mary Lou Williams, Big Joe Turner, and others.

A Life in Ragtime

A Life in Ragtime PDF Author: Reid Badger
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195345207
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
In 1919, the world stood at the threshold of the Jazz Age. The man who had ushered it there, however, lay murdered--and would soon plunge from international fame to historical obscurity. It was a fate few would have predicted for James Reese Europe; he was then at the pinnacle of his career as a composer, conductor, and organizer in the black community, with the promise of even greater heights to come. "People don't realize yet today what we lost when we lost Jim Europe," said pianist Eubie Blake. "He was the savior of Negro musiciansin a class with Booker T. Washington and Martin Luther King." In A Life in Ragtime , Reid Badger brilliantly captures this fascinating life, tracing a critical chapter in the emergence of jazz through one man's remarkable odyssey. After an early start in Washington, Europe found his fame in New York, the entertainment capital of turn-of-the-century America. In the decade before the First World War, he emerged as an acknowledged leader in African-American musical theater, both as a conductor and an astonishingly prolific composer. Badger reveals a man of tremendous depths and ambitions, constantly aspiring to win recognition for black musicians and wider acceptance for their music. He toiled constantly, working on benefit concerts, joining hands with W.E.B. Du Bois, and helping to found a black music school--all the while winning commercial and critical success with his chosen art. In 1910, he helped create the Clef Club, making it the premiere African-American musical organization in the country during his presidency. Every year from 1912 to 1914, Europe led the Clef Club orchestra in triumphant concerts at Carnegie Hall, winning new respectability and popularity for ragtime. He went on to a tremendously successful collaboration with Vernon and Irene Castle, the international stars who made social dancing a world-wide rage. Along the way, Europe helped to revolutionize American music--and Badger provides fascinating details of his innovations and wide influence. In World War I, the musical pioneer won new fame as the first African-American officer to lead men into combat in that conflict--but he was best known as band leader for the all-black 15th Infantry Regiment. As the "Hellfighters" of the 15th racked up successes on the battlefield, Europe's band took France by storm with the new sounds of jazz. In 1919, the soldiers returned to New York in triumph, and Europe was the toast of the city. Then, just a few months later, he was dead--stabbed to death by a drummer in his own orchestra. From humble beginnings to tragic end, the story of Jim Europe comes alive in Reid Badger's account. Weaving in the wider story of our changing culture, music, and racial conflict, Badger deftly captures the turbulent, promising age of ragtime, and the drama of a triumphant life cut short.

The Product of Our Souls

The Product of Our Souls PDF Author: David Gilbert
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 146962270X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
In 1912 James Reese Europe made history by conducting his 125-member Clef Club Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. The first concert by an African American ensemble at the esteemed venue was more than just a concert--it was a political act of desegregation, a defiant challenge to the status quo in American music. In this book, David Gilbert explores how Europe and other African American performers, at the height of Jim Crow, transformed their racial difference into the mass-market commodity known as "black music." Gilbert shows how Europe and others used the rhythmic sounds of ragtime, blues, and jazz to construct new representations of black identity, challenging many of the nation's preconceived ideas about race, culture, and modernity and setting off a musical craze in the process. Gilbert sheds new light on the little-known era of African American music and culture between the heyday of minstrelsy and the Harlem Renaissance. He demonstrates how black performers played a pioneering role in establishing New York City as the center of American popular music, from Tin Pan Alley to Broadway, and shows how African Americans shaped American mass culture in their own image.