School of Syncopation - Jazz, Stride, Novelties & the Like

[NBello]

One of the best arrangements I've heard of "I Love A Piano" is by Max Morath on SACD 110-18. Morath transforms the tune into a great Ragtime number, and combines "I Love A Piano" with "Cannon Ball Rag," since the later was published two years earlier in 1913. Max was mainly inspired by Felix Arndt and Joplin's publications in the song, which skillfully intertwines "Nola" and "The Entertainer." A real gem. Morath was also the ringleader of the 1950's Ragtime revival and was quite a fine classical pianist also.

I Love A Piano and Cannon Ball Rag - Morath.pdf

Alexander's Ragtime Band.pdf

Enjoy the music!

Nathan

[lebowl]

One of the best arrangements I've heard of "I Love A Piano" is by Max Morath on SACD 110-18. Morath transforms the tune into a great Ragtime number, and combines "I Love A Piano" with "Cannon Ball Rag," since the later was published two years earlier in 1913. Max was mainly inspired by Felix Arndt and Joplin's publications in the song, which skillfully intertwines "Nola" and "The Entertainer." A real gem. Morath was also the ringleader of the 1950's Ragtime revival and was quite a fine classical pianist also.

Enjoy the music!

Nathan

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!

[gigiranalli]

Thank you very much for posting your great transcription of the great Johnny Maddox’s version of “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” and Max Morath’s medley of “I Love a Piano” and “Cannonball Rag”, Nathan!

Speaking of Johnny Maddox, he’s among the very best and most authentic ragtime pianists ever and your wonderful transcription is a great opportunity for the ragtime student to learn from the very best in this field.

On the medley, I think that represents the cream of Morath’s work, being “Cannonball Rag” one of his best ragtime instrumental interpretations (I seem to remember he’s also published this special ragtime arrangement in the past) and “I Love a Piano” features one of his typically sparkling ragtime piano accompaniments, being ragtime songs his highlight in my opinion.

I just post the recording this transcription has being written from which is very enjoyable to listen to.

I don’t know if many people in here know that Nathan Bello is not only a skillful composer and music transcriber, but also one of the best ragtime and early jazz pianists we have today.

He’s recently started his own youtube channel and you must check it, since he’s just uploaded to videos of him playing four wonderful pieces by Jimmy Blythe, “Lovin’s Been Here and Gone to Mecca Flats”, “Mr. Freddie Blues”, “Have Mercy” and “Down So Long”.

So here’s the link to Nathan Bello’s youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXC7oI ... wNZyhKHiIw

Max Morath - I Love a Piano-Cannonball Rag.mp3

RAGards

Luigi

[Scriabinoff]

Biederbecke%2C%20Bix%20-%20In%20a%20Mist.pdf

http://www.bixbeiderbecke.com/

http://youtube.com/watch?v=j_qY88YOE_A

One of Leon Bix Biederbecke's more significant solo piano works (this is the first of 4 and psrt of a suite of pieces )and one of only 2 he was known to record. I google and there is a lot abot this piece but did not see any hits for the score. Has some nice impressionist like elements to it at times and I tend to agree that we can hear Ravel and Debussy nods in spots (see link below).
scanned today from my collection, apologies for the file name, my mobile does that.

http://www.britannica.com/biography/Bix-Beiderbecke

[Scriabinoff]

Could have gone on the ranscription board as well i suppose. Scanned a while back and thought i shared but apparently forgot to post it.
Earl Hines 'cool piece " Smoke Rings " improvisation on the theme for solo piano

hines1.pdf

[Rob C.]

Thomas, George W. - That Rat Proof Rag (alternate arr.) - Transcription pg. 1.jpg

Washington, Geo. W. - That Rat Proof Rag (transcription of alt. arr.).mid

Van Alstyne, Egbert A. - Rag-Time Chimes- Trans. of LINKAMC 283-2--pg. 1.jpg

Van Alstyne, Egbert A. - Rag-Time Chimes (Transcription of LinkAMC 283-2).mid

Van Alstyne, Egbert A. - Rag-Time Chimes 1900 (Pitt-Payne midi of score).MID

Hi Everyone!

Sorry for my long hiatus, but I'm back again. Thanks so much Nathan, Luigi, and Scriabinoff! I've finished two piano roll transcriptions and just need a little information from Frank Himpsl before I post the final copies. One of the transcriptions is the other arrangement of George W. Thomas' "That Rat Proof Rag" (the one that Frank assembled from Kimball roll interludes). Frank, did you add/change any notes in that arrangement, or just assemble it from various rolls? Also, which rolls were the interludes from? I'd love to have roll numbers and year of release along with the titles!

An interesting note about this TRPR arrangement, the first strain is much closer to what George W. Thomas actually played in his recording of "The Rocks" (which most of you probably recall contained the first strain) than the other version I transcribed! My transcription is n 2/4 time but the roll had a couple of bars in 5/8 time and a couple in 3/8. I listened to Thomas's recording twice and THOUGHT I picked up what he he played instead of the 5/8 bars (I even happily sent it to Luigi) but alas, I listened to it two more times and realized he was playing the top line of the5/8 bar in the piano roll. After much deliberation, I've decided to leave those 4 bars in different time signatures. Very interesting thing for Thomas to do nearly 100 years ago!

The other transcription is of the then unknown LINKAMC 283-2 roll. After I'd completely transcribed it, I sent it off to two frequent ragtime festival performers and the name of the rag came back from them both almost immediately. One of the performers knew which folio it was in and, knowing that I owned the folio, gave me the page number . Sure enough, there it was. It's "Rag-Time Chimes" (1900) by Egbert Van Alstyne. Here's a link to Dorian Henry's posting of it (his program sounds better than a midi): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5QnAGpXqHE. Here's a link to the original score (you'll notice the roll's in a different key): http://digitalcollections.baylor.edu/cd ... c/id/14100.

Anyway, from the little research I did online it seems that the company that released this roll was bought out in the early part of the 20th century (which is why, Frank, you wrote both LINK & AMC because you didn't know what year the roll was released). So, Frank, what would the full company name have been in 1900/1901? (The copyright office received the application on Oct. 16, 1900, but didn't receive two copies until over a year later on Dec. 2, 1901!!) Where was the company located?

Anyway, I'm posting the first pages of each transcription (in the final version, some of the information Frank provides will be added to those pages). Though I'm posting the full midi of each transcription, I'll fully tag them later and repost them when I post the full transcriptions.

Best to all,

Rob

[Rob C.]

TRPR & RTC 1st pages of transcriptions.pdf

Mmm... I didn't realize the display of my JPG files would be so LARGE so I'm posting the first pages of the two transcriptions mentioned above in a PDF file here.

Enjoy!

Rob

[fhimpsl]

Hi Rob,

Congratulations on your excellent work re. George W. Thomas, and for identifying "Rag-Time Chimes." It's been a long time, and hence difficult to recall the details regarding the arrangement of TRPR which I assembled from Kimball roll interludes of GWT compositions. I believe the introduction was probably taken from the Wurlitzer roll (the only surviving example of this piece) and the other themes were from interludes on "Feed That Mule" (KI 10352, label inscribed 1923) and "The Rocks" (KI 10287, label inscribed 1922). I am appending midi files of these for you to examine.

Many of the other surviving Kimball rolls of GWT compositions also feature ragtime or ragtime-blues interludes, one of which we discussed previously ('Mammy's Little Brown Rose'). The others are noteworthy as historical examples of his ragtime composition style. One of the interludes (on 'I Ain't No Sheik, Just Sweet Papa That's All') is the second theme of 'The Crawfish Rag' by Viva Celeste Seals, which GWT arranged and published. The interlude on 'Leaving Me Daddy, Is Hard To Do' is a very good ragtime theme. One could 'assemble' a George W. Thomas rag by cleverly intertwining these interludes. I attempted this awhile back, calling the result 'New Orleans Rag,' appended here. The themes fit together pretty well, but there's only two of them. If the unknown GWT Kimball rolls ever surface, these might include additional examples of his ragtime.

Re. LINK and AMC, well in the earliest 1900's I believe that company was called the American Musical Company of Binghampton, NY. I would imagine they started operations circa 1905-10. Their player system used an endless roll 12" in width, which was located on the back of the piano; very odd and unwieldy, requiring the piano to be positioned more than 1' away from the wall. Changing rolls meant moving the piano out and winding up the loose paper; a very laborious task. Edwin Link later purchased this company and gave it his name. The early AMC endless rolls were usually from US Music Co. masters.

All Best,

Frank

Thomas, George W - Feed That Mule - KI 10352.mid

Thomas, George W - Rocks, The - KI 10287.mid

Thomas, George W - Rag Interlude from 'Houston Blues'.mid

Thomas, George W - Rag Interlude from 'I Ain't No Sheik, Just Sweet Papa That's All' (Theme II from 'The Crawfish Rag').mid

Thomas, George W - Rag Interlude from 'Leaving Me Daddy, Is Hard To Do'.mid

Thomas, George W - Rag Interlude from 'Mammy's Little Brown Rose'.mid

Thomas, George W - Rag Interlude from 'The Fives' on KI.mid

Thomas, George W - Interlude & Coda from 'The Fives' on KI.mid

New Orleans Rag - arr. from KI interludes in 'I Ain't No Sheik' and 'Leaving Me Daddy Is Hard To Do'.mid

[Rob C.]

I've Got A Man Of My Own (George W. Thomas) - KI 10338.mid

Thanks, Frank!

It's so nice to have those other interludes isolated! I also really enjoyed your "New Orleans Rag." Those two GWT strains fit together nicely. Well done! Thanks, too, for the info.

Yes, we did discuss the interlude in "Mammy's Little Brown Rose." That's the one I transcribed and posted (your description of it as "haunting" is so apt).

It has been a while since you put together that alternate arrangement (2004 is the date on one of the midis I have of it). Amazing that this WHOLE piece could be assembled from these three rolls. I think you obtained TRPR's introduction and third strain from the interlude on "I've Got a Man of My Own"--KImball roll # 10338 (using the VanBasco player, the interlude begins at 1:10 ). Because the 1st & 2nd strains on "The Rocks" were in F major I think you transposed the intro. & 3rd strain in that roll from C major to F major to match the earlier key. What year was the "I've Got a Man of My Own" roll released? You posted it about a year ago, but, for convenience, I'll repost it here.

Very best,

Rob

[Rob C.]

BTW, Jasen & Tichenor wrote that Van Alstyne's "Rag-Time Chimes" was the first rag to use the "chimes effect." What exactly is that? Where is it in this rag?

Thanks!

Rob