Pianophilia

Hello All -

a little piece of roll transcription news. While hunting for things today in the sheet music piles I found another two transcriptions of mine:
"A Dippy Ditty" - played and composed by Charley Straight
"African Hunter (Rag" - composed by Edwin F. Kendall

The "African Hunter" is a machine cut, orchestrated roll which I arranged for four hands on one keyboard. As soon as I can get them reduced
in size (my daughter knows how to do this!) I will scan and post them....likely tonight or tomorrow early.

All best,
Frank

Here as promised is a transcription formerly "lost in the woods" - Charley Straight playing his rag "A Dippy Ditty;" only issued on piano roll format, not sheet music.

Frank

Edwin F. Kendall wrote a number of good rags, along with period waltzes, novelettes and transcriptions. His "African Hunter - Characteristic Jungle Symphony" is one of the happiest sounding rags there is. I transcribed this from an orchestrated piano roll, for 4 hands on one piano. Enjoy!

Frank

Dear Frank,
thank you so much for your great transcriptions of "Dippy Ditty" and "African Hunter"!
Your transcription work is fantastic!!!
Also, thanks so much for posting the Eubie Blake manuscript of "Dream Rag"! Eubie notated it very precisely!
I would like to post some recordings dealing with this interesting rag, that are two Eubie Blake recordings of it, then the James P. Johnson version and then the Charley Thompson version.
And then also a nice piano medley that Eubie recorded in the early '20s that starts with the intro to "Dream Rag"!
But I'll do that later, in the following days, because today I'll focus my attention to the Arthur Marshall recordings, that I'm going to post in the School of Syncopation section.
Very best RAGards
Luigi

Dear Luigi,
You are most welcome for the transcriptions. I wish I had another one hundred to post for the PianoPhilia family!
I think members will enjoy the history of "Dream Rag" which you propose posting. Please feel free to use the
midi recording of "The Daigha's Dream" piano roll in relating the sultry tale of this rag!
I read through Eubie's transcription again and was amazed how he remembered so many details of the piece.
He was an amazing musician!
All best,
Frank

fhimpsl wrote:Dear Luigi,
You are most welcome for the transcriptions. I wish I had another one hundred to post for the PianoPhilia family!
I think members will enjoy the history of "Dream Rag" which you propose posting. Please feel free to use the
midi recording of "The Daigha's Dream" piano roll in relating the sultry tale of this rag!
I read through Eubie's transcription again and was amazed how he remembered so many details of the piece.
He was an amazing musician!
All best,
Frank

Dear Frank,
thanks for the idea!
So I will re-post the piano roll of “Daigha’s Dream” that you've discovered together with the recordings of “Dream Rag”, so that people can easily compare them by listening to the pieces one after another.
I think that the similarities are so strong and so many that everybody will admit Daigha and Dream are the same piece.
So I’m attaching here the midi scan of the piano roll of “Daigha’s Dream”, discovered by Frank Himpsl. You can read all the details about this piano roll and it's similarity with "Dream Rag" on Frank’s original message: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=441&start=100#p6301
Then I post Eubie Blake playing the “Dream Rag”, composed by Jess Pickett.
Then there’s James P. Johnson playing it in 1945.
Then I post a brief recording of Charley Thompson, the composer of “Lily Rag”, remembering the piece during a party in the 1960s: I’m not sure if he actually learned “Dream Rag” from Pickett of rather from Eubie Blake when he met him for the “Golden Reunion In Ragtime” session…
Then I post a vintage 1921 recording by young Eubie Blake, playing a medley of his own songs “Baltimore Buzz” (also see Frank Himpsl transcription of the James P. Johnson piano roll of this song) and “In Honeysuckle Time”: the intro to this medley is the intro of Pickett’s “Dream Rag.
Eubie certainly liked that rag and re-used its intro for this medley.
I would like to emphatize that this intro is exactly the intro to “Daigha’s Dream”.
Then there’s a recording of Eubie Blake interviewed by Marian McPharland in 1979 or 1980, where he plays the “Dream Rag” again, emphatizing the difficult key of the second part. Eubie seems a bit confused, I don't know...it seems he's confounding Pickett with a "pimp" who heard him play the tune..?
Now that we can also listen to a vintage piano roll of the “Dream Rag”, under the title of “Daigha’s Dream”, it seems quite clear that, of the three pianists who recalled the “Dream Rag”, Eubie Blake was the one who recalled it better.
And since “Daigha’s Dream” is the earliest available version we have of the “Dream Rag”, I dare to suggest that’s even the closest to what Jesse Pickett played.
Thanks a lot, Frank, for this invaluable piano roll scan and for finding out its strong similarity with "Dream Rag"!!!!
Best RAGards
Luigi

Dear Luigi,
Thank you for writing this outstanding article on "The Dream." Everyone even remotely interested in ragtime should be aware of this piece, the history behind it, and all the wonderful recordings which you posted. I especially appreciate your mp3 files of the various performances; they tell quite a story. It's been years since I have heard any of these, and it is a real treat to hear the piece in its original version and then through the recollections of the great ragtime pianists who later recorded it. Just wonderful!!!
Thanks and as always all best,
Frank

fhimpsl wrote:Dear Luigi,
Thank you for writing this outstanding article on "The Dream." Everyone even remotely interested in ragtime should be aware of this piece, the history behind it, and all the wonderful recordings which you posted. I especially appreciate your mp3 files of the various performances; they tell quite a story. It's been years since I have heard any of these, and it is a real treat to hear the piece in its original version and then through the recollections of the great ragtime pianists who later recorded it. Just wonderful!!!
Thanks and as always all best,
Frank

Dear Frank,
thank you very much for your nice comments !!
What I'm doing is nothing if compared to your great contribution!!!
I hope that those people here who are going to play these rags will spend some time to listen to these recordings that we two know very well, but that are often rather difficult to find for most people.
I care very much about the recordings of the original pianists of the period. They help me very much to understand the right sound, the accents and the spirit of that music!
I will post many more recordings of this kind. Apparently people here are more interested in scores, I can see that by the number of downloads, but I insist with the recordings anyway
Best RAGards to all
Luigi

gigiranalli wrote:

fhimpsl wrote:Dear Luigi,
Thank you for writing this outstanding article on "The Dream." Everyone even remotely interested in ragtime should be aware of this piece, the history behind it, and all the wonderful recordings which you posted. I especially appreciate your mp3 files of the various performances; they tell quite a story. It's been years since I have heard any of these, and it is a real treat to hear the piece in its original version and then through the recollections of the great ragtime pianists who later recorded it. Just wonderful!!!
Thanks and as always all best,
Frank

Dear Frank,
thank you very much for your nice comments !!
What I'm doing is nothing if compared to your great contribution!!!
I hope that those people here who are going to play these rags will spend some time to listen to these recordings that we two know very well, but that are often rather difficult to find for most people.
I care very much about the recordings of the original pianists of the period. They help me very much to understand the right sound, the accents and the spirit of that music!
I will post many more recordings of this kind. Apparently people here are more interested in scores, I can see that by the number of downloads, but I insist with the recordings anyway
Best RAGards to all
Luigi

Dear Luigi,
I completely agree with you on the importance of original recordings to re-create the artist's intentions. Anything you post, be it sheet music, records, articles, etc. is always appreciated by the members of PianoPhilia. I particularly like the way you use recordings to tell a story, i.e. on "The Dream," and the 1959 Sedalia Festival. Keeping the sound alive is very important. Also, it always seems easier to learn a piece having heard a recording of it beforehand (for me at least). This is especially true with classical music, but it carries over to ragtime as well.
All best,
Frank

This title was listed in a previous post concerning Seger ELLIS.
Here it is:

TEXAS WAIL BLUES (very interesting early example of Barrelhouse/Blues piano, by the way)
transcribed from a QRS piano roll.