Great ragtime pieces

[donjuan]

I was in the car one day and on the radio there was this really impressive ragtime piece.  Now it wasnt Joplin's Maple Leaf rag or his Entertainer, but something else-maybe even by another composer.  Unfortunatly I missed the name of the piece and the composer.  Do you know of any impressive ragtime pieces it could have been? 
Thanks,
donjuan

[jlh]

That's not much for us to go on, dude.  You might go to a music store and peruse through some ragtime books and see if anything looks familiar.

[ted]

Do you remember any of it ? If it's by Joplin, James Scott or Joseph Lamb I might recognise it. There has been more good ragtime written in the last twenty years than in the whole of its prior history, so it could have been by any of dozens of very able contemporary composers.

[claudio]

there is so much stuff for ragtime... but if you are good at reading scores
you could flip through the sheet music on the following link:

https://library.msstate.edu/ragtime/

maybe s.th. catches your eyes 

[goansongo]

The guy that plays ragtime at Disneyland is really good.  He has a cd that you can look up online.  His name is Rod Miller.  His ragtime is really modern and impressive.

[shasta]

Zez Confrey
Fats Waller

Both were amazing pianists who wrote jawdropping pieces.  I highly recommend their stuff!!

One cool tidbit: Fats Waller ends his piece "12th Street Rag" with a tribute to Rach's Op.3 No.2 prelude...

[westman]

It could have been one of these (among my favorites by Joplin): Swipesy, Strenuous Life, Chrysanthemum, Pineapple Rag, Gladiolus Rag

[claudio]

i have recently heard some ragtime-like compositions by louis moreau gottschalk. anybody here ever played some of his stuff?

apparently chopin has attended one of his concerts. i wonder why neither he nor any of the other contemporaries have taken up these new tunes?

[joell12068]

i have recently heard some ragtime-like compositions by louis moreau gottschalk. anybody here ever played some of his stuff?

apparently chopin has attended one of his concerts. i wonder why neither he nor any of the other contemporaries have taken up these new tunes?

Gottschalk is wonderful.  He predated ragtime by about 40 years, but his pieces obviously influenced ragtime composers like Joplin, and other American composers like Gershwin (listen to Gottschalk's "Night in the Tropics", then Gershwin's "Cuban Overture" to hear the similarities).

From what I have read, Gottschalk was very popular in Europe in the 1850-1860 period.  Berlioz was quoted in 1851 as saying  "Everyone in Europe now knows Bamboula, Le Bananier, Le Mancenillier, La Savane and twenty other ingenious fantasies in which the nonchalant graces of tropical melody assuage so agreeably our restless and insatiable passion for novelty."

As time passed, he became less popular, until pianist Eugene List started a Gottschalk revival in the 1960's.  Gottschalk's music is not in any sense "deeply profound", but just really "fun" to play. I have played about five of his pieces myself.

[donjuan]

Thanks for your advice everyone.  I have some research to do..
donjuan

[puppetmaster]

You should check out "Chevy Chase" by James Hubert Blake.

[Brian Healey]

You should check out "Chevy Chase" by James Hubert Blake.

Otherwise known as "Eubie" Blake. And for your listening pleasure, there's a great jazz pianist named Marcus Roberts that plays very interesting interpretations of some ragtime tunes. He stays true to the style (mostly), but manages to add a very unique, modern flavor.