Forgotten Jazz Piece by James P. Johnson

[joplinfreak]

Just curious if any one else has heard of the Negro Rhapsody, its a beautiful piece modeled after Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin. It took me over 4 months to hunt the music down for it! Ended up being in the university of Illinois over 1,500 miles away. It has a nice swing but is sophisticated enough to be a concert piece. Let me no what you think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEkQL7KcaHY

[ted]

Thank you for bringing this attractive piece to our attention. I had read about it, for example in Blesh and Janis's "They All Played Ragtime" but had not looked for recordings. It seems that, like Rhapsody In Blue and Treemonisha, it was conceived in piano solo form and orchestrated by somebody else. I listened to the orchestral version too, which is also on youtube. Overall, I think the piano version in your link is more exciting, although the opening sections seem to ask for a fuller, orchestral treatment.

There are some very interesting stride based sections with phrasal impact quite different to the playing in his many wonderful recordings and rolls. In fact, there is a different and powerful quality about the whole thing which I cannot quite put my finger on. Either way I like it very much and am mystified by its neglect.

[joplinfreak]

Hard to believe such a magnificent work is forgotten. I would love to play more of his masterpieces but it seems they all met the same fate.

[j_menz]

Hard to believe such a magnificent work is forgotten. I would love to play more of his masterpieces but it seems they all met the same fate.

There are three volumes of transcriptions of his recordings/piano rolls available here, albeit rather pricey.

[ted]

With transcriptions you cannot tell how accurate they are without trying them, which of course requires buying them. John Farrell's transcriptions of stride are invariably excellent and he transcribed well over two hundred of them. Others I have found to be considerably less accurate than Farrell. At one stage, some sites permitted downloading Midi versions of these pieces, but I think they woke up to the fact that something like GarageBand can print a fully readable, if not conventionally typeset score from any Midi, thus obviating the need to buy sheet music. I assume this is the reason large collections of downloadable Midis disappeared from the internet a few months ago.

That particular collection might be as good as any, it's hard to say. I'd probably be inclined to download one of the better known ones, say Carolina Shout, first and see how it fared in conjunction with the recording before spending on the lot.

 

[joplinfreak]

I always prefer literal sheet music to a PDF or the like. The potential to lose your music via electronic error is high. Not saying that I don't use music in that format, but real sheet music has a mystic about it. I could play Beethoven's sonatas offline or I could play from a piece of history over a 100 years old, me I choose the latter. That's why I went through all the trouble to try hunt the actual music down.

[indianajo]

Thanks for looking this up.  I wonder if Sr Marco played this himself on youtube or if it was a piano roll. 
There doesn't seem to be a lot of volume variation, which would be a sign of a piano roll.
I had only heard of Mr Johnson in passing on the PBS Blues series, I think. This has never been played on the radio, I don't believe.  I liked it, especially the part about minute 7:40. 
I'm here only 200 miles from the source, and this is unknown here. There is a program "Jazz Cabaret" on American Public Media TV about Joplin rags filmed at the U of Ill Carbondale,  I think the guy on there is a good historian but plays like Glen Gould.  I play three Joplin pieces, Magnetic, Paragon, and Maple Leaf, how about you Mr. J freak? 
I'm looking to progress on to Fats Waller next, I think, If Gershwin RinB doesn't take all my time. 

[joplinfreak]

I haven't mastered any one piece of Joplin's unfortunately. I usually play the first two repeated sections and then call it good mainly because that's all I here played, and the most well know. My current repertoire consists of: The Entertainer, Original Rag, and The Peach Rind Rag.
Thanks all for writing in!