Just going on how the Saturday session of this year's Ragtime to Riches Festival went, I had high hopes about the Sunday leg- the 7-14-2019 turn at Omaha's First Central Congregational United Church of Christ.
In a nutshell, we didn't get the kind of crowd that assembled at the Pink Poodle Steakhouse the day before.
But all four of those who paid to come to see the First Central leg of R to R 2019 still had fun.
At 2:00 PM (Central time), I was supposed to give a workshop.
I gave it, all right...but it wasn't the one I hoped to conduct.
Ever since last year, I've been wanting to showcase some of the work of four ragtime composers: Sadie Koninsky (1879-1952), Charlotte Blake (1885-1979), Julia Niebergall (1886-1968), and May Aufderheide (1888-1972).
I brought notes with me.
Yours truly forgot to bring sheet music.
So...I went the autobiographical route instead. (Next year, I want to build my concert around works like Sadie's "Eli Green's Cakewalk," Julia's "Hoosier Rag," May's "Dusty," and Charlotte's "That Poker Rag." And leave the workshop to another performer.)
Speaking of concert...Faye Ballard was the first to give one at this year's R to R.
Hers was a workshop in itself; the Champaign, IL native started her concert with favorites "The Entertainer," "Puttin' on the Ritz," "Sailin' Away on the Henry Clay," and "It Had to Be You."
The former University of Illinois-Champaign-Urbana office manager put her tribute to ragdom's Big Three smack dab in the middle: Scott Joplin's "Pineapple Rag," James Scott's "Frog Legs Rag," and Joseph Lamb's "Cleopatra Rag."
Faye went ahead and did one of May's followups to "Dusty" ("The Thriller") and followed it up with Adaline Shepherd's "Pickles and Peppers." "Raggity Rag" and "12th Street Rag" closed Faye's sixth R to R concert out.
Faye's mom, Erma, gave me the inspiration for my own concert.
Last year, Erma wanted to hear "Angry," a 1925 hit for a singer-pianist named Art Gillham, from me. I didn't have the sheet music with me at the time.
Fixed that here in 2019.
Matter of fact, my version of "Angry" led off a concert consisting of tunes whose titles have just one word apiece: Fellow 1925 hits "Cecilia" and "Collegiate," two compositions from 1927 ("Chloe" and a tune that somebody should've had a hit record with, "Beautiful"), 1920's "Margie," and two rags- Nellie M. Stokes' 1906 "Snowball" and another piece Scott J. came up with in 1902, "Cleopha."
I felt better about my concert than my workshop, I'll tell you that. I'm glad the concert worked out.
Marty Mincer accompanying Buster Keaton's 1920 short, "One Week," worked out great.
We were hoping Erma and Faye would come back for the 7:00 PM showing of "One Week," and Marty vamped for a while so that the Two Ballards could see the film in its entirety.
Oh, well...
But the audience enjoyed "One Week..." as well as Marty's handling of the music.
The apple farmer from Hamburg, IA had time left in his set to fire off his version of "The Entertainer" before he took R to R 15.0 out in style with "The Stars and Stripes Forever."
Well...now it's back to the drawing board to get the word out about Ragtime to Riches 2020.
Hope you can make it!
A couple of months ago, the staff at Film Streams at the Ruth Sokolof Theater (1340 Mike Fahey St., Omaha, NE 68102) asked me about doing something I've never, ever undertaken in my life:
Cue a silent movie.
It's all part of the theater's upcoming silent film festival, a cycle that begins on 10-4-2011 at 7:00 PM. Each movie in the series (the series ends on 12-15-2011) will feature live musical accompaniment from a different performer or group of performers...and the music will run the gamut from hard rock to ragtime.
Well, they're letting me go up to bat on 12-15-2011. At 7:00 PM that evening, I'm playing alongside one of Buster Keaton's best movies, the 1926 classic "The General."
I'm in another club around here, the River City Theatre Organ Society, and one of its earliest activities happened in 1986. It took place at the Orpheum Theater, and it was "Those Were the Days." One of its components was a showing of "The General," and Jack Moelmann- later the president of the American Theatre Organ Society- cued the film at the theater's Mighty Wurlitzer.
That showing was what I remembered when Film Streams chief Rachel Jacobson asked me about doing a silent movie.
Film Streams has the piano, all right; it's an 1899 Steinway upright that had, for a long time in its life, been used at Boys Town. I ended up finding the instrument a couple of years ago at the former Renier's Pianos and Keyboards (then located at 49th and Dodge Sts.).
Renier's had the old upright in the store's basement, and I ended up paying $50 for the instrument itself and $50 for moving the piano.
And it all started because I wanted to donate an old piano to a local venue (such as a coffeehouse)...so that area performers Adam Swanson (2008, 2009, and 2010 Regular Division titleholder at Illinois' World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest as well as the event's 2003, 2004, and 2006 Junior Division champ) and Marty Mincer (he won the contest's Regular Division crown in 1990 and 1993) could get more opportunities to play around here.
As things turned out, no local coffeehouses or restaurants were interested in taking in an old piano. (They kept saying they had no room for a piano...not even an 1899 Steinway upright.)
But Film Streams had room...plenty of room.
Rachel, Casey, Maggie, and the rest of the Film Streams staff have been nice enough to let me come in and get practice on the old Steinway at least once a week. (Well, a piano isn't just a prop or just a piece of furniture!)
Today, I went to http://www.youtube.com/ and saw "The General" in its entirety (for the first time since I saw the film at the Orpheum); a week earlier, I went to that Website and was able to check out 65% of the movie...and only because I ran out of time.
Last week, though, I started working out my own take on that Buster Keaton classic (in spite of the fact that at least two original scores have been written in support of "The General"). And I went off to Film Streams to make sure I can cover "The General's" length- 78 minutes.
And this morning, I finished up figuring out how I want to accompany the film, then went off to practice at another rehearsal spot, Pella Lutheran Church (at 41st and Harney Sts.), with its 1909 Behr Bros. upright. (Practice today went very well...okay, I really felt comfortable.)
I'm really looking forward to cuing "The General" with 16 days left in 2011...and I hope you can come to see one, all, or any number of films in Streams' upcoming silents showcase. If you're already a member of Film Streams, tickets are $8 each; if not, they cost you $12.
And if you'd like more information, call 402 933-0259 and/or visit http://www.filmstreams.org/.
I'm Jim Boston, and thanks for reading this blog!
