King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era

349 Pages·1994·23.82 MB·English

by  Edward A. Berlin

King of Ragtime
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KING OF RAGTIME
Scoff Joplin
and His Era
Edward A. Berlin
New York Oxford
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
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and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1994 by Edward A. Berlin
First published in 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.,
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 1995
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
Ail rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Berlin, Edward A.
King of Ragtime : Scott Joplin and His Era / Edward A. Berlin.
p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-508739-9
ISBN 0-19-510108-1 (Pbk.)
1. Joplin, Seott, 1868-1917.
2. Composers — United States—Biography.
I. Title. ML410.J75B5 1994
780'.92—dc20 93-28318
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
Fisk University Library's Special Collections: Queen City Cornet Band (p. 21), The Maple Leaf Club (p. 39),
and Scott Joplin (p, 190).
State Fair Community College Ragtime Archives, Sedalia, Missouri: Maple Leaf Club business card (p. 39).
Pierpont Morgan Library': Maple Leaf Rag contract (p. 55). Owned by James J. Fuld.
Trebor Jay Tichenor: Williams and Walker print (p. 61).
State Historical Society of Missouri: Eleanor Stark (p. 73), Tom Turpin (p. 91), and Scott Joplin photograph
from the St. Louis Globe-Democrat (p. 95).
Patricia Lamb Conn: Joseph F. Lamb (p. 174).
Maple Leaf at beginning of sidebars, by Paul Pascal.
Author's pliotograph by the Department of Art and Photography, Queensborough Community College.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Dedicated to the pioneers of the ragtime revival,
those who rekindled interest in
a great American music:
Wally Rose, Rudi Blesh,
Harriet Janis, and Max Morath
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Preface
Music publishing turned a corner in the 1890s. It became more daring, more
colorful, and far more profitable. Marketing of popular music reached un-
precedented heights and Tin Pan Alley was born.
Much popular music had a maudlin cast. The immense success of
Charles K. Harris's After the Ball in 1892 demonstrated the public's love of
pathos. Songwriters responded to the demand with such ballads as She May
Have Seen Better Days (1894), Those Wedding Bells Shall Not Ring Out
(1896), Take Back Your Gold (1897), and She Is More To Be Pitied Than
Censured (1898).
But while the public gloried in this self-indulgent and extreme senti-
mentality, a brash, abrasive, and decidedly zippier style was moving to center
stage. This was ragtime, both an irrepressible, swinging dance music and a
colloquial, cynical song form. In its vocal guise, it was the antithesis of the
precious, saccharine parlor song, telling not of excessive sensibilities, self-
sacrifice, and honor, but of black men and women in ludicrous, and fre-
quently demeaning, situations.
Ragtime was at first dismissed as a curious expression of black Ameri-
cans and stage minstrels, a vulgar fad that would quickly disappear. But as it
evolved and adapted itself to the white majority, it took root and became
sufficiently broad to embrace both Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag and Irving
Berlin's Everybody's Doing It. Ragtime dominated American popular music
for the two decades from the late 1890s until the late 1910s and was this
country's first uniquely national style of music. Out of it came succeeding
generations of popular song and jazz.
Ragtime receded from public consciousness during the 1920s and 1930s.
By the year 1941, it had been dormant for two decades and was mostly
forgotten. Occasionally, people of older generations used the term as a syn-
onym for swing or jazz. A few record collectors recognized ragtime as a
distinct style, but relegated it to a minor role in the evolution of American
music, that of a precursor, a stage-setter for jazz.
In the 1940s, jazz was on the move. A new generation of jazz musicians
viii PREFACE
was looking for its voice, seeking an alternative to big-band swing. In New
York, inventive young musicians developed bebop, something entirely new.
In California, musicians oriented toward the old tried to refresh jazz by
returning to its roots. In the process, they discovered ragtime. These were
the first stirrings, the awakening of a music that had faded in 1917.
By 1949, ragtime had become a subset of "traditional jazz," also referred
to as "Dixieland." Rudi Blesh, an outspoken advocate for the earlier styles of
jazz, reissued this music on his small Circle Records label. In his book
Shining Trumpets (1946),1 he proclaimed the virtues of older, purer, and
blacker jazz and decried the commercial sounds of white-oriented swing. He
also attacked black musicians who, by his standards, had betrayed their
African-American roots.
Finding that music historians had overlooked ragtime, Blesh collabo-
rated with Harriet Janis, his partner at Circle Records, to fill the gap. In less
than a year-and-a-half, they turned out a masterpiece: They All Played Rag-
time. The book was both the first social history of the ragtime world and the
first biography of Scott Joplin.
Blesh and Janis wrote a book that overflows with enthusiasm, one that
has thrilled and inspired legions of fans in the decades following its publica-
tion. They had the foresight and good sense to go beyond library research, to
interview more than one hundred surviving participants of the ragtime scene.
They told a tale that had never before been recounted, told it passionately and
with authority. The reader, in finishing the volume, knew the story of rag-
time and the story of Scott Joplin.
For all its deserved praise, the book has serious flaws. Some shortcom-
ings are obvious. Since it was written quickly, its organization is madden-
ingly haphazard. The authors, lacking formal historical training or a sense for
scholarly niceties, had little concern for presenting evidence. Where they
offered documentation, they frequently confused their sources. When they
lacked information, they had no qualms about fictionalizing.
Less obvious is a problem concerning the book's most distinctive fea-
ture: the testimony of those who were still able to bear witness. This testi-
mony is invaluable, a source that cannot be duplicated today. For seeking out
the original ragtimers and preserving their words, a task that occurred to no
one else, Blesh and Janis are forever honored.
But testimony is not an unmixed blessing. Skilled investigators quickly
learn that those being interviewed, in a misdirected effort to help, may slant
their report to what they believe the interviewer wants to hear. Or in probing
their memories for events of some forty or more years earlier, they may make
mistakes, perhaps confuse people and events, compress years.
Take the example of Eubie Blake (1883—1983). Blake was a major
player and witness of the ragtime years. In the last twenty years of his life, as
interest in ragtime increased, he was called upon innumerable times to recall
PREFACE ix
stories. To the end of his long life his mental faculties remained remarkably
acute, and no one would accuse him of dishonesty. But he was also a show-
man, interested in a good response. As he repeated stories, the accounts
frequently changed somewhat, becoming more elaborate and entertaining.
Even when a story remained essentially constant, a seemingly insignifi-
cant detail might vary, revealing the frailty of memory. In recounting his
meeting with Scott Joplin, Blake's story of what occurred always remained
the same. But the year of the meeting frequently changed, varying between
1907 and 1915. From his vantage point, the events of the meeting were of
consequence, not the years. It was all so long ago. What difference do a few
years make, one way or the other?
To the historical researcher trying to establish a chronology, the differ-
ence can be critical. The lesson is that we should learn what we can from
testimony but retain a healthy skepticism and continue to search for more
evidence. Do not assume that having been on the scene enables a witness to
relate events with absolute fidelity.
To the average, less critical ragtime fan, the Blesh-Janis book satisfied a
need for information and context; for some, it intensified a love for ragtime.
As Chapter Thirteen relates, the following for ragtime grew in the 1950s,
1960s, and most dramatically in the 1970s; They All Played Ragtime was a
significant factor in that growth, especially during the first two of those
decades. Fan clubs and newsletters that emerged during that period added a
few details and discoveries to the Joplin biography, but the tale Blesh and
Janis told, and the interpretations and points of view they offered, remained
essentially unaltered. Numerous articles, biographies, and histories of rag-
time repeated the Joplin story as Blesh and Janis had laid it out.
My own interest in ragtime began with Scott Joplin. I wrote Ragtime. A
Musical and Cultural History (1980) in part to provide a context with which
to understand Joplin's music. After I finished the book my appreciation for
Joplin deepened, but I had no plans to write a book about him.
The present book developed out of a discussion with the late Martin
Williams, the great jazz writer and, at that time, acquisitions editor for the
Smithsonian Institution Press. Williams had proposed a small book to sum-
marize the then-current knowledge about Joplin. I accepted the assignment
provisionally, noting that I disagreed with some of the accepted conclusions
about Joplin; I wanted to do a certain amount of new research to clarify
ambiguities and contradictions. I felt I could fulfill the assignment rather
quickly.
I should have known better. My experience with music research taught
that any topic re-examined yields new material and alternative interpreta-
tions.
Still, I was unprepared for what I encountered. So much had already
been written about Joplin. Yet, the most likely sources of information in
public archives and newpapers had barely been examined. Dipping into a few