Andrew Greene of the Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra talks about leading a ragtime ensemble, the importance of the Maddox Collection, accompanying silent cinema, and more.
While this article carries my byline, most of it was written by Andrew Greene. When I interview people for this paper, if it’s to be done in person or by phone, I always send a list of questions in advance, so the subject has time to prepare and answer additional questions that had not occurred to me. When I sent Andrew my list, he emailed within 24 hours most of what you will read below—over 3,000 words! I then phoned him to let him add anything he hadn’t previously sent. —B.H.
Bill Hoffman: You’ve just acquired hundreds (thousands?) of arrangements from Johnny Maddox. Let’s talk about those before we “flashback” to the start of Peacherine and what has happened with the orchestra.
Andrew Greene: Yes, Peacherine just acquired somewhere between one and two thousand period orchestral arrangements from Johnny Maddox. I’ve found arrangements that probably haven’t been played in over 100 years. I’m still in the process of going through everything and cataloging/scanning it. It’s an incredible collection of mostly complete original orchestral scores from the 1880s through the 1920s, and from what I’m finding, there are some very rare originals in there, along with popular numbers.
