My review in these pages of the 2019 West Coast Ragtime Festival began with this statement: “Sometimes too much of a good thing is, well, too much.” That statement applies to the 2022 edition as well. Note that the 2020 and 2021 installments were online only due to you know what.
This year’s festival presented, by my count, no fewer than 30 pianists, 27 other instrumentalists/vocalists (some who play multiple instruments), and nine groups over a period of three days. Clearly, it was impossible to see every set even if one skipped meals, something I never do. Hard choices had to be made. In 2019 the complete festival schedule was posted in advance on the festival’s website. That didn’t happen this year that I could find as recently as two days prior, so I was not able to lay out at least a tentative itinerary before leaving home.
