As I was writing last month about the excellent newspapers and newsletters in the fields of jazz and ragtime, I was also reminded of the amazing books, articles, and websites that collectively provide a near-definitive account of this uniquely American genre of music.
I am not very knowledgeable about the literature of jazz but I have kept up with ragtime related writing and am amazed by both the breadth and depth of what has been done. As I process our small Sedalia Ragtime Archive collection, I am constantly needing a reference or detail on something and almost without exception, I can find answers in the Archive’s ragtime library, in old periodicals or on the internet.
Ragtime has not only some of the finest historical and musicological researchers but many are professional or semi-professional performers as well. Additionally, the number with earned Masters and PhDs is growing annually.
When they play, it is not only a function of their talent; their performance comes from an interpretative sense grounded in their study of ragtime’s origins and constructions.
My introduction to the field came from Harriett Janis and Rudi Blesh’s They All Played Ragtime, 1951. Their work was based on interviewing first and second generation composers and performers and they had access to primary sources that were soon unavailable. Meeting Rudi at the 1974 Sedalia Festival was a re
