Letters: The End of the Ragtime Revival?/Jean Goldkette: Setting the Record Straight

The End of the Ragtime Revival? To the Editor: I am writing in reference to “Max Morath and the 1941-2023 Ragtime Revival,” published in the August 2023 issue of The Syncopated Times. With all due respect, I wish to dispute the following points: Firstly, the author of said article choosing 1941 as the date of the “ragtime revival” is arbitrary. This is because there are examples too numerous to completely enumerate of recordings of rags made before that date. For example, Maple Leaf Rag was recorded many times after Joplin’s death, e.g., by The New Orleans Rhythm Kings in 1923, by Sidney Bechet and his New Orleans Footwarmers on September 15, 1932, by the Halfway House Orchestra on September 25, 1925, etc. Novelty piano rags were recorded incessantly throughout the 1920s. Arthur Schutt recorded Bringup Breakdown in 1934. Frank Herbin recorded Peanut Cackle that same year. Bob Zurke recorded Hobson Street Blues in 1939. I’m too lazy to provide other examples. Why not 1959, the year that Joe Lamb recorded for Folkways Records? Or 1966, the year that Rudi Blesh produced They All Play[ed] Ragtime for Jazzology? Or 1950, when TAPR was first published in book form? I therefore submit that 1941 as a date when ragtime was just magically “rediscovered” is demonstrably not true, because in one form or another, ragtime was constantly being played and recorded throughout