Remembering Leslie Johnson and The Mississippi Rag

This month I’m not so much blowing off the dust as I am clearing out some cobwebs, and delightful cobwebs they are thanks to Andy Senior’s TST feature on Leslie Carole Johnson. As I read his wonderful tribute I began roaming down the cluttered corridors of my memory back to 1973 when ragtime was again in vogue and Leslie began publishing The Mississippi Rag (MR). Her familiar `masthead lured me through my mental cobwebs to my early acquaintance with the publisher of that revered ancestor of The Syncopated Times (TST). A Classic Reference Leslie and husband, Dennis Johnson had eclectic interests and music was an important one. When the couple realized that their favorite performers, composers, and groups were not getting the publicity they deserved in the 1970s, Leslie decided to launch her publication as “The Voice of Traditional Jazz and Ragtime.” After over thirty-five years of publication, those editions now form a classic reference on the music and the incredible people who created and performed it. Stay with me as I’m about to ramble a bit but I promise to get back on subject. I came to know of Leslie’s ambitious enterprise from Max Morath. Max and Dennis were friends and they were organizing a roadshow called “The Jazz Train” in 1973. The Jazz Train Dennis was also a railroad buff and had a beautiful old parlor car he restored and wanted to hook up to A