The New Orleans Night Owls • St. Louis Rag

I’m not a natural ragtime fan, at least not the music most people think of when they hear the word. Solo piano ragtime often feels to me like a mid 20th century invention distinct from the records from 1895-1917 that I grew up on collecting 78s. This is true in both directions, both the hokey piano records of the ’50s and the treatment of a certain selection of rags as masterpieces of high art rather than the masterpieces of popular music they were.

This may be self delusion on my part. As a young man I obsessed over musical origins only to later realize my beloved “country blues” actually postdated and took inspiration from the city blues recorded with jazz bands a decade earlier. True ragtime in my mind was those oldest of my 78s, the more bendy of the music in the pre-jazz era, that rhythm accompanying Collins and Harlan when it gets so inspired you can still feel the abounding joy and freshness of it 120 years later. Even when piano was the only accompaniment, it was accompaniment.

Working for this paper I have learned to appreciate solo piano ragtime for what it is, even to love it. I’ve deliberately acquired and enjoyed the definitive sets our ragtime readers would expect me to know—like Dick Zimmerman’s complete Joplin collection. But my underlying tastes remain for a more filled out ragtime band, even if it is just a piano and bass drum, I like the extra something.

So the team led by Hal Smith on this latest New Orleans Night Owls album does ragtime my way. Ragtime with jazz in its DNA ready to blossom. Much of the album is inspired by 1940s and ’50s jazz bands playing a rag, and nothing here would be confused with recreating a record from 1902, even if most titles are of that era. This is modern ragtime, just as Joe “Fingers” Carr was modern ragtime to entertain audiences in the ’50s, this album will appeal to traditional jazz fans in the 2020s.

This is a jazz band playing ragtime, ragajazz maybe, but not even that. Whatever nebulous line falls between jazz and ragtime, they keep to the ragtime side of that line even if it feels more like a set by jazz revivalists in 1954 rather than 1914. That is a good thing! Traditional jazz fans will find joy in this album and discover new musical wonders to track down. One of the ways in which this is definitively ragtime is how meticulously it was planned out with complex reference filled arrangements. Hal Smith can tell you where every lick originated and does in the extensive liner notes.

The influence of Hal Smith will be felt 50 years from now. He isn’t even “old” yet, not compared to our average print subscriber, but from his seat behind the drums he is often the oldest on the bandstand, sharing that extensive knowledge of jazz and jazz revival history that you read in his monthly column. Learning the material at that depth, and producing themed albums like this one, also sets an excellent example for younger musicians.

A drummer doesn’t need to know the music at anywhere near the depth Hal Smith has studied. Few behind any instrument have that knowledge of individual recordings. Many musicians are naturals who like what they like and get by on practicing, but not studying. Hal Smith does investigate and subsequently knows the recorded cannon of jazz as well as the most obsessive fan. Through his influence he is passing that approach of respect and deep listening to his bands. A respect for history that goes beyond the first generation of jazz artists to include the revivalists.

Hal formed the Night Owls back in 2021 and they have two prior releases with mostly the same line up available on Bandcamp. They also appeared at Bix Fest, the San Diego Jazz Festival, and the Redwood Coast Music Festival. St. Louis Rag is a different animal from their prior releases though, a concept album faithfully produced that adds something you didn’t know your CD shelf was missing.

True to the band’s roots in Covid era remote recording the truly fantastic lineup includes musicians from across the country. In addition to Hal Smith on drums you will hear cornetist T.J. Muller, trombonist Charlie Halloran, clarinetist Ryan Calloway, pianist Kris Tokarski, banjoist Bill Reinhardt, and bassist Michael Gamble. The group recorded in St. Louis shortly after appearing at the 2023 Bix Fest in Iowa. John Gill, who has been part of the band but was not available, provided most of the arrangements. St. Louis local T.J. Muller transcribed arrangements used by the St. Louis Ragtimers so that the Night Owls could be joined on several tracks by local legend Bill Mason on cornet.

Seventeen titles include both rarities and rags as well known as “Maple Leaf Rag” and “Pine Apple Rag.” The latest composition is “Cataract Rag,” from 1914, with most being from around the turn of the century. As is expected from a Rivermont release the album notes are thick and rewarding. Hal Smith does a great job explaining each track. This an album you will want to listen through several times.

While the album notes describe a night playing these arrangements to an enthusiastic group of young swing dancers in St Louis between their two days in the recording studio, and the music is very danceable, it is ragtime. Rivermont’s core buyers of ragtime albums should have an absolute blast with this one, as will people who normally stay to the jazz side of the line.