The Scott Joplin Memorial Concerts at St. Michael’s Cemetery

April 5, 1917, Scott Joplin was buried at St. Michael’s Cemetery, East Elmhurst, NY. A 16-year-old girl already occupied the grave, and a 25-year-old man was to join them a few weeks later. Scott Joplin was pretty much forgotten by the public at the time of his death. Most newspapers ignored him. Two African American newspapers—the Indianapolis Freeman and New York Age--printed informed obituaries and several articles; a third, Harlem’s Amsterdam News, had a single, brief notice, describing him as a well-known composer and an old-time entertainer. However, he was still valued by early jazz musicians, and was praised by such figures as James P. Johnson, Jelly Roll Morton, and W. C. Handy. Though his name had faded among the broader public, one composition never went out of style: Maple Leaf Rag (1899). Pianists continued to play it and it was arranged for Dixieland and swing bands. It was played frequently on radio, and as sound movies found their place in the 1930s, Maple Leaf became a staple for barroom scenes. As some musicians in the 1940s were expanding their vocabulary into a style that that was to be termed bebop, others resurrected forgotten rags as a way of seeking the roots of jazz. A few Joplin rags were included in this latter examination, but Euday Bowman’s 12th Street Rag (1914), as recorded by Pee Wee Hunt’s orchestra, became the biggest ragtime hit of the 19