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This page has selected articles of general interest that have appeared in the Sacramento Ragtime Society Newsletter. Scroll or click in list below to go to a review.
Detroit’s “Wild About Harry”
Saturday, Oct. 11, 2003 Detroit glistened with brilliant fall colors under a bright blue sky and rays of warm sunlight as the city's cultural community paraded through Elmwood Cemetery to the slow-gaited music of
Charlie Gabriel's Traditional New Orleans Jazz Band to witness the blessing and unveiling of a memorial headstone for composer Harry P. Guy's unmarked grave. It was a magical day and a fitting culmination of a seven year campaign to ensure that the creator of such marvelous tunes as
Pearl of the Harem and Echoes from the Snowball Club will be remembered by his city as an honored "master musician." From now on, Harry P. Guy's grave will be easy to spot and we are assured that it will be frequently visited by people taking the Elmwood Cemetery's "Black History Tour." And his name, followed by host of "where as's," is now on record on special proclamations presented that day by representatives of the United States House of Representatives, the State of Michigan, and the City of Detroit. All original proclamations and program materials are to be donated to the Azalia Hackley Collection, a special black music archives at the Detroit Public Library. A
Brief History of the Sacramento Ragtime Society In the early 1980s a group of Sacramento musicians calling themselves the Carmichael Syncopated Chamber Society was meeting at Jean Levinson’s house each week to practice. The group consisted of Jean on tuba, Doug Parker on banjo and the late Bob Rutherford on piano. About the only other ragtime around Sacramento was a very occasional intermission set at the jazz societies (The Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society and the Sacramento New Orleans Hot Jazz Society), but the SNOHJS had just folded, so only the STJS had ragtime intermission music. Other ragtime aficionados would drop in once in a while to listen, or to play at these practices, including Jim Roach, Bill Rebold, Larry Applegate and Marty Eggers. It was suggested that a ragtime club be formed to expose this great music to others. Eventually the Sacramento Ragtime Society (SRS) was formed, meeting for the first time in March 1982. The SRS is unincorporated with no official membership or officers. It is a grass-roots effort to keep ragtime alive in Northern California. The Society meets on the last Sunday afternoon of each month, currently at On Broadway, 1827 Broadway, Sacramento. There is no charge for admission. Anyone may play; all instrumental (and vocal) combinations and levels of ability are welcome. Throughout the year, SRS and its members promote ragtime outside of the regular meetings. During Memorial Day weekend, usually in place of a May meeting the SRS operates a Ragtime Corner in conjunction with the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee. The Ragtime Corner attracts many fine ragtimers passing through town as part of the jazz festival. More recently, several house concerts per year featuring top quality ragtime performers were hosted by SRS members Susan and Richard Larsen and Richard Riley. In late 1996 members the West Coast Ragtime Society, then based in Fresno, decided that they could no longer maintain the organization and its yearly event, the West Coast Ragtime Festival. They graciously called upon SRS members to take over the entire organization and move it and the festival to Sacramento. November 1997 saw the eleventh WCRF in its new home at Red Lion’s Sacramento Inn. Though the SRS and WCRS have maintained their separate identities, the two organizations work in tandem to promote ragtime. The SRS also has its own monthly newsletter, presently edited by Marty Eggers and Virginia Tichenor. The purpose of the newsletter is to promote awareness of current ragtime happenings through an event calendar, press releases and reviews, and to enhance knowledge and understanding of ragtime by means of opinion pieces and scholarly works. Articles and material should be submitted to Marty and Virginia at P. 0. Box 5724, Berkeley, CA 94705. For up-to-date meeting information, call Petra Sullivan at (916) 457-3324. A Little Bit of History I've been thinking about doing a history on where we've been for quite a while, but Ray's item spurred me into action. I guess I may have waited too long to write this. As I look back, my memory is not crystal clear on all events, but here's what I do recall: The first I heard about the Sacramento Ragtime Society was by reading a 2-line blurb in the newspaper to the effect that ragtime music could be heard at the Woodlake Inn and that it was free to the public. The ironic part about it was that I had looked at that section of the newspaper on a lark. This was around October 1984. The meeting was held in a large room at what was then the Woodlake Inn (now it's called the Radisson Hotel) at Highway 160 & Canterbury Road. The audience sat on metal folding chairs around a few small tables. The piano was a nondescript old upright. I only knew two rags at the time, and I was amazed at the variety of different rags I was hearing. I decided I'd attend meetings more often. Somehow I kept up with where the SRS was meeting when the society left the Woodlake Inn and began meeting at the Clarion Hotel, on 16th and G Streets. I understand from people who were members before I joined, that prior to the Woodlake site the SRS had left what was then the Mansion Inn when remodeling began and returned when it became the Clarion. At the Clarion, we had a nice little Kawai grand piano, in a cozy setting. But, one Sunday, we were surprised to find the piano locked up, and the staff telling us that we weren't appreciated that day, it being Super Bowl Sunday and all. We would be disturbing patrons who wanted to watch the football game on the television around the corner. We found a new site soon after. This time we moved to the Alhambra Fuel & Transportation Company, on Alhambra & 28th Streets. The Alhambra had a very nice Weber grand piano, in good condition for an older piano. We even negotiated a food and drink discount with the management for SRS members on meeting days. One Sunday, we showed up for our monthly meeting and found the restaurant locked. A sign in the window said "Closed Sundays for the summer". Or some such message. The bartender inside let us in to make a few phone calls. We put a crude sign in the window for any other SRS members who might show up and ended up going into Old Sacramento that day. I later heard that the management felt we weren't purchasing enough food & drink to make the discount offer worthwhile to them. Our next home was in Old Sacramento, at Jon Pierpoint Daily's bar and restaurant. Pierpoint's had an upper floor and a basement section, where we met for a good couple of years. Their piano was the pits, with no bench or stool, missing key caps, probably missing strings. But Deborah Gale moved her own piano down there for the duration. We even had a place to hold our Ragtime Corner during the Jubilee--although we had to quit at 8:00 pm when the place turned into a disco, and we could leave our props there at our own risk. (A microphone stand did end up missing after one Jubilee there). One Sunday, we showed up for our monthly meeting to find Pierpoint's had scheduled a wedding reception during our time slot. The management told us that we could move our piano out to the "patio" for our meeting. But it was pouring down rain. We ended up going to the Applegate's home that day. We didn't react to that minor inconvenience and immediately find another meeting place. We waited until Pierpoint's said they were going out of business and we had to have our piano out of there within the next 3 days. Down the street a couple buildings away, we started meeting at Fulton's Prime Rib, this time upstairs. The grand piano there had seen its better days, and had what I call a "bar top"--one designed to put and spill drinks on. Since it was a "bar top" the sound didn't carry like a normal piano. The conditions at Fulton's were amiable but crowded. Very crowded. I kept hearing negative comments about our meeting site. I wasn't terribly happy with the place either, so I thought I'd scout out what else was available. This meant visiting several sights, scoping out the piano, the acoustics, the atmosphere, the management. We had a "trial meeting" at our current location, the Hyatt Regency, and the membership who attended agreed to move our meetings there. We have the following amenities with our current location: A decent piano that is kept in tune; a light and airy open space; plenty of seating (just ask, and they'll set up more tables); free parking within 2 blocks; handicap access to the entrance; a light rail stop within 3 blocks; a place to hold our Ragtime Corner during the Jazz Festival, with a storage room for our props; and an extremely accommodating management and staff. The location is good for members who plan other activities in the area, such as attending the symphony, taking a stroll through Capitol Park, or shopping in our newly renovated downtown mall. We don't raise money or charge admission, so we would not be able to pay any kind of rent. All these things should be considered before finding another site, if that's what the membership wants to do. And it will take action on the part of someone who is interested in relocating the meeting site. Negative comments don't move a society. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION There are some members of the SRS who must have "itchy feet" or the desire to change our meeting place scenery. I constantly hear negative remarks about the Hyatt Regency. That's okay. Why not? How about a business location that just "loves" to have us at their place once a month. Does such a place exist? If so, we the SRS members, might elect to meet there. This is a recurring topic and will be so wherever we meet. Here are some points to consider. (The new location certainly will.) 1) Must SRS contribute to the overhead and profit? 2) Is SRS considered to be an "ornament" that management "puts up with"? 3) Are we truly welcome there for any reason? No SRS meeting place has been perfect for all attendees and
musicians--and I believe that none will be. A good piano is mandatory! Ask any
pianist who has played at Virginia City. The Hyatt "ain't perfect",
even for this percussionist. However, no other eatery, saloon, dance hall, or
joint, is jumpin' to have us in. Ragtime Reflections
Can it be possible that eleven years have passed since the founding of the Sacramento Ragtime Society? Must be, as we celebrated our anniversary at our March 1993 meeting. Art Edwards, one of our long-time members and an SRS "pioneer", appeared as a guest emcee to introduce Marty Eggers, who, along with Larry and Sherry Applegate and a few others, helped start the club back in 1982. What a great 11 years it has been, with so many great things happening, and so much fine music played by so many good people. Those very talented performers range literally from A(Adams) to Z(Zimmerman). This banjoist/scribe/musical director has been around during the past 11 years to see a lot of great things happen, and would like to take time now to "reflect" on them, as the title implies. I look back at the development of Marty Eggers from a shy kid who at the time played pretty good ragtime piano to an excellent perform on both the piano and string bass, making a name for himself in both fields of ragtime and traditional jazz. Tom Brier has blossomed into a very exciting performer and prolific composer. Is it possible he's graduating from college this year? Susan Morgan Larsen has come from "square one" as a performer to become an accomplished player with an interesting repertoire. The Porcupine Ragtime Ensemble has evolved from a trio consisting of Elliott Adams and Bub and Petra Sullivan to its present seven-person configuration, adding to the trio Ray Bauer (percussion), Julia Riley (flute/piccolo), Bill Pezzaglia (tuba) and Doug Parker (yours truly, on banjo). We've been fortunate to have some fine players from out-of-State appear at our meetings. The versatile Frank French from Colorado entertained us at our November 1992 session. Composer/pianist Gil Lieby of Omaha has dropped in on two occasions. Yvonne Cloutier, co-founder of the Lake Superior Ragtime Society was with us at our November 1988 meeting. Another person noted as both a performer and an activist, Dick Zimmerman, one of the founders of the Maple Leaf Club in Los Angeles, frequently participates at our meetings. Other fine players whom we haven't seen in quite a while include Fay Golden, Al McDearmon, Ken and Jean Keeler and Danny Balser, who has now developed into a good Dixieland trumpeter, leading her own band, the "Midnight Rose". Another good player with one foot in jazz and one in ragtime is Emmett O'Sullivan, who turns from the Dixieland clarinet and saxophones to witty, entertaining ragtime piano performances. Last but not least among pianists, there is a wonderful gentlemen who has delighted listeners for so many years and has contributed so much as a player, teacher and composer; Wally Rose, the "father of West Coast ragtime". This "living legend" will be the honored guest at the Santa Rosa TradJazz Festival in August of this year. We've had various ensembles at our meetings, such as Professor Parker's Grand Reunion Ragtime Ensemble, led by cornetist Bob Romans; the High F'lutin trio, and in the early days, the Elite Syncopations, a trio or quartet consisting of first the late Bob Rutherford, and later Dorothy Strange at the piano, Jean Levinson on tuba or valve trombone, Lisa Owen on tuba, and Doug Parker on banjo. There have been many people who have contributed to the Sacramento Ragtime Society in other ways over the years, who should be mentioned here. Larry Applegate, one of our founders, functioned as our first "musical director". Art Edwards also served as musical director and was very helpful in finding new sites for us whenever a move was necessary. Deborah Gale worked over and beyond the call of duty in producing an excellent news magazine, as well as performing other services for our club. Richard Riley put the Sacramento Ragtime Society on the map, as it were, with his "disklavier" recordings of our performers. Susan Larsen turns from her piano to her computer to produce a fine newsletter each month. Our membership chairman Merv Graham keeps those accurate and comprehensive notes of "who played what" at our meetings, and keeps our mailing list up-to-date. Mike and Marj Kass like to "repay all the musicians" for their enjoyment of the music by putting on those wonderful garden parties every July. Many other people have given the SRS their continued support over the years; Bob Bedford, Bill and Shirley Schoening, Albert and Bette Wiley, Bob and Peg Fingado, Paul and Pat Schreiner, Paul Johnson, Jim Roach, Bill Rebold, Leslie Erickson, Yvonne Kresen, Bob, Wendy and Tim Orr. Special thanks are in order for Bob Smith, a laborer in the ragtime and jazz vineyards, who helps out the SRS and the Porcupine Ragtime Ensemble in so many ways. We'd also like to thank Roger Krum and the rest of the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society for working with us to present the Ragtime Corner every year during the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee. This is another accomplishment the SRS can point to with pride, as it gives us an opportunity to showcase our local talent. We're also delighted to have visiting pianists such as Robbie Rhodes, Mark Allen Jones and Tex Wyndham stop in during the festival and treat us to a few ragtime solos. It's been a great eleven years of ragtime, and we're sure the coming years will be good ones for our music and for the Sacramento Ragtime Society. Who knows what lies ahead? Maybe we can emulate our friends in Fresno, Sedalia, Superior, Boulder City, and put on our own Ragtime Festival! Stay tuned! |
