Ragtime groupies in for a treat at conference

By Jennifer Brummett
Staff Writer

All you ragtime junkies are in for a raggedy good time at this year's Great American Brass Band Festival Conference on American Band History. ``The Ragtime Era'' was chosen as this year's topic.

An entertaining mood will dominate, explained program chair Frank Cipolla. ``They can enjoy it. They're not coming to take exams on turn-of-the-century bands. They are going to enjoy themselves and they are going to learn something.''

The topics for the band conference are carefully chosen each year and presented in a lively fashion, Cipolla said. ``Ragtime is such a listenable kind of music. They're not going to fall asleep when Dick Zimmerman (a conference performer/speaker) plays.''

Cipolla said ragtime is a very important segment of American music. ``Some people have called it one of the first (genres) of American music. It's a forerunner of jazz because it is a syncopated kind of music.''

The name ragtime describes the beat of the music. ``The time (of the music) was ragged. It's not even. It has this certain rhythm to it that is unique.''

Ragtime music began its rise to popularity before the turn of the century, around 1896, and continued its glory days through World War I, or about the time entertainer Scott Joplin died in 1917, Cipolla said. It faded into obscurity early in this century ``because jazz idioms really took over.''

The day begins with ``Ragtime: An Overview,'' by Edward Berlin, and author and scholar who lives in New York.

``He is definitely a scholar in ragtime music,'' Cipolla said. ``He's doing an overview, so anyone who wants to know about the roots and influences of ragtime music'' should attend this portion of the symposium.

Pianist Scott Kirby of New Orleans will perform throughout Berlin's segment.

Next, Lawrence Gushee, a musicologist at the University of Illinois, will present a paper on an important ragtime composer, Thomas Preston Brooke (1856-1921), titled ``Apostle of Ragtime.''

``(Brooke) was a very important turn-of-the-century band composer,'' Cipolla said. ``He wrote a lot of rags. But his works are not performed much by bands anymore. (The music) has gone by the wayside in a way.''

Richard Zimmerman, a performer and ragtime specialist, is next at the conference with ``March Time To Ragtime.''

``Dick Zimmerman is a specialist in performing ragtime. He does tremendous performances,'' Cipolla said. ``(Over time) you get a style from performing and he has spent his life in doing this kind of material. That performance should give people a real flavor, especially after Ed's (Berlin) talk about ragtime.''

Dancing begins the after-lunch portion of the conference with a segment titled ``One, Two, Ragtime: Dances of The Ragtime Era.'' Raoul Camus, professor emeritus of the City University of New York, and Renee Camus, a vintage dance specialist, will present.

``Dance was very important during the ragtime era, and that is why we added a dance segment,'' Cipolla explained. ``They had a lot of `animal dances,' such as the turkey trot.'' Renee Camus will be demonstrating a lot of dances.

Cipolla noted that on Saturday a ``ragtime tent'' will be set up near the Norton Center for the Arts. There, groups will perform ragtime music and Ms. Camus will be demonstrating dances in which audiences can participate.

Dennis Brown, a professor at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, will present the next portion of the conference, ``Hokum and the Hellfighters: Drums and Drummers from the Ragtime Era.''

``He is really a specialist in ragtime drumming,'' Cipolla said. ``He's a percussion teacher at the music department at Amherst.''

Part of Brown's talk will be about James Reese Europe, an important black musician from World War I, Cipolla said.

``(Europe) had quite a career,'' Cipolla said. ``He was a songwriter and organized the Clef Club and did a lot of important concerts in New York City between like 1912 and 1914. ... He is credited with having written the first fox trot.''

David Reffkin, a performer and ragtime specialist from San Francisco, will head up ``The Red Back Book: Standard and High Class Ragtime.''

``The Red Back Book was a collection by Scott Joplin,'' Cipolla said.

He added that Reffkin worked with Gunther Schuler of the New England Conservatory Ragtime Orchestra on creating a ragtime orchestra. Later, he organized his own orchestra in San Francisco.

``How They Heard It: Rags for Piano, Orchestra and Band'' is the final segment where Zimmerman will perform on the piano. In addition, a new local band called The New Walnut Street All Star Orchestra will perform ragtime rhythms. The Advocate Brass Band also will perform.

``This will make for a nice program,'' Cipolla said of the last part of the symposium. ``It should be very entertaining. The music is toe-tapping, light, fun sounding music to start with.''