Keeper1st Videos

Vincent is known more for his nearly impossible piano novelties, but this piece from 2009 is an honest-to-goodness rag. This is yet another rag inspired by the Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival. In fact, it's the second one to contain "Mother Lode" in the title. Kathi Backus composed a "Mother Lode Rag" in 2003. This performance by Tom Brier was on Sunday morning during the 2009 West Coast Ragtime Festival, as part of a set of contemporary ragtime other than his own. www.westcoastragtime.com ...

Tags: ragtime rag piano contemporary

Tim is 16 years old and was inspired to learn the piano by watching pianists at Disneyland. He has studied under former Disneyland pianist Johnny Hodges, and now studies under Patrick Aranda. While he usually plays the sort of fast, caution-to-the-wind style associated with Disneyland, here Tim shows that he can slow it down and play with feeling, on "Stormy Weather", a hit song from 1933 written by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler. This was during after-hours at the West Coast Ragtime Festival ...

Tags: ragtime piano jazz

The story of this video starts one year ago, as composer Tom Brier played his rag novelty "Balderdash" for a gathering of pianists after the 2008 West Coast Ragtime Festival in Sacramento, California, which you can see here: www.youtube.com You'll see that one of the pianists watching intently is Adam Swanson. He liked this rag so much that he asked Tom for a copy of Tom's handwritten manuscript so that he could learn it. Studying that video and the manuscript (which had to be transposed ...

Tags: ragtime piano duet rag brier swanson wcrf

This rag was composed in 2007 by Neil Blaze, one of today's best composers of the "classic rag" style. You can contact him through YouTube via his account, "topliner1916". www.youtube.com This was recorded Sunday morning, 22 November 2009 during a set of contemporary ragtime presented by Tom Brier at the annual West Coast Ragtime Festival in Sacramento, California. www.westcoastragtime.com

Tags: ragtime piano rag classic

This slightly syncopated march dates from 1902. I set the exposure too long for three of the four numbers from the Raspberry Jam Band that I recorded, still learning this new camera while worried about the backlighting the stage had. One of the microphones on the stage was making nasty clunky noises, even when just a solo pianist was up there, so it's not the band's fault when you hear a couple loud noises. The band from left to right: Piano: Tom Brier Tuba: Mark Meeker Percussion: Kitty ...

Tags: joplin march ragtime 1902 band piano piccolo washboard euphonium violin tuba

Stan Long sings "The Clean Song". See and hear more of Stan at his YouTube channel: www.youtube.com I tried yet another conversion method. It seems to work -- good quality audio (in this case 44.1kHz at 256kbps though next time I'll bump it up to 384kbps which the original audio is) and no jagged interlace effect on moving edges.

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I discovered this rag on YouTube when composer Natalia Myślewicz posted herself playing this ragtime tune she had improvised. The video was titled then just "Ragtime" which is how it caught my attention. I liked the rag so much that, with Natalia's help, I created a sheet music score of it and got her in touch with Jaime Cardenas' Authentic Ragtime Company to have it published. I asked her what title she wanted to give to it, and she decided upon Dancing Tones, as she plays piano for a ...

Tags: ragtime rag piano wcrf poland polish music yamaha

During the Friday-night party the weekend of the Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival, a sight-reading session broke out. You've seen a couple videos of Tom Brier from that session, but here's one from Andrew Barrett, who's also a terrific sight-reader. He plays Larisa Migachyov's "Flying Tomato Rag" with the composer present. There's a bit of fun when a page isn't quite turned in time, so Andrew pretends to be "stuck" until we knock him back on track! Afterward, Andrew analyzes his playing by ...

Tags: ragtime piano rag sightreading sightread

The Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival finale concert consists of performers playing one piece on their own, then asking someone to join them for their second number. Marty Eggers chose Will Perkins (YouTube's own "wilscool"). They had never played together before, but this is what they came up with for Jelly Roll Morton's famous "Kansas City Stomp". www.suttercreekragtime.com

Tags: ragtime jazz piano rag duet

This rag by Harry Belding is one of the catchiest I know. It dates from around 1910. I'll get the exact date later -- sorry about spamming with multiple videos in one day, but I'm leaving for the West Coast Ragtime Festival tomorrow and want to upload the remaining postable videos from the Sutter Creek festival first. Here it is played on two pianos by four pianists, plus one banjo. On the upright are Keith Taylor and Jack Bradshaw. On the grand are Larisa Migachyov and Tom Brier. On banjo ...

Tags: ragtime rag piano fourhand four-hand