Scott Joplin was an American musician and composer of ragtime music. He remains the best-known ragtime figure and is regarded as one of the three most important composers of classic ragtime, along with James Scott and Joseph Lamb.

When Joplin was learning the piano, serious musical circles condemned ragtime because of its association with the vulgar and inane songs “cranked out by the tune-smiths of Tin Pan Alley.” As a composer Joplin refined ragtime, elevating it above the low and unrefined form played by the “wandering honky tonk pianists… playing mere dance music” of popular imagination. This new art form, the Classic rag, combined Afro-American folk music’s sycopation and nineteenth-century European romanticism, with its harmonic schemes and its march-like tempos.  In the words of one critic,”Ragtime was basically… an Afro-American version of the polka, or its analog, the Sousa-style march.

In the late 1880s Joplin played pre-ragtime ‘jig-piano’ in various red-light districts throughout the mid-South.

In 1893 Joplin made his way to Chicago to perform at the World’s Fair, although not as an official performer. By 1897 ragtime had become a national craze in American cities, and was described by the Dispatch News as “a veritable call of the wild, which mightily stirred the pulses of city bred people.”

Joplin moved to Sedalia, Missouri in 1894 and began working as a pianist in the Maple Leaf Club and the Black 400, social clubs for “respectable [black] gentlemen”. He gained a reputation as a well-respected piano player, and began composing songs and teaching music. One of his earliest works in 1896 was The Great Crush Collision March, a “special… early essay in ragtime”, written after a staged train crash in McLennan County, Texas, at which Joplin may have been present.

In 1899, Joplin married Belle, the sister-in-law of collaborator Scott Hayden and sold what would soon become one of his most famous pieces, Maple Leaf Rag, to John Stark & Son, a Sedalia music publisher. It was an immediate success and was ragtime’s first hit, in addition to being the first great instrumental music hit in America.

Maple Leaf Rag:

Jazz Piano:

Joplin collaborated with Scott Hayden in the composition of four rags. It was in St. Louis that Joplin produced some of his best-known works, including The Entertainer, March Majestic, and the short theatrical work The Ragtime Dance.

In 1907 Scott Joplin moved to New York City, which he believed was the best place to find a producer for a new opera. In 1907 Scott Joplin moved to New York City, which he believed was the best place to find a producer for a new opera (Treemonisha). Though it encompasses a wide range of musical styles other than ragtime, and Joplin himself never referred to it as such, it is still sometimes incorrectly referred to as a “ragtime opera”. The music of Treemonisha includes an overture and prelude, along with various recitatives, choruses, small ensemble pieces, a ballet, and a few arias.

Overture from Treemonisha:

Prelude from Treemonisha:

Joplin and his fellow ragtime composers rejuvenated American popular music, fostering an appreciation for African American music among European Americans by creating exhilarating and liberating dance tunes, changing American musical taste. “Its syncopation and rhythmic drive gave it a vitality and freshness attractive to young urban audiences indifferent to Victorian proprieties… Joplin’s ragtime expressed the intensity and energy of a modern urban America.

Links: Wikipedia, MySpace, LastFM, Official page.

Yidl Mitn Fidl yiddish swing:

Perfect Harmony:

Eshet Chail:

Amédé Ardoin -- Two step

Dewey Balfa & Todd Balfa -- Jai Ete Au Bal

Dewey Balfa -- Parlez nois a boires

Nathan Abshire -- Ma’ Negresse/Allons A Lafayette

Mark de Basile, Len Harrington, Merlin Fontenot & L.J. Foret -- Bayou Pon Pon

Rosie Ledet -- I’m a Woman

Cirque du Soleil -- Zydeko

Wikipedia: Zydeco, Cajun, Creole.

Nathan Abshire -- Jolie Blond


Clifton Chenier -- Don’t Lie to Me

Zydeco, a transliteration in English of ‘zaricô’ (Snapbeans) from the song, “Les haricots sont pas salés”, born in Cajun and Black Creole communities on the prairies of southwest Louisiana in the 1920s, is considered by many, if not most, as the Black Creole music of Louisiana. Zydeco purportedly hails from “Là-là”, a genre of music now defunct, and old south Louisiana jurés. As Cajun French was the french language of the prairies of southwest Louisiana, zydeco was initially sung only in Creole or French. Later, Creole-speaking Black Creoles added a new linguistic element to zydeco music. Today, most of zydeco’s new generation sings in English or Cajun French with a few in Louisiana Creole French.

Usually fast-tempo, and dominated by the button or piano accordion and a form of a washboard known as a rub-board or frottoir, zydeco music was originally created at house dances where the blacks and free people of color of south Louisiana would gather for socializing. As the Creoles further established their communities and worshiped separately as well, the music moved to the Catholic church community center and then later to the rural dance halls and nightclubs. As a result, the music integrated waltzes, shuffles, two-steps, blues, rock and roll, and most dance music forms of the era. Today, the tradition of change and evolution in the music continues always keeping relevant while integrating even more genres like reggae, urban hip-hop, R&B, soul, brass band, ska, rock etc.

Cajun music, an emblematic music of Louisiana, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada. Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem with the Creole-based, Cajun-influenced zydeco form, both of Acadiana origin. These French Louisiana sounds have influenced American popular music for many decades, especially country music, and have influenced pop culture through mass media. Cajun music, born from ballads, has transformed to dance music -- with or without words. The music was essential for small get-togethers on the front porch, an all night house dance known as a “bal de maison”, or a public dance in a dance hall called a fais do-dos. There are several variations of Cajun dance: a Cajun One Step, also called a Cajun Jig, a Cajun Two Step or related Cajun Jitterbug, and a Cajun Waltz. In mild contrast, zydeco dancing is a syncopated two-step or jitterbug. A Cajun dancer will cover the dance floor while the zydeco dancer will primarily dance in a smaller area. Cajun music can be found predominantly at Louisiana festivals and dance halls, in addition to weddings in Acadiana.

Louisiana Creole refers to Americans of various racial descent who are descended from the Colonial French settlers of Louisiana known as French Creole, in addition to African Americans, and Native Americans before it became part of the United States in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase with claim to the Creole culture. Historically, Creole was used in early generations to refer to colonists of French descent who had been born in Louisiana and were thus native to the territory, compared to new immigrants. It then meant exclusively people of European descent. It also was used for black slaves who were born in Louisiana as opposed to those born in West Africa and transported from there.

The transfer of the French colony to the United States in 1803 under the Louisiana Purchase and the arrival of Americans from New England and the South ignited an outright cultural war. Some Americans were reportedly shocked by aspects of the cultural and linguistic climate of the newly acquired territory. They pressured the United States’ first Louisiana governor to change it. He swiftly moved to make English the official language. Outraged, Louisiana Créoles in New Orleans allegedly paraded the streets and rejected the Americans’ effort to transform them overnight into Americans. In addition, Louisiana Creoles thought many of the Americans were uncouth, including the many Kentucky traders who regularly visited the city while maneuvering flatboats filled with goods for market. They also resisted American attempts to impose a binary culture splitting the population into black and white. Colonial French and Créole French remained the language of the majority of the population of the state. Among the eighteen governors of Louisiana between 1803-1865, six were Créole and were monolingual speakers of French. When Americans began to arrive in number in Louisiana, locals began identifying themselves overtly as Créoles to distinguish themselves from the “nouveaux-arrivés” Americans.

Creole music from the nineteenth century is represented in Slave Songs of the United States, first published in 1867. The final seven songs in that work are printed with melody along with text in French creole. These and many others were sung at plantations, especially in St. Charles Parish, and at Congo Square in New Orleans.

Jazz, born in New Orleans sometime around the turn of the twentieth century, is the first local Black Creole music to be popularized.

BYRON LEE & THE DRAGONAIRES -- THE HUSTLE

Do the hustle…diggity, diggity…

I heard some Shirley Bassey songs and I said to myself…I would like to say these words to somebody at my wedding…Welsh singer with totally unhappy relationships became famous when she was only 19 years old…her ‘little voice’ made her win lots of prises and to be in the tops…dimonds seem to be forever, just like her voice and her lyrics…live shows were full of her personal touch and deep emotions were transmitted to the public…modest but still always glamourous, she had the air of belonging to a magical world…

In 2001 a remix album with Shirley Bassey´s songs made her enter the electronic life. Great artists remixed her songs like Propellerheads, Nightmares On Wax, Groove Armada and more…

http://www.myspace.com/missbillieholiday  

www.last.fm/music/Billie+Holiday

With Koop (via settembrini) -- In a heartbeat

Theme from Spartacus (Zero 7 remix)

With Beth Orton -- Beautiful world

Born in Chicago on May 24th 1945, Terry grew up singing alongside soul greats Jerry Butler, Major Lance and Curtis Mayfield.

In the late 90s Callier began his comeback to recorded music, contributing to Beth Orton’s Best Bit EP in 1997 and releasing the album Timepeace in 1998, which won the United Nations Time For Peace award for outstanding artistic achievement contributing to world peace. Curiously, his colleagues at the University of Chicago never learned of Callier’s life as a musician, but after the award the news of his secret life became widely known and subsequently led to his firing. Callier today is continuing his recording career having currently released five albums since Timepeace.

MySpace
Website

MySpace
Website

I’m Gonna Be a Lovin’ Old Soul

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sara Martin was a true pioneer in her own right as a performer and recording artist.

You can listen here some samples:

Although Chicago-based, Martin maintained close connections with Louisville, from where Hayes and Weaver also originated. She worked in vaudeville from 1915-31, thereafter devoting herself to the church and to running a nursing home in Louisville from the 40s until her death.

Although Louisville did not match the vitality of such jazz and blues centers as St. Louis, New Orleans, or Chicago, it had developed its own vibrant music scene by the late nineteenth century, when the blues singer later known as Sara Martin grew up. Born on June 18, 1884, to William and Katie (Pope) Dunn, Martin grew up in a city ruled by harsh racial segregation. However, Louisville’s African-American residents enjoyed a distinct culture of their own that helped them survive in a separate but unequal environment. By 1900 Louisville had become known for its string bands (with guitar, banjo, and violin) and jug bands (with musicians using various combinations of gallon jugs, kazoos, mandolins, guitars, and harmonicas). Martin later brought one Louisville string-band guitarist, Sylvester Weaver, with her to New York City for one of her recording sessions in 1923; the tracks became the first-ever blues recordings that featured a guitar accompaniment.

Martin’s stylized, theatrical renderings of the blues paled in comparison to those of her contemporaries Bessie Smith and “Ma” Rainey, yet some of her self-penned lyrics demonstrated a wry humor that was Martin’s own. In the song “Mama’s Got the Blues,” which she wrote with Clarence Williams, Martin sang, “I got a man in Atlanta, two in Alabama, three in Chattanooga/Four in Cincinnati, five in Mississippi, six in Memphis, Tennessee/If you don’t like my peaches, please let my orchard be!” Martin also demonstrated an even more ribald side in some of her other compositions such as “Mean Tight Mama.” As her record company said about Martin in one of its press releases (later quoted in The Story of the Blues, ) “We’re tellin’ you there’s none finer or grander when it comes to warblin’ mean and hot low-down ravagin’ Blues until you don’t know whether your sensations is your wigglin’ spine or if you spine has got the wigglin’ blues.”

Sara Martin also recorded under the names of Margaret Johnson and Sally Roberts.

Links:
- LastFm page
- Wikipedia page