Ragtime video

[carrie horgan]

Hi folks - I came across this entertaining video series about ragtime music on Youtube and thought I'd share the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39EbnD1bBFw

Part 2 features 'The Ectetera String Band' with Bob Ault on banjo. Unfortunately, their albums are out-of-print but my googling has revealed that the band members now perform in 'The Rhythmia' and 'The Ragtime Skedaddlers'.  Sadly, Bob Ault is no longer with us.

[Trevor Boyd]

Very interesting, Carrie.

Thank you.

[Jackie Cook]

Great video and music! I love ragtime music and these guys handled it all very well. Thanks, Carrie, for sharing this with us.

[Patrick Garner]

Nice video, Carrie. The Ragtime Skedaddlers' latest CD is The Latest Popular Mandolin and Guitar Music (sadly, no banjo in the group's new iteration, although there's a banjo-mandolin). Wonderful stuff here. Best to order directly from them, not off eBay etc. A direct download from their website of each CD is $10 USD.

[John Cohen]

I wish they'd use more period instruments and ditch the dreadnought acoustic and the modern mandolin.  Neither belong anywhere near ragtime music imo. 

[Patrick Garner]

You're getting waylaid by one of their photos. It's the music that counts, not the instruments used to make it. Listen to a couple of their cuts. Very pure. And "modern mandolin" has looked and sounded identically for 85-90 years. 

[John Cohen]

That modern mandolin sounds very different than the bowl back instruments of the ragtime era, which began in 1895 and experienced a decline in the 1910s.  I did listen to their music and I stand by my criticism.  If they are presenting period music they should use period instruments.  They are talented, and like you said their ragtime is "pure", unlike most of the modern bands that claim to play this music.  

[Jody Stecher]

I don't completely disagree or agree with either John or Patrick on this point.

 The sound of a dreadnought was not heard in the ragtime era. If a performer claims their music is "as it was" then the dreadnought is unsuitable. If one takes the stance that ragtime is still viable *as music* and a musician does not take the Museum approach then the low tones of the dreadnought are acceptable.  If one is presenting Music as History then the dreadnought also looks wrong as well as sounding wrong.

The banjo-mandolin (there's one played in the video )was present on Vess Ossman's ragtime records with the Ossman Dudley Trio. If it's good enough for Vess, it's good enough for me. As for wooden mandolins: the bowl back mandolin has a characteristic sound. It cannot produce a wide range of timbres. It does what it does. The best ones do this sound exceedingly well. Modern mandolins are of various sorts. Most of them —all of them really — are capable of producing a wide range of timbres. With the right plectrum and strings a good player can produce a sound reminiscent of the bowl back mandolin. Close enough to be effective in an ensemble.

 As for period instruments, they cannot produce the sound that was heard in the ragtime era. That is because in the ragtime era they were new. Now they have the sound of old instruments.  So if one wants the sound of a bowl back mandolin, a new one might produce a sound more typical of the ragtime era. 

John Cohen said:

That modern mandolin sounds very different than the bowl back instruments of the ragtime era, which began in 1895 and experienced a decline in the 1910s.  I did listen to their music and I stand by my criticism.  If they are presenting period music they should use period instruments.  They are talented, and like you said their ragtime is "pure", unlike most of the modern bands that claim to play this music.  

[F. Chris Ware]

Indeed it is sad that Bob Ault is no longer with us; he was an ebullient spirit, a wildly talented musicial polymath and an extremely generous human being. Dennis Pash, the founder, banjo-mandolinist and consistent member between all the groups, is a long time friend and a forty-year student and scholar of ragtime who's spent his life digging up information about the composers and performance of the music, changing much of the thinking of what “ragtime” actually was back when most people still thought it meant thumbtack pianos, peppermint shirts and sleeve garters. Working from original arrangements in mandolin folios to the extremely rare Stark-published folio of Joplin rags arranged for mandolin and guitar as well as recordings of performers like Nap Hayes and Matthew Prater, Dennis tried (and continues to try) to understand this music with pretty much every breath he takes.

I used to publish a periodical called “The Ragtime Ephemeralist” in which he contributed original research, including articles about Doc Brown the Kansas City cakewalker, Ernest Hogan, composer of “La Pas Ma La,” and the aforementioned Stark folio. I’m pretty sure that awareness of ragtime string ragtime performance wouldn’t be as keen as it is today without Dennis’ efforts with the EtCetera String Band (along with Bob Ault and Kevin Sanders, the guitarist of the group) to say nothing of the more recent great work of the Skedaddlers.

One need only look at photos of or hear recordings of James Reese Europe and Dan Kildare to know that the banjo-mandolin, whether as the tango banjo or its later incarnation was certainly a part of African-American performance in the ragtime era. 

As always, this is a great site, and thanks, Ian, for keeping it up. And congrats on the amazing two new banjos, especially with the unbelievable restoration work you’ve done. Wow, in a word! And thanks, Carrie, for calling attention to this video. I had no idea it'd been posted; as a big fan of the group, I'm really pleased to see it made available.

[John Cohen]

I should have been more clear- I wasn't questioning their use of the banjolin, just the other mandolin and acoustic guitar.

[Steve Harrison]

It's called musical evolution..few of the compositions of the great Baroque composers of the 18th century are played on the instruments for which they were written. The symphony orchestra as we know it just didn't exist back then. It's the same with English traditional folk music,apart from the fiddle,most of it is played on instruments that weren't around a few hundred years ago....Steve.

[Trapdoor2]

It is often tough to be a historian and entertainer. Not everyone can afford to have the correct vintage instruments for a given performance. Often, they're fragile and cranky (almost every bowl-back mandolin I've ever messed-about with qualifies on all points). Acoustic guitars from the period are very similar...most are falling to pieces, having been strung with wires and wailed upon by the unwashed.

You can't make everyone happy. Heck, they recorded digitally...where is Edison when you need him! ;-)

I like their music; I understand the need for "authentic instruments"...but really, I'm just happy they didn't use a tenor banjo!

[Patrick Garner]

Great discussion.