Ragtime Medley

[Charles Blake]

I was looking for the dots to this Ossman solo. Anyone out there have them.

[Trapdoor2]

Yup. Here's the CE version...

[Jody Stecher]

The 1898 Ossman recording is, to my mind, of some astonishing banjo playing. There's a cylinder playback on Youtube that is in better sonic condition than the one in the Original Recordings here on this forum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0iJ84t7Fhg

[Jody Stecher]

And the youtube recording is closer to A 440 D minor therefore a bit slower than the recording here, which is more or less a half step higher and very fast,

Jody Stecher said:

The 1898 Ossman recording is, to my mind, of some astonishing banjo playing. There's a cylinder playback on Youtube that is in better sonic condition than the one in the Original Recordings here on this forum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0iJ84t7Fhg

[Jody Stecher]

Having entered the recording into The Amazing Slowdowner I can now see that the transcription is not entirely representative of what is on the recording (it never is with Ossman) but it's a very good start to getting a handle on this banjo solo. I'm going to try to learn to play it.  It would be much harder without the notation, imperfect as it is.  So thank you Charles and Marc for shining a beam on this banjo solo.

Jody Stecher said:

And the youtube recording is closer to A 440 D minor therefore a bit slower than the recording here, which is more or less a half step higher and very fast,

Jody Stecher said:

The 1898 Ossman recording is, to my mind, of some astonishing banjo playing. There's a cylinder playback on Youtube that is in better sonic condition than the one in the Original Recordings here on this forum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0iJ84t7Fhg

[Trapdoor2]

According to the internet, the tunes in the medley are: "Mr. Johnson, turn me loose", "All Coons look alike to me", and There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight."

[Jody Stecher]

Yikes, that sours me on the project. Horrible words to those songs.

Trapdoor2 said:

According to the internet, the tunes in the medley are: "Mr. Johnson, turn me loose", "All Coons look alike to me", and There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight."

[Trapdoor2]

I tend to be careful with any music from this period that doesn't have a specific title associated with it...so I look them up. The whole period is full of horrific lyrics. All of those songs were exceptionally popular in the 1890s..."Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight", being the least offensive of the three, the chorus is still commonly used.

There is another Ragtime medley (called "Three Ragtime Melodies") associated with Ossman and Clem Vickery has it for sale on the CE Music website. Same format, a banjo solo medley based on popular Coon songs of the period.

I don't terribly mind offensive tune titles, if the music is worth it. Titles are easy to alter ("Banjotown/Morleytown") and I'm not playing for an audience...but a full set of offensive lyrics? Nope. Not if I can help it.

Jody Stecher said:

Yikes, that sours me on the project. Horrible words to those songs.

Trapdoor2 said:

According to the internet, the tunes in the medley are: "Mr. Johnson, turn me loose", "All Coons look alike to me", and There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight."

[Joel Hooks]

My view on title-- just change them if you want (but be mindful of the original title and ready to discuss or elaborate historical context).

"Coon Songs" are tough though, and despite the lyrics, were popular for a reason as the melodies were often very good. But I don't blame someone for being sour and not wanting to play them.  But racism and this era is pretty much unavoidable. 

I will add that I find medleys generally do not go over well for some reason, even if they are jammed with well known melodies (well, known melodies to nerds like us).  But I personally like them.  I particularly like when composers "sample" melodies in new works. 

I'll admit that I find myself relecutent to work on instrumentals with objective titles, even knowing that I can just change it. 

That said, "Razors in the Air" has some pretty terrible lyrics and subject matter and yet...

An example of this is "Frolic of the Coons".  One of my favorite FVE recordings. And I have worked out a pretty good arrangement.  But the image the piece conjers in my mind is not the subject of the title, but rather a still evening with a full moon reflecting on a body of water. Therefore I have renamed it "Frolic of the Moon" which to me suits the piece better.

For the most part, these racist titles don't actually suit the pieces best but were most likely chosen strictly because that sort of thing had a proven sales record.