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Chapter 5: The Ragtime Revival in Canada
SAD NEWS:
Canadian ragtime pianist John Arpin passed away on Thursday,
November 8, 2007, after battling cancer over the last short while.
He and his wife kept a blog
here
describing his battle.
Canada played an important role with the revival of ragtime in the
1960's primarily through the efforts of people like Ragtime Bob Darch
(resident in Toronto as a performer at Club 76), John Arpin and The
Canadian Ragtime Society. At around the same time, with the
publication of They All Played Ragtime (Blesh and Janis 1966),
ragtime music was well on its way to not only being revived but
thoroughly reinvigorated (for more on ragtime revival in the United
States, see John Edward Hasse, "Rudi Blesh and the Ragtime
Revivalists" (Hasse 1985:178) and Bill Edwards, "An
Essay on the Core of the First Ragtime Revival"). For many baby boomers, however, myself
included, ragtime awareness came later with the ragtime soundtrack to
the movie
The
Sting in 1973. In this section, I briefly review the
ragtime revival in Canada starting first with the important role
played by The Ragtime Society and its newsletter, The Ragtimer
(1962~1985), followed by brief profiles of a number of influential
Canadian (and American) ragtime enthusiasts who have played important
roles with the revival of ragtime in Canada.
5.1) The Ragtime Society and The Ragtimer
5.2) John Arpin
5.3) Mimi Blais
5.4) Eubie Blake
5.5) "Ragtime Bob" Darch
5.6) Lou Hooper
5.7) Austin Kitchen
5.8) David Lee
5.1) The Ragtime Society and
The Ragtimer [top]
Ragtime music in Canada never really died out among its main
enthusiasts and it could be argued that Canada played an integral role
in reviving ragtime music in the late 1950s. At that time (in 1959),
Ragtime Bob Darch arrived in Toronto with his Cornish Upright Grand
Five Pedal Saloon Piano and was a regular performer at Club 76 on St.
Clair St. West in Toronto, Ontario. Darch was instrumental in raising
funds to arrange for Joseph Lamb to come to Toronto that year for a
tribute and a performance: The October 3, 1959, edition of the Globe & Mail
(p. 16) describes Darch's fundraising to bring Joseph Lamb and
his wife to Toronto, mentioning a promise of Club 76 to pay into a United Appeal
Fund $2 for every $1 collected. Important ragtime performers,
including Eubie Blake, Max Morath and Johhny Maddox,
all performed at some point at Club 76. An ad for Club 76 in the
January 30, 1961, Globe & Mail advertised that Max Morath was
now in his 3rd week at the club and that Johhny
(Crazy Otto) Maddox would be coming soon!
It is in this context that the Ragtime Society
had its first formal meeting on January 19, 1962, in Toronto, Ontario
among a number of steadfast ragtime enthusiasts (note: the information
in this section on the history of The Ragtime Society comes mainly
from the March-April-May-June 1982 edition of
The Ragtimer). The Ragtime Society took as its motto the phrase
"Dedicated to the Preservation of Classical Ragtime." The Ragtime
Society was only later incorporated June 30, 1970, as a non profit
corporation in Ontario with its first directors being Jack Aldred, Anne Arpin,
John Arpin, Jean Cuff, Jack Cuff, John Fairhead, Idamay MacInnes and
Baron McCormick. Its first officers were John Arpin, President,
John Fairhead, Secretary and Idamay MacInnes, Treasurer.
The Society's first newsletter was published
in February 1962 and its first
sentence announced: "It is very gratifying to find so many Canadians and
Americans interested in Classic Ragtime."
|
|
Left: Sample cover (in black &
white; original covers and newsletters printed on coloured
stock) of the March/April 1980 The Ragtimer published by
the Ragtime Society (cover designed in 1968 by Jack Thompson of
Detroit. IL).
|
On May 4, 1962, a memorial concert was
organized for Joseph Lamb
at Massey Hall in Toronto with Robert Darch and the Toronto Symphony
Orchestra, with more than
2,500 persons in attendance.
Some of the early activities of the Society
included sourcing hard to find rags, producing a number of ragtime
records under the Scroll label and organizing annual "bashes" at which
members and invited guests entertained with ragtime music. In 1964,
the Society arranged for a limited edition reprinting of Scott
Joplin's ragtime opera Treemonisha. Also in 1964 was the
Society's first of many annual bashes. The bashes were energetic
affairs with numerous performers. The November/December 1976 edition
of The Ragtimer, for example, lists only some of the performers
as including William Bolcolm and Joan Morris, Terry Waldo,
Tex Wyndham, Eubie Blake (age 93), John Arpin, Loo Hooper, and The
Canadian Brass, with Amelia Lamb and Joe Lamb Jr. as guests. The
program notes indicate that performances, of which there were over 45,
went from 3 pm to past
midnight.
5.2) John Arpin
[top]
John Arpin (born December 3, 1936, died November
8, 2007) was one of
Canada's most renown pianists with a constant repertoire of classic
ragtime piano in addition to a variety of other musical styles. From
his official online biography (available
here), we learn that he was born in Port McNicoll, Ontario, and
graduated from the
Royal Conservatory of Music at the tender age of 16. Although
Arpin then attended the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, he
abandoned the academic experience in favour of performing at various
local establishments and conducting a choir. According to his
biography, Arpin "could also be found on the concert stage
accompanying an opera singer, or performing turn-of-the-century
music by Canadian composers on radio". He has recorded numerous CDs,
including a number of ragtime CDs. One of his more recent recordings
is the wonderful "Blue
Gardenia" featuring the Latin American music of Hal Isbitz
(highly recommended).
Arpin was awarded the Scott Joplin Award in 1998
by the Scott
Joplin Foundation in
Sedalia, Missouri.
Attending one of Arpin's concerts was a pleasure;
he usually lead off with a number of rags (often with Peacherine
Rag by Scott Joplin) and recounts numerous stories of his
friendship with Eubie Blake. At the last concert I saw in Toronto a
few years ago, one of his encores included a ragtime song,
When Ragtime Rosie Ragged the Rosary!
Known as the "Chopin of Ragtime," Arpin is a
versatile pianist, comfortable in any number of genres. He was
quoted in 1966 as saying that "I once figured out I know 2,000
tunes," at a time when he worked two gigs: performing ragtime at at
the Last Chance Saloon in Toronto until 8:30, and then moving Mister
Tony's in Yorkville where he performed show tunes and classical
piano (Scott:1966).
He is one of the few Canadian ragtimers to have an
entry in the
The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada
(see his entry
here). His official website is at
http://www.johnarpin.com. His wife kept a blog
here
describing his battle with cancer and many details about his (and
their) personal life.
5.3) Mimi Blais
[top]
Mimi is a pianist from Montreal, Quebec, whose
repertoire is heavily infused with ragtime music. She is
a regular performer at various ragtime festivals and has
recorded a number of CDs, including a CD of the rags of
Jéan-Baptiste LaFrenière (1874-1912),
himself a pianist and composer from Quebec who composed a number
of interesting rags and waltzes.
5.4) Eubie Blake
(February 7, 1887 - February 12, 1983) [top]
|
 |
Eubie Blake is a legendary ragtime
composer and performer. Although an American citizen, he
deserves mention in this essay on the ragtime revival in
Canada due to his numerous performances here in various
clubs and at annual "bashes" of the Canadian Ragtime
Society. The January/February 1974 edition of The
Ragtimer, for example, describes at page 17 the
first appearance of Ragtime Bob Darch and Eubie
appearing together in Canada on October 12, 1973 at York
University, as also evidenced by the poster to the left
from the
Maryland Historical Society.
I have been trying to ascertain
Eubie's other Canadian performances (and will need to
review The Ragtimer again in the neat future). So
far, I have confirmed the following additional dates:
- November 14 and 15, 1960, at Club
76 in Toronto at the invitation of Bob Darch
(source: Globe & Mail, 14 November 1960:24).
- July 27, 1968, at annual Ragtime
Society bash (source: Globe & Mail, 29 July
1968:12).
- November 1, 1969, at annual
Ragtime Society bash (source: Globe & Mail, 3
November 1969:14).
- 1970 Ragtime Society annual bash?
- November 6, 1971, at annual
Ragtime Society bash (source: Globe & Mail, 8
November 1971:18). He wrote and performed
Melodic Rag especially for this performance.
- October 23, 1976, at annual
Ragtime Society bash (source: Globe & Mail,
25 October 1976:16). In this article, Eubie admits
to the reporter that he was smoking cigarettes since
the age of 6.
- May 1, 1978, in Canada to tape a
TV show (Peter Appleyard Presents, CHCH) (source:
Globe & Mail, 1 May 1978:14).
- September 29, 1979, at annual
Ragtime Society bash (source: Globe & Mail, 1
October 1979:15).
- June 3, 1980: Broadway show
Eubie opens in Toronto for a 7-week run (source:
Globe & Mail, 4 June 1980:15).
|
5.5) "Ragtime Bob" Darch
[top]
"Ragtime Bob" Darch would qualify as an honorary
Canadian due to his important presence in Toronto at Club 76 during
the early 1960's and the role that he played in keeping ragtime
alive ("Ragtime is dead? Hell, it ain't even sick!"). He is credited
with encouraging Eubie Blake to come out of retirement and was
instrumental in organizing a trip by
Joseph F. Lamb to Toronto in
1959 for one of Lamb's very few public performances.
Darch was known for promoting ragtime through his
playing in saloons and any venue where he could play ragtime.
 |
Left: Newspaper Ad for "Club
76" in Toronto from the June 7, 1962, Globe & Mail
mentioning one of "Ragtime Bob" Darch's many appearances
at Club 76.
|
Known for his "Five Pedal Cornish Upright Saloon
Grand Piano," Darch was not only a ragtime player but also a
composer and researcher. Here is a picture of Darch standing next to
his famous piano with a note on the photo from Eubie Blake saying "Ragtime Bob Darch 1959 He's one
great Ragtime Pianist of his time. E.B"
.
Well-known ragtimer,
Ian Whitcomb,
has a nice online article entitled "Bob
Darch: My Adventures with the Great Man".
Darch recently passed away on October 20, 2002 in Springfield,
Missouri. The Rose Leaf Ragtime Club has
a nice online profile on this important ragtimer.
5.6) Lou Hooper
[top]
Lou Hooper was born in North Buxton, Ontario on May 18, 1884 and
died in Charlottetown, PEI, on September 17, 1977. Although Hooper
spent much of his musical career in the United States, he never
forgot his Canadian roots. He studies music in Detroit and also
formed a small orchestra and played for various local dances. He
served in a US army concert band during World War I, after which he
lived in Harlem, New York from 1921 to 1927 where he continued to
study music and play with various well known jazz bands, backing a
number of famous vocalists, including Ethel Waters, Ma Rainey and
Mamie Smith. He accompanied Paul Robeson on tour in 1926 and was a
member of Lew Leslie's Blackbirds.
Apparently, Hooper composed a number of ragtime
compositions, including The Cakewalk, Black Cat Blues
(1925),
South Sea Strut and Uncle Remus Stomp, but I have not yet
been able to locate copies of these pieces.
Hooper returned to Canada in the 1930's and ended
up in Montreal where he played in various bands and taught piano,
with one of his students being
Oscar
Peterson.
The Music Archives at the National Library of Canada has acquired
archival material on Lou Hooper (obtained from his wife in 1980
(click
here for more information).
5.7) Austin Kitchen
[top]
The September/October 1975 edition of The Ragtimer
provides a brief article (and photo) of Austin Kitchen and describes
him as the composer of The Mississauga Rag. He is also briefly
mentioned in the "ragtime"
entry to the
The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada as being from Mississauga,
Ontario. The article in The Ragtimer mentions that he was very
proud of the copy of the
1899 Charleston Rag by Eubie Blake that Blake personally sent
him. The article also mentions that Kitchen played piano at Casa Loma
in Toronto for 4 years and played with
King Ganam,
Tommy
Hunter and
Gordie Tapp
and that he also used to write reels and jigs on the
fiddle. I identified an additional piece composed by Kitchen, being
Once Upon a Time (Mississauga, ON: Eldorado Music Publications,
1975), but it is not clear whether or not this is a ragtime piano
composition.
5.8) David Lee
(Born: Hamilton, ON: 1934) [top]
David Lee is mentioned in the "ragtime"
entry to the
The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada
as being a lawyer from
Dundas,
Ontario, who has composed a number of rags published by his own
company, Dun-Val Music. I have been able to identify 11 rags composed
by Lee, listed below, but they have been difficult
to source (with the only source I have found so far being a folio of
David Lee rags held by the
Hamilton Public Library in Ontario,
which I recently borrowed).
A reader of this site recently sent an email
letting me know that the liner notes to David Lee's ragtime LP
called "Original Rags" provided more information about the composer,
containing the following comments by David Lee on his compositions:
My first five compositions--Scotty Dog Rag,
Pussy Cat Rag, Tough Bananas, Pumpkin Pie, and Salad
Dressing--followed the traditional classic rag formula with
their themes arranged A-A, B-B, A, C-C, D-D. They are
interesting from a musical was well as an academic point of
view, but the inherent repetitions in all rags make listening to
a seemingly endless succession of classic rags quite tedious,
with a bewildering confusion of music which "all sounds the
same". Someone said that the rhythms and dynamics of ragtime
form the basis of all music written since 1900
–
or, in other words, ragtime was absorbed by, or
developed into, present day music. With this in mind, I composed
one with a Latin rhythm (RAG-A-MA-TANGO), a waltz (EUPHORIA),
and two swing rags (THE SWINGER) and (SMOOTH MOVES). Again,
following Scott Joplin's admonition that "it is never right to
play ragtime fast", I reasoned that a slow, mood rag with
emphasis on the melodic line and expression would produce a nice
contrast to the more usual metronomic rhythm. Thus came LULLABY
RAG. Although its form is still classic, it is played in "dream"
tempo. My most recent work is SWAGGERIN' and it is a return to
the rhythms normally associated with ragtime, but its notation
is much more simple than in some of the others.
My objective in recording this collection was
to attempt to share with you the rich, rhythmic, syncopated
compositions which I've been delighted to discover. If, by
listening to this album, you derive even a fraction of the
pleasure I've had in composing and playing my rags, my efforts
will, indeed, be well rewarded.
The liner notes by Ross H. Wilby (from November
1976) also indicate that David Lee is married with four kids and
that he and his wife, Ruth, both have music degrees.
David Lee Ragtime Compositions
- Pussy Cat Rag. Dundas, ON: Dun-Val Music Publishers, 1975.
- Scotty Dog Rag. Dundas, ON: Dun-Val Music Publishers, 1975.
- Pumpkin Pie: A Rag Piano Solo. Dundas, ON: Dun-Val Music Publishers, 1975.
- Tough Bananas: A Rag Piano Solo. Dundas, ON: Dun-Val Music Publishers, 1975.
- Salad Dressing: A Rag Piano Solo.
Dundas, ON: Dun-Val Music Publishers, 1975.
- Lullaby Rag. Dundas, ON: Dun-Val Music Publishers, 1976.
- Rag-a-ma-Tango: Piano Solo. Dundas, ON: Dun-Val Music Publishers, 1976.
- Smooth Moves: A Swing Rag Piano Solo. Dundas, ON: Dun-Val Music Publishers, 1976.
- The Swinger: A Modern Rag Piano Solo. Dundas, ON: Dun-Val Music Publishers, 1976.
- Swaggerin': A Rag Piano Solo. Dundas, ON: Dun-Val Music Publishers, 1977.
- Euphoria: A Rag Waltz Piano Solo. Dundas, ON: Dun-Val Music Publishers, 1977.
In the next chapter, I have
included .MP3 recordings I have made of my playing of selected
ragtime music.
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