Early Ragtime History

The abolition of slavery led to new opportunities for the education of freed African-Americans. Although strict segregation limited employment opportunities for most blacks, many were able to find work in entertainment. Black musicians were able to provide low-class entertainment in dances, minstrel shows, and in vaudeville, where many marching bands formed. Colored pianists played in bars, clubs, and brothels, as ragtime developed. Ragtime appeared as sheet music, popularized by African American musicians such as the entertainer Ernest Hogan, whose hit songs happened in 1895. Two years later Vess Ossman recorded a medley of these songs as a banjo solo "Rag Time Medley". Also in 1897, the white composer William H. Krell published his Mississippi Rag as the first written piano instrumental ragtime piece, and Tom Turpin published his Harlem Rag, which was the first rag published by an African-American. The classically trained pianist Scott Joplin produced his Original Rags the following year, then in 1899 had an international hit with "Maple Leaf Rag". He wrote numerous popular rags, including, "The Entertainer", combining techniques like sycnopation, banjo figurations, and call and response, which led to the concept of ragtime being taken up by classical composers like Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky. Blues music was published and popularized by artists such as W.C. Handy, whose Memphis Blues of 1912 and St. Louis Blues of 1914 both became standards in the jazz world.

	Heftone Banjo Orchestra - Maple Leaf Rag .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Ragtime and Jazz itself is somewhat derived from Blues. Blues music is an american form and genre of music that originated in the deep southern United States in african-american communities. Its development can be traced as far back as tribal music in Africa. Slaves on plantations would sing spirituals, work songs, chants, field hollers, shouts, and simple ballads while working. Instruments that were popular were perccusive instruments, which could be a drum or a couple of sticks, and scarce string instruments such as guitar and banjo, which is actually an instrument of african origin. Early blues songs that are recorded are Robert Johnson's "Me and the Devil Blues", Son House's "grinnin' in your face", and "Sittin' on top of the World" by Howlin' Wolf.

	Son House - Grinnin in your face .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine