Jazz Archives:
Ragtime Piano, Part II

Phil Elwood presents a program on the evolution of Ragtime music from Scott Joplin to Jelly Roll Morton. The early composers of Ragtime saw themselves foremost as composers and looked down on the unschooled musicians that later adapted Ragtime into what became known as Jazz. Joplin in particular was rather conservative in his approach to Ragtime, and did little to include the swinging beat that was to be popularized by later musicians such as Jelly Roll Morton. Most of this music predates modern recording techniques and was typically cut onto rolls that could be performed by a player piano. Elwood plays a selection of tunes that span the time from the turn of the 20th century up to the 1920s when Jazz first began to come into its own.