Rags and Ragtime

This well-known, highly praised book is the definitive history of ragtime music and its composers. Both authors are widely celebrated composers, performers, collectors, historians, and critics of ragtime music. With great enthusiasm and expertise, they trace the growth and diversification of ragtime from its earliest beginnings in the late nineteenth century through its heyday in the Folk, Classic, Popular, Novelty, and Stride Ragtime periods to its current revival.

Forty-eight major composers are discussed, including Scott Joplin, Zez Confrey, Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, and many other greats. In addition, 800 important rags are profiled, most of them bearing the carefree titles that were part of the tradition, titles like "Canned Corn Rag," "Bantam Step," "Too Much Raspberry," "Ragging the Scale," and "Red Onion Rag." Each profile includes date of publication, original publisher, a discography, and a commentary of the unique character and appeal of each rag.

Over 100 photographs, many of them rare, illuminate this lively chronicle, along with reproductions of original sheet music and many other items of interest from the authors' personal archives.

"Jasen and Tichenor have no peers in ragtime knowledge. . . .They are the two unchallengeable authorities in the field of ragtime history, personalities, and musical forms." - The Classic Rag.

"A combination encyclopedia/biography/history/analysis and review, it teems with what would appear to be everything the ragtime buff or casual inquirer needs or wants to know about the music that won't stand still." - The Christian Science Monitor.

"Rags and Ragtime tells it all. There's a lot here I didn't know in pictures, music, and words." - Eubie Blake.