Famous Ragtime Guitar Solos by Ton Van Bergeyk

Por sus cualidades tímbricas y posibilidades arreglísticas, la guitarra acústica parece el instrumento más adecuado para el Ragtime... cuando no hay un piano a mano. Combinando los característicos estilos sincopados de Blind Blake y Rev. Gary Davis, con la técnica clásica también muy popular a la hora de abordar el repertorio de Scott Joplin a la guitarra, el holandés Ton Van Bergeyk (nacido en 1953) se ganó una merecida reputación a partir de 1973 con sus discos para el sello de Stefan Grossman, como "Famous Ragtime Guitar Solos", "Guitar Instrumentals To Tickle Your Fingers", "Black & Tan Fantasy" (mi favorito, con soberbios arreglos del tema de Duke Ellington, y otros conocidos standards, como "I Got Rhythm" o "Blue Monk") y su participación en antologías como "How To Play Ragtime Guitar". Estas grabaciones, que han hecho babear de admiración ya a varias generaciones de aficionados a la guitarra acústica, tenían además una componente didáctica nada desdeñable, con las correspondientes tablaturas incluídas en la mayoría de ellos.
Hoy día ya parece cosa habitual encontrar apabullantes virtuosos que beben en fuentes similares (Blake y Joplin, principalmente, junto a otras diversas influencias en cada caso concreto), como Tim Sparks o Ernie Hawkins, por citar sólo dos preferencias personales, cuyos repertorios, además, rebasan con creces el de los maestros de la síncopa de las primeras décadas del siglo XX. Pero ello no debe hacernos olvidar a los que fueron pioneros en esto del Ragtime guitarrero a principios de los 70, como Van Bergeyk (atención a sus vídeos actuales, que apuntamos bajo estas líneas), y como Leo Winjkamp Jr, John James, Lasse Johansson, Dave Laibman, Rick Schoenberg, Dale Miller o el propio Grossman. Volveremos a referirnos, en breve, a esta variante instrumental y estilística en la que, sin duda, hay mucha tela que cortar, guitarrísticamente hablando.

-Jay Bee Rodríguez

Dutch guitar hero Ton Van Bergeyk's 1970s recordings for guitarist Stefan Grossman's Kicking Mule label were enormously influential in the world of finger-style acoustic guitar. Van Bergeyk's first album, 1973's FAMOUS RAGTIME GUITAR SOLOS, sports a pretty self-explanatory title; it's basically just Bergeyk blazing his way through some dauntingly complex finger-picking patterns on the likes of "Buffalo Rag" and "King Porter Stomp," throwing down the gauntlet for six-string ragtimers everywhere.

-All Music Guide

01. Buffalo Rag           
02. Atlanta Rag           
03. Felicity Rag           
04. Blake's Breakdown #2           
05. Grizzly Bear           
06. Ragtime Nightmare           
07. Silver Swan           
08. King Porter Stomp           
09. Pineapple Rag           
10. Smokey Mokes           
11. Powder Rag
12. Original Rags           
13. Harlem Rag           
14. American Beauty Rag


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Blake's Breakdown - Famous Ragtime Guitar Solos

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljhkoB-qyXE

Kansas City Stomp (Jelly Roll Morton) by Ton Van Bergeyk

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf-U_nbKXOM

Junk Man Rag - Fingerstyle guitar by Ton Van Bergeyk

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKMRoRUz6mU

 

Scott Joplin - The Red Back Book, by The New England Conservatory Ragtime Orchestra

Algunas de las más conocidas composiciones de Ragtime, pero no interpretadas en el instrumento habitual en esta música, sino por toda una orquesta de cámara. ¿El resultado? Fascinante. Y contagioso. De hecho, éste álbum -junto a la peli 'El Golpe', naturalmente- fue uno de los responsables en los primeros años 70 de que pianistas, y guitarristas también, se animaran casi en masa a desempolvar las partituras de Scott Joplin. Partituras que acumulaban por aquel entonces varios dedos de polvo injustamente, llegaron a sonar, hasta el hartazgo o casi, en discos, más discos, películas, más películas, y hasta en las máquinas tragaperras de medio mundo y parte del otro. Algo de culpa en esto tuvo el señor Gunther Schuller y su Orquesta de Ragtime del Conservatorio de Nueva Inglaterra. Hoy día se le añade el calificativo de 'clásico' a prácticamente cualquier cosa. Scott Joplin es el clásico norteamericano por definición, el Ragtime. Joplin no sabía italiano, para añadir las correspondientes anotaciones de tempo, pero dejó bastante claro en muchas de sus partituras cómo debía tocarse esta música: no acelerarse, ¡nada de correr por correr!

-Jay Bee Rodríguez

Back around 1910, John Stark published "Fifteen Standard High Class Rags," a folio soon nicknamed "The Red Back Book" and containing colorful arrangements for 11 ragtime pieces, mostly by Scott Joplin. In 1973 Gunther Schuller and the New England Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble recorded seven of the charts plus a new reworking of "Sugar Cane"; a pair of piano solos by Myron Romanul (of "The Entertainer" and "Sun Flower Slow Drag") round out this highly enjoyable set. Hearing Joplin's music interpreted by a group consisting of trumpet, trombone, clarinet, flute/piccolo, tuba, piano, bass, drums and a string quartet helps cast new light on these vintage themes. The album is highly recommended for ragtime collectors.

Here is music by the most prominent American ragtime composer, Scott Joplin, performed in a manner (11-12 instruments) slightly different from the usual (solo piano). The program contains 60 minutes of the familiar (and, in a couple instances, the unfamiliar) Joplin music that became popular at the turn of the 20th century, then fell into oblivion, and had a revival in the early 1970s. This cd brings together two lps released by EMI/Angel during that '70s revival: "Red Back Book" containing 8 selections performed by students from the New England Conservatory conducted by Gunther Schuller; and "Elite Syncopations", which includes 8 pieces featuring pianist Ralph Grierson with the Southland Stingers. Gunther Schuller's distinguished career has included a crucial role in the third-stream movement, which sought to fuse jazz and classical composition and flourished in the late 1950s and early '60s. Schuller also wrote a series of brilliant musicological studies of early jazz. As musical director of the New England Ragtime Ensemble, he has brought very high standards to performance of classic ragtime compositions, beginning with the 1973 recording The Art of Scott Joplin, devoted to the form's most famous composer. The Art of the Rag, recorded in 1989, takes a different tack, mixing pieces of classic ragtime from the beginning of the 20th century with contemporary compositions that work within the form's structural and rhythmic patterns.

Whether the work is ancient or modern, the Ensemble brings high precision, genuine vigor, and a fresh luster to the material. Among the fascinating period pieces are relatively well-known works by Joplin, including "Heliotrope Bouquet," and by Jelly Roll Morton, whose "Black Bottom Stomp" and "Grandpa's Spells" seem to travel back in time from their jazz origins. Less well-known but equally deserving of attention are James Reese Europe's "Castle Walk" and "Castle House Rag." Among the modern works, Schuller's own "Sandpoint Rag" and Robert Carriker's "Mattapan Rag" sit most comfortably in the form.

-Stuart Broomer

01. The Cascades
02. Sunflower Slow Drag
03. The Chrysanthemum
04. The Ragtime Dance
05. Sugar Cane
06. Easy Winners
07. The Entertainer
08. Maple Leaf Rag 09. Elite Syncopations
10. Heliotrope Bouquet
11. The Nonpareil
12. The Strenuous Life
13. The Sycamore
14. Binks' Waltz
15. Eugenia
16. Something Doing

Recording information: Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, Boston, MA (02/12/1973-06/25/1974); Studio A, Capitol Records, Hollywood, CA (02/12/1973-06/25/1974).

Arranger: George Sponhaltz. Dir.: Gunther Schuller.

Personnel: Gerald Vinci, Tibor Pusztai, Juan Ramirez-Hernandez, Nathan Ross (violin); Juan Dandridge, Allan Harshman (viola); Bruce Coppock, Marie Fera (cello); Ronnie Lang (flute, piccolo); Victor Sawa, Dominic Fera (clarinet); Charles Lewis, John Audino, Mario Guarneri (trumpet); Dick Nash (trombone); Gary Ofenloch, Tommy Johnson (tuba); Myron Romanul (piano); Mark Belair, Shelly Manne (drums).


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Scott Joplin: Ragtime Classics

Un poco atronadora la toma de sonido en esta "anónima" versión de una buena parte de los clásicos del rey del Ragtime. Pero, en fin, son todos los que están y, como introducción, pues bueno, podría servir. Más cositas de ragtime en próximos posts.

-Jay Bee Rodríguez

Scott Joplin (ca. 1867 – April 1, 1917) was an American composer and pianist. Joplin achieved fame for his ragtime compositions, and was later dubbed "The King of Ragtime". During his brief career, Joplin wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. One of his first pieces, the "Maple Leaf Rag", became ragtime's first and most influential hit, and has been recognized as the archetypal rag.


Joplin was born into a musical African American family of laborers in Northeast Texas, and developed his musical knowledge with the help of local teachers. During the late 1880s he travelled around the American South as an itinerant musician, and went to Chicago for the World's Fair of 1893 which played a major part in making ragtime a national craze by 1897.
Publication of his "Maple Leaf Rag" in 1899 brought him fame and had a profound influence on subsequent writers of ragtime. It also brought the composer a steady income for life with royalties of one cent per sale, equivalent to 26 cents per sale in current value.

During his lifetime, Joplin did not reach this level of success again and frequently had financial problems, which contributed to the loss of his first opera, A Guest of Honor. He continued to write ragtime compositions, and moved to New York in 1907. He attempted to go beyond the limitations of the musical form which made him famous, without much monetary success. His second opera, Treemonisha, was not received well at its partially staged performance in 1915. He died from complications of tertiary syphilis in 1917.

Joplin's music was rediscovered and returned to popularity in the early 1970s with the release of a million-selling album of Joplin's rags recorded by Joshua Rifkin, followed by the Academy Award–winning movie The Sting which featured several of his compositions, such as "The Entertainer". The opera Treemonisha was finally produced in full to wide acclaim in 1972. In 1976, Joplin was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize.

(Wikipedia)

01.Bethena
02.Euphonic Sounds
03.Fig Leaf Rag
04.Gladiolus Rag
05.Heliotrope Bouquet
06.Maple Leaf Rag
07.Pine Apple Rag
08.The Ragtime Dance
09.Scott Joplin's New Rag
10.Solace: A Mexican Serenade
11.Stoptime Rag
12.Sunflower Slow Drag
13.Swipesy
14.The Cascades 15.The Easy Winners
16.The Entertainer
17.A Breeze from Alabama
18.Antoinette
19.Binks' Waltz
20.Combination March
21.Eugenia
22.Felicity Rag
23.Original Rags
24.Palm Leaf 25.Paragon Rag
26.Search-Light Rag
27.Sensation
28.Sugar Cane
29.The Great Crush Collision
30.The Favorite
31.The Nonpareil
32.The Strenuous Life
33.Wall Street Rag

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