Scott Joplin personified ragtime; he was its chief champion, the figure most closely associated with its composition. It was Joplin's short, hard-driving melodies- -and the syncopated backbone he furnished them--that helped define the musical parameters of ragtime, a style that gave voice to the African American experience during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Sadly, for all his accomplishments in putting a new musical form on the map, Joplin spent his final years madly obsessed with a fruitless crusade to enter, if not conquer, another arena: opera, the staid, classical venue accepted by a white community that had for so long ridiculed ragtime as cheap, vulgar, and facile black music.
March 30, 2017
Jazz this week: Kneebody, a tribute to Scott Joplin, "Sculptures in...
June 07, 2013
Jazz This Week: Rick Haydon Quartet, Terence Blanchard, Ragtime at...
May 29, 2013
Scott Joplin House to Host Free Ragtime Concert on Wednesday, June 12
May 07, 2011
American Classics Performing Songs of Scott Joplin at Longy School in...
July 05, 2009
When Scott Met Irving ... or Didn't
November 09, 2008
Jazz at the Bistro, Scott Joplin House Named in Article on "Nine Great...