![]() (Zimmerman was the Artistic Director of the early Sedalia festivals.) Lots of ragtime celebrities would be there and there was even going to be a piano competition. “…It was Dick Zimmerman who informed me that there was going to be a Scott Joplin Festival in Sedalia that summer, and it might be a good idea for me to attend. I guess you could say with all that playing and practicing my chops were up! Flint Long at the first Scott Joplin Festival in 1974 So, after a day of pure practice, I would go play for four hours at Shakey’s five nights per week. I was single and living alone upstairs above a garage and was practicing about six or eight hours per day and making a living playing mostly ragtime at Shakey’s Pizza down the street. If I didn’t live 1,000 miles away, I’d probably be one of them.“It was through them that I met Max Morath, Eubie Blake, Knocky Parker, Joshua Rifkin and many others. Quite a few of the several hundred attendees come every year. It was good to see a number of my musician friends and meet other aficionados. Bill was joined on stage by several previous recipients, including the aforementioned Morath, Waldo, and Reffkin. Not to be overlooked at this program was the presentation of the Scott Joplin Memorial Award to “Perfessor” Bill Edwards, whose pianistic skills and extensive research on the genre were duly recognized. ![]() Then at the paid evening concert, Jeff again took to the rostrum to introduce all the participants, some playing solo, some in duos. I don’t think anyone left, despite the set running nearly twice as long as scheduled. To a (very) extended version of “Shake That Thing,” he got every musician in attendance in on the act. Who better to lead this set than the irrepressible Jeff Barnhart, a man whose poetic and emcee skills nearly match his keyboard prowess. The festival culminated late Saturday afternoon and evening, first in the Stark pavilion, a large tent set up in the street alongside the courthouse. But Sedalia always was a railroad town, and perhaps that inspired some of the music written there. The only distraction at one of the music venues is the frequent trains on the adjacent tracks. This time nobody had cause to complain we enjoyed four days almost completely rain- and humidity-free. It being Missouri and June, the weather is not always ideal. On the music front, we were treated to the first appearances by John Reed-Torres, Frenchman Sebastien Troendle, making his first-ever trip to the US (with his family), Frank LiVolsi, 15-year-old Daniel Souvigny, and Jazzou Jones, who has just retired from a long career as pianist on Mississippi and Ohio riverboats. It was a privilege to be in the company of these titans, who kept ragtime alive as the Eubie Blake era was winding down. ![]() In another seminar, Max, Terry Waldo, David Reffkin, and Dick Zimmerman, all of whom performed at the first Joplin in 1974, presented a panel discussion of the early years of the latest (and still ongoing) ragtime revival. Now nearing 90, Max is still vibrant, even though he no longer plays publicly. ![]() His presentation alone was worth the entire festival fee. To me, the most outstanding event this year was Max Morath’s symposium “Living a Ragtime Life”–a chronicle of his 50-plus years as a performer. If I could change one thing about the schedule, it would be to allow five or ten minutes between events, so one would not have to walk out early at one in order to arrive on time at the next, or arrive late and possibly not get a seat. There are free sets in three different outdoor venues, all within a few blocks’ walk, and paid concerts and symposia in the Liberty Center concert hall in the center of all the venues. The format seems to change little, however, but it evidently pleases the crowd.
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