Scott Joplin.
This just in: Dennis Owsley, the host of Jazz Unlimited on St. Louis Public Radio 90.7 KWMU (he's also our sometimes-jazz-blogger), is debuting an ambitious project this weekend. Owsley's produced an eight-part radio documentary on the history of jazz in St. Louis, and it features not just historic recordings, but interviews with artists and historians. The first segment, "The Ragtime Era and The Roaring Twenties," broadcasts this Sunday from 9 p.m. to midnight. Owsley will play music by Tom Turpin, Scott Joplin, Charles Creath, Dewey Jackson and more, and air interviews with historian Judge Nathan Young; Trebor Tichenor, who cut his teeth playing ragtime in Gaslight Square; SIngleton Palmer, tuba player; bandleader Eddie Johnson; trumpeter David Hines, great-grandson of Charles Creath IV; and Clark Terry, who has just been inducted into the Jazz at Lincoln Center's Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame.
Owsley is also the author of City of Gabriels, a study of St. Louis' jazz history; that book's title alludes to the many, many fine trumpeters who came out of this city, Miles Davis among them. Sunday's program will focus more on the piano, which was the central instrument of Ragtime. Owsley says the program will look at several topics, including who was really St. Louis' king of Ragtime, and the role Ragtime played at the 1904 World's Fair; how jazz developed on the riverboats; and how Bix Beiderbecke’s time in St. Louis radically affected him as a musician.
And how could this timing be more impeccable? Also on Sunday, there is a reception from 2 to 4pm for the historical exhibit "Scott Joplin's Neighborhood," at the Rosebud Cafe (2658 Delmar), co-curated by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the Scott Joplin House Neighborhood History Committee. The exhibit will look at how "characters of place nurtured and inspired innovations in art, culture and politics," including, of course, Ragtime music. For more information, call the Missouri Department of Natural Resources at 800-334-6946, or visit the Scott Joplin House Historical Site online. Sounds like the perfect outing prior to Sunday night's radio show.
