They All Played Ragtime

by Rudi Blesh, Harriet Janis

Rear cover "THEY ALL PLAYED RAGTIME is a lively and fascinating book about a lively and fascinating American music that flowered with the dawn of this century, faded with World War I, and today is staging an unprecedented nationwide revival. Here - in an updated, expanded new edition - is the whole true story of ragtime, from its Gay 90's origins in the bordellos of Sedalia and St. Louis, to its sweeping successes in America and Europe. Here are the lives of the colorful men who created the intoxicating ragtime syncopations - authentic, homespun geniuses like Scott Joplin, James, Scott, Joe Lamb, and many more - once forgotten but now being affectionately and respectfully remembered. For general readers there are nostalgia and romance in these pages. For serious students there are exhaustive lists of composers, compositions, piano rolls, and sound recordings. For performers there are the complete piano scores of 16 rags, from yesterday to today, most of them previously unpublished and available only here."

Genres: Music, Jazz, Nonfiction

347 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1950

Reviews

[Rene · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a novel, it is a reference book. It describes the development of ragtime music. However, the book is so filled of facts that it is difficult to read.
Nevertheless there is hardly a fact about Ragtime music that cannot be found in this book. It contains a vaste reference section with literature and music references at the end. Of course this secion is dated, the book being from 1971. 
All this put together I give it three stars in 2014. It still is the standard work on this music, after all.

[Djll · Rating 5 out of 5]

In some respects this book is pretty out of date, being based on research done in the 1930s-1950s. But precisely for that same reason, it captures voices of musicians far beyond the reach of today's historians. A wholly sympathetic portrait of the composers and piano-players who created ragtime and the mass-market industry that sprang up around them.

[Dan Souvigny · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great tribute to America's greatest music.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting... lots of detail on the early ragtime players.