Sounds of ragtime return to Sedalia

Sedalia’s ragtime heritage came to syncopated life Wednesday with a kickoff concert for the 30th Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival at State Fair Community College.

The first day of the festival, which runs through Sunday, featured free music through the day in the atrium of SFCC’s Stauffacher Center, and a ticketed concert — “It’s a Ragtime Zoo” —  in the auditorium. A large and enthusiastic crowd enjoyed samplings from a range of performers from this year’s event, both returning favorites and first-time acts. The concert, hosted by Tulsa, Okla. pianist Donald Ryan, included performances by Ryan, the Bill Brown Ragtime Orchestra, Bill Edwards, Max Keenlyside, Ragtime Razzamatazz, Stephanie Trick, and Brett Youens.

Nora Hulse, pianist for Ragtime Razzamatazz, focused the group’s selections on her academic specialty, women ragtime composers, including a piece by Texas composer Susie Wells. Hulse said Wells “is one of only two women of black heritage that wrote a rag.”

The event also featured two original compositions by Youens, a Texas pianist who now lives in Germany. The songs, “Billygoat” and “Kangaragaroo” form part of a larger work Youens described as “a lifelong project” in which he plans to compose a rag in every musical key.

“I wanted to challenge myself and see my own development,” Youens told the crowd.

Ryan, who was recently inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, noted the performances of the event’s younger performers, Trick and Keenlyside, as a sign the style of music continues to attract fresh faces.

Ryan said playing ragtime helps him improve his classical style of playing and “I enjoy the light-hearted style and presentation of ragtime.”

He said Joplin may have failed in his dream to make ragtime competitive with classical compositions coming from Europe at the time, but believes the spirit and energy of ragtime make it an important American musical style.

“That flame is still alive and I have a great admiration and respect for Scott Joplin,” Ryan said.

Trick and Keenlyside seemed to agree.

Trick, 23, is a St. Louis pianist who is making her name internationally as a “stride pianist.”

Trick said stride playing refers to the movement of the hand along the keys to reach the bass notes and describes it as a forerunner of improvisational jazz, and was popularized by players like Fats Waller and Jelly Roll Morton.

“Ragtime still speaks to the audience — it still swings. I enjoy getting to play music with so much energy and joy,” Trick said.

At 18, Canadian pianist Keenlyside has joined Trick as a small group of young artists hoping to keep ragtime’s legacy alive. A largely self-taught performer, Keenlyside said he started playing piano at the age of 9, and became interested in ragtime after hearing the soundtrack to the movie “The Sting.”

“It just really appealed to me. With the younger players coming up it is almost a cult following — there are just a few of us but we are still writing new rags and reaching new audiences so in that way it is still vibrant and alive,” Keenlyside said.

Festival activities make their way to various downtown venues Thursday, beginning at 9 a.m. with free music at the  Maple Leaf Club Site at the corner of East First Street and North Lamine Avenue.

For tickets and a full schedule of events, visit scottjoplin.org or call 866-218-6258, or see the entertainment calendar in the Swoop section at sedaliademocrat.com.