Eubie Blake student Waldo Terry, ragtime piano

We have never done a full seven-day week of postings before; but then we have never been surprised by someone who provided us with a veritable treasure trove of beautiful music sung on Broadway. On Wednesday night, Joanna May Cullinan contacted us and opened our eyes to the existence of two marvelous albums that had been recorded many years ago—“Sissle & Blake Sing Shuffle Along” and “Shuffle Along of 1950.” We found “Sissle & Blake Sing Shuffle Along” on youtube and heard the glorious music that we have been sharing this week.

And if you live in the Cleveland area, the Karamu Theatre will be holding a special concert February 7-10 about the history of Shuffle Along.

People don’t necessarily understand the work that goes into restoring existing recordings—finding them, dusting them off and getting them ready for a commercial release. When that happens, one of the ways that you can show your support is by buying the albums they produce. http://harbingerrecords.com/sissle-and-blake/

Now, today, let’s examine how to play ragtime music on the piano. We are going to feature Terry Waldo, a student of Eubie Blake, who prepared a video primer for Jazz at Lincoln Center’s JAZZ ACADEMY. It is about 17 minutes long and is a wonderful explanation and illustration of ragtime music. You can also hear how Irving Berlin ragged songs and came up with “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” and at the 12-minute mark, “I Love a Piano.” He then finishes with Eubie Blake’s “Charleston Rag.”