The Allegheny City Ragtime Orchestra December 19, 2019

Copyright © 2019                              John F. Oyler 

December 19, 2019

The Allegheny City Ragtime Orchestra

About a year ago I heard the Allegheny City Ragtime Orchestra in concert at the Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall here in Carnegie. I enjoyed that concert immensely and have been looking for a chance to hear them again ever since. Recently, thanks to the website of their leader Tom Roberts, I learned that they would be performing on a Sunday afternoon in Foxburg. 

Foxburg is located on the Allegheny River just south of Emlenton, where I-80 crosses the river. Seemed like a good excuse for a bit of Sunday driving, so I persuaded my daughter Elizabeth to go along with me. It turned out to be an excellent decision; the concert was delightful.

The concert was a project of the Allegheny RiverStone Center for the Arts, a very active organization that sponsors a variety of cultural events in this small community which is itself a tourist destination. It was performed in Lincoln Hall, a recently restored performance space located atop the Foxburg Free Library.

The Allegheny City Ragtime Orchestra was created by Tom Roberts in 2013 to preserve the heritage of ragtime composers and musicians in the Pittsburgh area. Its members are current topflight Pittsburgh area symphonic musicians who perform regularly with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra, and the Pittsburgh Ballet Orchestra.

The Ragtime Orchestra includes Roberts on keyboard, Jose Puentes on String Bass, Maureen Conlon Gutierrez on violin, Elisa Kohanski on cello, Kira Bokalders on clarinet, Julie McGough on flute, Stephen McGough (Julie’s husband) on trumpet, and Aaron Pisula on trombone. Each of them came across as an excellent individual musician; together they play superbly in ensemble.

Tom Roberts is a remarkable musical polymath – stride pianist, composer, American music historian. Last spring the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania hosted a special showing of an historic Japanese silent movie, they engaged him to compose appropriate background music. Recently I heard him give a fascinating lecture on traditional jazz, playing original 78 RPM records on an antique hand-cranked portable Victrola, to demonstrate the superiority of analog reproduction.

The orchestra began with two familiar Scott Joplin rags – “ The Maple Leaf Rag” and “The Entertainer” – to exemplify the two eras of popularity for the genre. Beginning with “Maple Leaf” in 1899, ragtime became wildly popular throughout the United States before being replaced by “hot” jazz after World War I. It was virtually forgotten until the 1970s when featuring “the Entertainer” in the film “The Sting” initiated a major revival and ensured ragtime its place as a major genre.

After playing “Sunflower Slow Drag”, the orchestra then played “The Ragtime Dance”, which actually a folk ballet intended for narration and choreography. Both pieces confirm Joplin’s genius, as do “Sugar Cane” and “Scott Joplin’s New Rag”, which followed one of Roberts’ own compositions, “The Allegheny Rag”. It was written in loving memory of Allegheny City, a thriving metropolis that was annexed by the City of Pittsburgh in 1911.

After intermission the orchestra played two selections from the concert I heard last year – “Clef Club March” and “The Castle Perfect Trot” (written for popular dancers Vernon and Irene Castle). That concert was dedicated to James Reese Europe, the brilliant black band leader/composer who met an untimely death in 1919 They also performed “Queen Louise”, a nineteenth century waltz by Danish composer Hans Christian Lumbye. 

Roberts then changed the mood with a pair of piano solos from a program I saw him do on New Orleans pianists. He began with the brilliant rhythm and blues pianist James Booker by playing a staccato version of “Tico Tico” as Booker would have played it. He explained how Booker had persuaded New Orleans District Attorney Harry Connick Sr. to nullify a jail sentence in return for piano lessons for Connick’s son. Roberts played “Winter Wonderland” as Booker’s pupil, Harry Connick Jr., would have performed it.

The concert ended with Joplin’s haunting “Magnetic Rag”, his last published work. Some critics believe it was the closest Joplin came to establishing his credentials as a composer of classical music as he tried to merge ragtime elements with the classical sonata form. Beyond a doubt Scott Joplin was a true genius whose music has a place in our heritage.

The entire concert was completely enjoyable, as well as being educational. This orchestra certainly warrants our support. Like their leader, they are an underappreciated Pittsburgh treasure. Driving to Foxburg was a small price to pay for such an experience; nonetheless one wishes there were more opportunities to hear the orchestra here in Pittsburgh.