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  • Does anyone recognize what this piece is?

    From Willie Williams@21:1/5 to All on Thu Apr 28 14:05:44 2022
    Hi ragtime folks. My cousin, John Johnson, who died a couple of years ago, played and recorded this piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUCr-Q7RE1I
    Many of the pieces his brother sent me are familiar, Scott Joplin, Fats Waller, etc. But I don't recognize this one. John's playing was sometimes pretty frantic and, well, loose, so maybe he even merged multiple piece together here. But does anyone
    recognize the basic piece here? I would really like to find other recordings of it, partly because I think it's a cool piece, and also to see how far afield John went with it.

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  • From Bob Pinsker@21:1/5 to williamg...@gmail.com on Sun May 1 23:07:47 2022
    On Thursday, April 28, 2022 at 2:05:45 PM UTC-7, williamg...@gmail.com wrote:
    Hi ragtime folks. My cousin, John Johnson, who died a couple of years ago, played and recorded this piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUCr-Q7RE1I
    Many of the pieces his brother sent me are familiar, Scott Joplin, Fats Waller, etc. But I don't recognize this one. John's playing was sometimes pretty frantic and, well, loose, so maybe he even merged multiple piece together here. But does anyone
    recognize the basic piece here? I would really like to find other recordings of it, partly because I think it's a cool piece, and also to see how far afield John went with it.


    Sure, that's Zez Confrey's seminal "Kitten on the Keys" (published in 1921, composed slightly earlier.) It's the canonical "piano novelty". Very, very popular in its day, and even now.

    Bob P.

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  • From Willie Williams@21:1/5 to Bob Pinsker on Mon May 2 06:36:47 2022
    On Monday, May 2, 2022 at 2:07:47 AM UTC-4, Bob Pinsker wrote:
    On Thursday, April 28, 2022 at 2:05:45 PM UTC-7, williamg...@gmail.com wrote:
    Hi ragtime folks. My cousin, John Johnson, who died a couple of years ago, played and recorded this piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUCr-Q7RE1I
    Many of the pieces his brother sent me are familiar, Scott Joplin, Fats Waller, etc. But I don't recognize this one. John's playing was sometimes pretty frantic and, well, loose, so maybe he even merged multiple piece together here. But does anyone
    recognize the basic piece here? I would really like to find other recordings of it, partly because I think it's a cool piece, and also to see how far afield John went with it.
    Sure, that's Zez Confrey's seminal "Kitten on the Keys" (published in 1921, composed slightly earlier.) It's the canonical "piano novelty". Very, very popular in its day, and even now.

    Bob P.
    You prince! Thanks, Bob. I see even Liberace did it. Why is it called a "novelty song"? It strikes me as pretty straight ragtime. What am I missing here?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Kevin Anderson@21:1/5 to williamg...@gmail.com on Mon May 30 13:32:03 2022
    On Thursday, April 28, 2022 at 2:05:45 PM UTC-7, williamg...@gmail.com wrote:
    Hi ragtime folks. My cousin, John Johnson, who died a couple of years ago, played and recorded this piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUCr-Q7RE1I
    Many of the pieces his brother sent me are familiar, Scott Joplin, Fats Waller, etc. But I don't recognize this one. John's playing was sometimes pretty frantic and, well, loose, so maybe he even merged multiple piece together here. But does anyone
    recognize the basic piece here? I would really like to find other recordings of it, partly because I think it's a cool piece, and also to see how far afield John went with it.

    It was probably covered by Bechet and/or Armstrong. I thought it might be "Cakewalking Babies from Home." It sounds like that early post-Joplin era.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)