Jazz aficionados are among the most dedicated --- and elitist ---
fans of any musical genre. The most hard-core will think nothing of
spending hours comparing Coltrane solos before and after he kicked
junk or dissecting the individual notes in a lengthy Ellington
suite. But despite that scholarly bent, many will also mistakenly
dismiss ragtime music as a simplistic, formulaic and unworthy
precursor of jazz --- just as one might treat an older and
embarrassing uncle at a family reunion.

Music journalists and ragtime experts Jasen and Jones hope to give
some credit where it is due in this collection of biographical
sketches of eight masters of ragtime and early jazz that also
discuss the evolution and impact of their individual musical
contributions. From the famous and the revered to the more obscure,
each man provides a crucial link in early jazz history. The goal of
BLACK BOTTOM STOMP is to argue for a much richer legacy of ragtime
than just "The Entertainer" (Joplin's familiar rag that became the
theme for the movie The Sting as well as thousands of ice
cream trucks around the country).

   

The authors quickly set out to present a different historical
setting for ragtime. While jazz fans are used to simply buying a
record of their favorite performer on demand, the bulk of ragtime
players (named for the "ragged," fast and syncopated rhythms made
on the piano) made their names more with sales of sheet music for
amateur players or the "rolls" they made for player pianos. They
would also think nothing perverse in providing the parlor
entertainment at a rough whorehouse one weekend and a ritzy society
ball the next. Many even held both bitter rivalries and great
friendships with each other as their careers and fortunes went up
and down.

   

Still, each man's story comes through clear in their chapters:
Willie "The Lion" Smith's flashy, challenging attitude that struck
fear in other players during cutting contests; Eubie Blake's utter
dismissal of ragtime for almost 40 years, only to embrace its
revival up until his death at 100; Fats Waller's need for food,
booze, and immediate cash, leading him to attempt to sell a song
and all rights for a mere $2.50; and Scott Joplin, despite his
initial bright burst of fame, dying penniless. Louis Armstrong, the
only non-pianist included, is viewed as both a bridge between
ragtime and jazz as well as arguably its greatest
practitioner.

   

But the most interesting sketch is that on the difficult,
egocentric, but undeniably brilliant Jelly Roll Morton who ---
despite his guffaw-inducing claims of having "invented" jazz in
1902 (at the age of 12!) had a life and career of Shakespearean
twists in terms of both triumph and misfortune. Not surprisingly,
the book's title comes from one of his most famous compositions,
and his picture --- rather than the better-known Waller or
Armstrong --- graces the cover.

If BLACK BOTTOM STOMP has a weakness, it's in its brevity and in
Jasen and Jones's straightforward, almost encyclopedic-style of
writing. And while the sketches offer little unfamiliar information
to ragtime and jazz fans and scholars, it does provide basic
summations to promote further study for the beginner. This is also
a book that literally screams for a companion CD of music. Reading
about James P. Johnson's piano style --- no matter how skillfully
or technically correct it is written --- cannot substitute for
hearing the master of the stride style play himself.

   

There are still many dedicated ragtime fans around the world. They
stage festivals, encourage new players and study, and continuously
search for lost or mythical recordings and sheet music. But if
musical styles can be seen as a pyramid, and jazz one of its
strongest and largest stones, then ragtime is at least one of the
foundation blocks on the bottom --- regardless of what some hepcats
and university professors might have you believe.