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This site is dedicated to syncopated piano music. It contains downloadable MIDI sequences of ragtime, stride, swing and novelty piano. You can hear my versions of compositions by Scott Joplin, Eubie Blake, James P. Johnson, Willie "The Lion" Smith, Fats Waller and other pioneers, as well as some of their contemporary progeny.
You will need a MIDI player in order to listen to the music. Most computers come with sound cards that will allow you to hear my sequences; however, a wavetable sound card or an external sound module will give the best results.
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Ragtime's golden age was between 1899 (with the publication of Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag") and 1917 (the year he died). More than six thousand rags were published during those eighteen years. You can find on my web site many examples of Joplin's work as well as those of his contemporaries and stylistic progeny.
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Stride piano (also known as Harlem stride piano) grew out of ragtime music. The energetic and dynamic style was fathered by James P. Johnson who mentored Thomas "Fats" Waller, perhaps the most famous stridemeister of all. The third "father" of stride was Willie "The Lion" Smith.
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Swing music grew out of stride piano. The swing revolution resulted in the tremendous popularity of big bands during the 1930s and 1940s. Perhaps the greatest practitioner of swing piano was the incomparable Art Tatum, who is prominently featured on my site.
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This style was born in 1921 with the publication of novelty piano patriarch Zez Confrey's "Kitten on the Keys" and "My Pet". Novelty took the nation by storm for the next seven years, challenging parlor pianists with unusual left- and right-hand syncopations as well as with blazing-speed keyboard pyrotechnics.
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