August Features
Theatre where the Blind Boone Festival concerts were held.
Continued: Blind Boone Festival
The homage to Boone continued on Tuesday afternoon with a fascinating seminar by Mike Shaw, a local expert on Boone's history whose ongoing research efforts seem to turn up new information annually. This year he was joined by Davis, who contributed many facts he had unearthed while he was preparing to record Boone's music.
ragtime pianists.
Tuesday evening's concert was billed as an evening of stride piano but with a few surprises. The stable of stride ticklers was impressive indeed, with Asaro, Dickie, Hodges, Swanson and Waldo joined by Brian Holland. Duets were the order of the day, as each performer teamed up with at least one other before the night was over. A fun surprise occurred when Asaro on piano and Holland on the theater's newly renovated organ reprised some of the organ performances of the great Fats Waller. And adding some welcome variety to the evening was an encore set by Axelrod and Ventresco.
Of course, faithful festival-goers know that the music doesn't stop when the concerts are over, and the two pianos in the party room of the headquarters hotel kept the action going until the small hours of each morning. By Tuesday evening, the collective adrenaline level was high, and when we finally realized that the event was really over, we merely set our sights on 2009.
The Blind Boone Festival now rivals the Scott Joplin Festival in nearby Sedalia, Mo., and the fact that the two are held consecutively is no accident. Couple these June extravaganzas with the Old Time Piano Playing Contest in Peoria, Ill., the last weekend in May, and Mimi Blais' annual concerts in Versailles, Mo., which usually coincides with all these events, and it becomes an opportunity each year to overdose on ragtime -- if that's possible!
August 2008 issue | © 2008 The Mississippi Rag
P.O. Box 19068, Minneapolis, MN 55419.