Continued: The Ragtime Machine

DDR: You're in the Internet generation.  I guess you're not walking around to the antique stores looking for old sheet music.

WR: Oh, yes, I am!  

DR: Do you find sheet music on the Net?

WR: Yes, a lot of colleges have posted their sheet music collections on their websites.

DR: Do you listen to the older and younger people who are playing ragtime?

WR: I do try and listen to both.  I really lean toward the older ones, because I'm trying to better myself, learn other things.  Some of my favorites include Jeff Barnhart, Brian Holland, Adam Yarian, and Eytan Uslan.

DR: Do you improvise?

WR: I intend to improvise.  As the years go by I tend to do it more and more.  I think I'm starting to get away from the sheet music, which is a good thing, I suppose.

DR: It is really odd to hear a 15-year old say, "as the years go by."  What else are you interested in?

WR: I'm looking towards the medical field.  My father is a dentist and he has his own practice, so I figure I might take that over.  I'm still looking at my options, I suppose.

DR: Maybe you could bring back the idea of a piano in the dentist's office.  In the early 1900s, pianos were everywhere.

WR: That would be pretty cool.

DR: It would loosen up the patients, and you wouldn't need the nitrous.

WR: That would depend upon the pianist, I suppose.

DR: You're not doing anything now to practice for dentistry, like removing your friends' teeth, or anything like that?

WR: Of course not.

DR: Do you think you'd be happy doing dentistry by day and ragtime by night?

WR: Yes, as long as I get the ragtime by night part.

DR: Will you be staying in Missouri?

WR: I like Missouri, I like a small town, the rural country.

DR: How do you do in the contests?

WR: I took first in the Old Time Championship junior division last year, and I got second this year.  I won the St. Louis competition two times.  And I won first place in Tulsa last year for the masters class and second this year.

DR: Are there one or two pieces in your repertoire that you can always fall back on to wow the crowds and the judges.

WR: "Russian Rag" [George Cobb], that's a good one.

DR: A lot of people play that.  What do you do to it that's different?

WR: I put a lot of embellishments into it, and a little Rachmaninoff in it to give it a flair of an ending.

DR: Does it intimidate you at all to be playing with these older hot-shots?

WR: Yeah.  I always get nervous every time one of them is around.

DR: Do you steal their tricks?

WR: Sometimes, though I hate to admit it.

DR: Anyone come up to you and say, "Wesley, how did you do that? Play that for me again?"

WR: When I was in Columbia, Frederick Hodges wanted to steal my ending on "The Lion Tamer," apparently.

DR: Have you worked in ragtime with any other instrumentalists?

WR: No, not really.  I'm in a jazz band at school.  I play keyboard in our church band.  The jazz band plays a lot of blues and Latin music.  But those kids aren't really musicians, they just play an instrument because it's an easy class, an easy A. The majority of it is improvised.  I pretty much just get the chords, and my teacher says, "Okay, have fun!"

DR: Do you get to play rags with these groups?

WR: Not in the jazz band, but with the church band we went to Russia on a missions trip.  On every concert that we did, I opened with ragtime.  It was pretty cool.  Actually this group is in the town next to us, but it's not much bigger than Dixon.  

DR: How did the Russians like your ragtime?

WR: Standing ovations.

DR: Are you familiar with the Russian-born ragtime composer, Larisa Migachyov?

WR: Yes, I bought a couple of her rags.

DR: Do you compose rags?

WR: I'm working on one.  I just have the A section right now, but I'm hoping by next year to have it done.  Every year in piano lessons we have to make a composition.  My little sister was working on a theme for two years, and she just gave up on it.  I looked at it and thought that it would make a great rag.  I started writing, built it bigger and bigger, and got this oom-pah into it, and it turned out pretty good.

DR: What is it about ragtime that you like?

WR: I like the liveliness and the freedom. You can do whatever the heck you want with it.  If you want to throw in an arpeggio here, do it.  In classical it's usually strictly to the page.  I love the community, too.  They're nice and supportive.

DR: Have you encountered any rags that are too hard?

WR: Yes.  "Handful of Keys" [Fats Waller], "Space Shuffle" [Robin Frost].  I looked at that once and said okay, put that away.

DR: Are there any of the Joplin or Scott rags that are too hard for you?

WR: None that come to mind at the moment, but I'm sure there are.

DR: Do you like to specialize in the Missouri composers, since you're from there?

WR: No, perhaps Tom Turpin, he's a good one, I suppose.

DR: Ever thought about entering a composition contest?

WR: I'm considering it.  About three or four years back I entered one of mine (not a rag) in a state composition contest, and I got second place.

DR: Do you think you'll ever get bored with ragtime?

WR: No, there's no way to get bored with ragtime.

November 2008 issue | © 2008 The Mississippi Rag

P.O. Box 19068, Minneapolis, MN 55419.