Great piece. I like Morath too, but he definitely sold ragtime as a white person's nostalgia trip. There's a live record of him playing rags along with popular songs from WWI that have absolutely nothing to do with Scott Joplin, but that the audience loves.
re: Dick Hyman, I greatly admire his deep knowledge of historical jazz idioms. ("If Bix Played Gerswhin" is a lot of fun in this regard, and features a wildly allusive take on "In a Mist".) His approach can feel somewhat academic at times (cf his jazz etudes written in the style of major pianists). But any player that Miles called "crazy" in a blindfold test has I suppose earned the right to be academic.
You put your finger on why I never paid that much attention to Hyman before. The etudes, etc. feel a bit much, suggesting that he doesn’t have a point of view. I now withdraw that criticism after my latest researches.
You might want to check out these recordings available on the Internet Archive. In the late 1980s into the mid-1990s, SFJAZZ had a series of Stride Piano Summits. They featured some amazing players. I think excerpts from some of these concerts were released on CDs.
1989 Stride Piano Summit - Ralph Sutton Ralph Sutton & Dick Hyman
Featuring Harry "Sweets" Edison, Jay McShann, Ralph Sutton, Red Callender, Harold Jones, Dick Hyman, and Mike Lipskin at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, CA.
Parts 1 & 2;Featuring Charles Brown, Jay McShann, Dorothy Donegan, guest saxophonist Houston Person, and more, performing at Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, CA
Recordings are out of order chronologically. Correct order: 3, 4, 1, 2
"Frankly, I prefer these Morath compositions to his slow and square performances of Joplin and the rest". Can you recommend Joplin performances that are not "slow and square"?
Great piece. I like Morath too, but he definitely sold ragtime as a white person's nostalgia trip. There's a live record of him playing rags along with popular songs from WWI that have absolutely nothing to do with Scott Joplin, but that the audience loves.
re: Dick Hyman, I greatly admire his deep knowledge of historical jazz idioms. ("If Bix Played Gerswhin" is a lot of fun in this regard, and features a wildly allusive take on "In a Mist".) His approach can feel somewhat academic at times (cf his jazz etudes written in the style of major pianists). But any player that Miles called "crazy" in a blindfold test has I suppose earned the right to be academic.
You put your finger on why I never paid that much attention to Hyman before. The etudes, etc. feel a bit much, suggesting that he doesn’t have a point of view. I now withdraw that criticism after my latest researches.
You might want to check out these recordings available on the Internet Archive. In the late 1980s into the mid-1990s, SFJAZZ had a series of Stride Piano Summits. They featured some amazing players. I think excerpts from some of these concerts were released on CDs.
1989 Stride Piano Summit - Ralph Sutton Ralph Sutton & Dick Hyman
SFJAZZ (then called Jazz in the City)
https://archive.org/details/casfjazz_000072/casfjazz_000072_t01_a_access.m4a
1990 Stride Piano Summit
Featuring Harry "Sweets" Edison, Jay McShann, Ralph Sutton, Red Callender, Harold Jones, Dick Hyman, and Mike Lipskin at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, CA.
https://archive.org/details/casfjazz_000104
1991 Boogie Woogie Piano Summit
Parts 1 & 2;Featuring Charles Brown, Jay McShann, Dorothy Donegan, guest saxophonist Houston Person, and more, performing at Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, CA
Recordings are out of order chronologically. Correct order: 3, 4, 1, 2
https://archive.org/details/casfjazz_000086
1996, Stride Piano Summit IV: Legacy of Fats Waller
Dick Hyman; Ralph Sutton; Jay McShann; Doc Cheatham; Al Casey; Billy Taylor
https://archive.org/details/casfjazz_000134/casfjazz_000134_t01_access.m4a
There are a tremendous number of mind blowing recordings from the history of SFJAZZ here:
https://archive.org/details/sfjazz?&sort=-week&page=3
"Frankly, I prefer these Morath compositions to his slow and square performances of Joplin and the rest". Can you recommend Joplin performances that are not "slow and square"?
James P. Johnson, "Maple Leaf Rag" is amazing. Of the revivalists, Wally Rose is famous with insiders