1. Frog Legs Rag
2. Frog Legs Rag (Rehearsal 9-5-21)
3. Frog Legs Rag (Rehearsal 10-24-21)

• Banjo – Aaron Jonah Lewis
• Cello – Abby Alwin
• Guitar – Alex Belhaj
• Piano – Cami Celestia
• Uke – Grace van’t Hof

“When you want a real syncopated rag, well done with plenty of gravy, have it served hot on a banjo.” — Thomas Armstrong (1859-1932)

For decades around the turn of the 20th century classic finger-style banjo was the most popular kind of music in the English-speaking world, although today it is all but forgotten. This music comes from African-American music that was appropriated for minstrel shows and mingled with other popular styles of European and distinctly American origin. It gave rise to ragtime (for example, both of Scott Joplin’s parents played three-finger banjo), which fed into the development of jazz. Classic banjo provides a missing link between the banjo of minstrel shows and the banjo of early jazz and country music.

Ragtime music represents the first music and dance movement of free Black people in the US. Its composers intended to create a music that would entertain and elevate, a music both lighthearted and dignified that could respond to Western European traditions and form a foundation for American popular and art music to come. Ragtime also represents the pinnacle of popular music before the widespread adoption of audio recording technology. These were the last days that the only way a person could hear music was by being within earshot of someone playing or singing, or by creating music themselves.

My primary interest and challenge in this project is to find ways to make a near-dead form of music compelling and engaging in an environment where many people regard looking to the past as out-of-touch or moving backward. For me this music provides a missing link in our shared cultural history. It opens doors to discussion and understanding of how we got to where we are now.
— AJL

James Sylvester Scott (1885-1938) was an American ragtime composer and pianist. He is regarded as one of the “Big Three” composers of classical ragtime along with Scott Joplin and Joseph Lamb. In 1905 Scott went to St. Louis, Missouri, in search of his idol Scott Joplin. He located Joplin and asked if he would listen to one of his ragtime compositions. Upon hearing the rag, Joplin introduced him to his own publisher, John Stillwell Stark, and recommended he publish the work. Stark published the rag a year later as “Frog Legs Rag”. It quickly became a hit and was second in sales in the Stark catalogue only to that of Joplin’s own “Maple Leaf Rag”. Scott became a regular contributor to the Stark catalogue until 1922. Scott’s best-known compositions include “Climax Rag”, ‘”Frog Legs Rag”, “Grace and Beauty”, “Ophelia Rag”, and “The Ragtime Oriole”.
— Wikipedia