Scott Joplin's "Cleopha" jam with 3 pianists, tuba & drums

[Ragtimer95]

I love the imporv. Tom does through the whole piece. Especially the repeat of the last strain with those......what would you call them? Rolls? Well that's what they're called on a marimba, anyways.

[Keeper1st]

@Ragtimer95 Tremolos.

[cjamescook]

That's not an easy piece. But what was Tom Briar playing? I don't think it was what Joplin wrote, at least not completely, but it fit.

[Keeper1st]

@cjamescook He's making up embellishments and countermelodies. Of course you don't want all the pianos playing exactly the same thing.

[cjamescook]

@Keeper1st Tom is very good, if he can do that on the fly. I wish I could. Maybe I can get a teacher to focus on improv. for a few lessons. Thanks and congrats!

[Keeper1st]

@cjamescook I have a lot of videos of multiple-piano or multiple-pianist unrehearsed performances where you can hear how they make up their own embellishments off the top of their head (the "Improvised two-piano Chopsticks redux" is a fun one as are the various "3 Pianos on Fire" videos). There are also videos (not only posted by me) that feature Tom making up original music off the top of his head. Now that's something else!

[Arkanoight]

hats strokes does the drum plays?

rrrr llll or llrr llrr or different?

[MrRagtimefan]

awesome!!! perfect tempo i play it exactly the same way. not too slow but not to fast either.

you are alle very good but one sentence to Tom Brier: incredible improvisation in the third and last part!!! would like to be able to do that too but i can´t......;)

[carrotville]

Joplin at one time worked in a brothel as a pianist. He sometimes named his compositions, such as Cleopha, after girls he had known there.

[Keeper1st]

Where did you hear that? It was only within the last 18 months that circumstantial evidence of Joplin working in a brothel came to light (there is no concrete evidence).

[CRASHBABASH]

i think that it not good

[kingpin91]

Wow, This is a really great piece, and a really great video! Thanks for posting it! Scott Joplin music is so much fun to hear!

[Doug19752533]

great! played at the perfect tempo! i feel like marching! Cleopha kinda reminds me of a rag hidden inside a march. this was actually one of Sousa's favorite Joplin works to play with his band. really nice job!

[stuartsa]

A rag hidden inside a march. That's exactly what Cleopha is. When I first heard Cleopha and came to the return of the A strain, I knew that it was odd for an unsyncopated march. It was then that I remembered somebody commenting about a piece with no syncopation up until the last strain. The melody of the Trio's theme makes me think of those long, unsyncopatable melodies that lurk inside Joplin's true rags. It is only logical, then, that there should be syncopation waiting in the wings.

[clemspaw]

Very good!

[Adenoz53]

very nice