The Crazy Otto - The Man Who Saved Ragtime

The scene is the early 1950's. The stage is a music shop in Nashville, TN. The man is probably one of the most well known names in the great ragtime revival of that period, Johnny Maddox.

Put it all together with a flourishing record label looking for something to catch on, and you have one of the most single important releases of the decade that swelled the desire in people to get back to the "catchy" earlier roots in our musical history...... the great rag era of the late 1800's.- early 1900's.

This medley,which was taken from several sources both American and German including Fritz Schulz-Reichel (1912 - 1990) is as catchy to the ear and is as well put together as any you will find in ragtime.

There was no one single tune that did more to inspire me to to dig into history for more of the same, and provided the basis for a life long enjoyment of this classic musical form and .....like it or not, there were more wonderful old pianos saved from destruction because of this tune than probably any other historical factor.

Enjoy this piano roll arranged by the chief arranger of QRS, J.L. Cook, who produced this roll to sound almost identical to Maddox's actual release.... Using a fairly high stepping rate on the master (atypical for the period) Cook was able to impart the sound and feel of the original hit.

My hat is off to both Maddox and Cook for their part in this great revival.

Thanks for viewing!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• player
• piano
• roll
• ragtime
• Fritz
• Schulz-Reichel
• Johnny
• Maddox
• J.
• Lawrence
• Cook
• stroud
• duo
• art
• pianola

[DieHardThunderhead96]

totally awesome!!

[Pianosyncrazy]

@DieHardThunderhead96 Thanks for the kind comment, I am glad you liked this.... :) Johhny Maddox was my boyhood hero....

[Wurlitzer157]

That I say is the best piano I've ever heard!

[Pianosyncrazy]

@Wurlitzer157 You are very kind sir.. thank you...

[amellov65]

awesome,great channel,love the musik.amellov65.

[Pianosyncrazy]

@amellov65 Thank you, it is for people like yourself I do this.... :)

[DieHardThunderhead96]

@Pianosyncrazy awesome :) I have always liked honky tonk rags like this...i play the violin and i am going to learn how to play the piano as soon as i can bring my 100+ year old upright piano home from my grandparents place...good thing they dont live that far away lol

so how do you get the piano to play by itself??

[Pianosyncrazy]

@unpodimusica1 Thanks !

[unpodimusica1]

Wow great, I really loved this!!

[Pianosyncrazy]

@mechanicmusic45 Thanks !