The Lily Rag
Charles Thompson
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Browse piano sheets by Charles Thompson on Zen Virtual Piano. Charles Thompson lived most of his life in Saint Louis, Missouri, where he was born and raised. Ragpiano.com says he was mostly self-taught, having received only a few formal lessons, and had virtually no notation skills. He was known as a black-key player who preferred to avoid easier keys like C or F because they inhibited his ebullient style. A pianist who preferred black-key tonalities suggests a player whose style was shaped by his own hands rather than by a teacherās habits, and who valued energy over ease. By the time he was 20 he was well involved in the Saint Louis music scene, often touring wherever the work would take him. During the early 1910s he chose the life of an itinerant pianist, and he was known to have played in Detroit, Cleveland and Toledo, Buffalo, the Bowery at Coney Island, and Washington, DC. Back in Saint Louis, a famous story involves a massive ragtime piano competition in 1916 at Tom Turpinās Booker T. Washington Theater, which many of Saint Louisā finest attended. A pianist who travelled for work, and about whom a famous contest story is told, suggests a performer whose reputation was built in the room, one audience at a time. His only published work is The Lily Rag (1914), arranged by Artie Matthews, and he is still remembered for his Delmar Rag, composed sometime in the 1910s. After meeting the stride pianist James P. Johnson in 1919, his playing and compositions immediately reflected the Harlem piano sound, according to Grainger.de. A pianist with virtually no notation skills whose one published rag was arranged by Artie Matthews raises the question of how much ragtime lived at the keyboard before it was written down. In later years Thompson became a very accomplished chef, and at one time is reported to have cooked on the Pennsylvania Railroad. With a renewed interest in ragtime and stride piano in the mid to late 1940s, he was able to play on a regular basis in Saint Louis for the rest of his life and made several recordings of his own compositions and other popular tunes. Some later recordings were made at ragtime house parties held by pianist and historian Trebor Tichenor, and Ragpiano.com ties the title The Neglected Professor to a Euphonic CD of those house-party recordings. In 1962 Bob Darch arranged a Florida recording session for Thompson and two friends from the past, Joe Jordan and Eubie Blake. A pianist who took other trades and then returned to the keyboard in the revival looks like a musician whose playing was still wanted when listeners came back to ragtime.
Browse piano sheets by Charles Thompson on Zen Virtual Piano.
Charles Thompson lived most of his life in Saint Louis, Missouri, where he was born and raised. Ragpiano.com says he was mostly self-taught, having received only a few formal lessons, and had virtually no notation skills. He was known as a black-key player who preferred to avoid easier keys like C or F because they inhibited his ebullient style. A pianist who preferred black-key tonalities suggests a player whose style was shaped by his own hands rather than by a teacherās habits, and who valued energy over ease.
By the time he was 20 he was well involved in the Saint Louis music scene, often touring wherever the work would take him. During the early 1910s he chose the life of an itinerant pianist, and he was known to have played in Detroit, Cleveland and Toledo, Buffalo, the Bowery at Coney Island, and Washington, DC. Back in Saint Louis, a famous story involves a massive ragtime piano competition in 1916 at Tom Turpinās Booker T. Washington Theater, which many of Saint Louisā finest attended. A pianist who travelled for work, and about whom a famous contest story is told, suggests a performer whose reputation was built in the room, one audience at a time.
His only published work is The Lily Rag (1914), arranged by Artie Matthews, and he is still remembered for his Delmar Rag, composed sometime in the 1910s. After meeting the stride pianist James P. Johnson in 1919, his playing and compositions immediately reflected the Harlem piano sound, according to Grainger.de. A pianist with virtually no notation skills whose one published rag was arranged by Artie Matthews raises the question of how much ragtime lived at the keyboard before it was written down.
In later years Thompson became a very accomplished chef, and at one time is reported to have cooked on the Pennsylvania Railroad. With a renewed interest in ragtime and stride piano in the mid to late 1940s, he was able to play on a regular basis in Saint Louis for the rest of his life and made several recordings of his own compositions and other popular tunes. Some later recordings were made at ragtime house parties held by pianist and historian Trebor Tichenor, and Ragpiano.com ties the title The Neglected Professor to a Euphonic CD of those house-party recordings. In 1962 Bob Darch arranged a Florida recording session for Thompson and two friends from the past, Joe Jordan and Eubie Blake. A pianist who took other trades and then returned to the keyboard in the revival looks like a musician whose playing was still wanted when listeners came back to ragtime.
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Charles Thompson
Common questions
Charles Thompson was a ragtime pianist and composer who lived most of his life in Saint Louis, Missouri, where he was born and raised.
It is Thompsonās only published work, from 1914, arranged by Artie Matthews.
Ragpiano.com ties the title to a Euphonic CD of the Tichenor house-party recordings.
He met the stride pianist James P. Johnson, whose influence was heard almost immediately in his playing and composing.