Evolving from diverse European and African sources, it first appeared in 1897 and immediately became a 'syncopated rage.' America went 'Ragtime Mad.' This new music endured for twenty years as the nation's favorite form of 'pop.' And as George & Ira Gershwin stated in their first collaboration: 'The Real American Folk Song Is a Rag.'

Our program will tell the intriguing story of Ragtime from its beginnings in slave music and the 'red light districts' through its various revivals during the twentieth century. These segments will be interlaced with narration, fascinating talks with musicians and historians, photos, and rare historic film footage. The documentary will derive from source material in Terry Waldo's award-winning book, This Is Ragtime, and will feature newly produced and other recorded versions of the original music as performed by the greatest interpreters of Ragtime. This Is Ragtime: The Birth of American Music will be a 90-120 minute television music/documentary for distribution to the PBS network.

To find our documentary on IDA's website, IDA provides this service to projects that meet the fiscal sponsorship requirements and that are in line with their mission statement. Fiscal sponsorship is a legal and financial arrangement which allows IDA (a 501(c)(3) tax exempt non-profit organization) to confer its nonprofit status and financial oversight to documentary projects. The International Documentary Association is an organization that provides support services to 3,000 members in 50 countries. Mail to IDA, c/o Fiscal Sponsorship, 3470 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 980, Los Angeles, 90010.Īll donations are legally tax deductible and contributions over $250 will receive a receipt from IDA. Please make the check payable to International Documentary Association (IDA), writing “This Is Ragtime” in the Memo. Help to support this important musical documentary project with your tax-deductible donation through our 501(c)(3) non-profit fiscal sponsor, The International Documentary Association. A number of his most notable ragtime compositions were released in the 1990s as commercially available piano rolls.This Is Ragtime: The Birth of American Music is dependent on grants, and private and corporate donations for funding. Later he experimented with ragtime piano compositions impossible for a human to play that can be heard only in MIDI format. In the 1960s he made multi tracked recordings of himself playing all parts of original novelty compositions like “I’ll Never Forget What’s Her Name”.

Though he had very specific tastes in music that steered away from the modern trends in both jazz and classical music he was not averse to experimentation. Robin Frost with his wife of 59 years Kay. Every year he would arrive with new compositions, some of which, including “Space Shuffle” and “Windmill Rag”, have become staples in the repertoire of a new generation of ragtime artists. He appeared regularly at the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival in Sedalia Missouri and at the West Coast Ragtime Festival.

He had always toyed with ragtime composition and during the ragtime boom of the 1970s he bagan writing more serious pieces. He gigged and toured with Spencer Quinn, a comedic banjo player before settling down in Santa Barbara to a more stable life of occasional club dates at local restaurants and involvement with the symphony. After service in Korea he played in clubs in the Santa Barbara area on both piano and cornet with Dixieland groups including the one led by Rosie McHargue. During the early jazz revival period he learned to play jazz by jamming with local youth bands.

Ragtime composers