The Portland Ragtime Society

Well, I finally found one close to my home in Battle Ground, Washington where there's a monthly ragtime get-together located in Portland. It's the Portland Ragtime Society.

The Portland Ragtime Socieity meets on the first Sunday of every month at It's a Beautiful Pizza Come and play and/or listen and LIVE!! All instruments welcome. We were established in Jan. 2006, with Mark as our founder and president. We have no dues, no newsletter, no website and no other officers YET.

The get together is on the first Sunday of each month from 2 to 6 PM at the It's a Beautiful Pizza place on 3342 SE Belmont, Portland. (Please note there has been a change in venue since last year. Visit my updated blog on the new monthly meeting location).

I came across this in a last year's Portland review article "Live Music Preview: Portland Ragtimie Society" about the founder, Mark Nuismer, on how he discovered ragtime as a teenager hearing Maple Leaf Rag for the first time. Ragtime, as you will discover, has an intoxicating effect.

Battle Ground Ragtime

Hello all. My left hand has improved considerably and I don't think I had any pain in it for 3 or 4 weeks now which is good news. Removing the cushion from my bench allowing me to sit a few inches lower makes a difference. And that my arms are better aligned and parallel with the keyboards. Plus playing in a more relaxed style also helps but certainly not easy if you're playing ragtime.

Next, a word of advice to musicians out there in ragtime land. In the spirit of having a good time whether playing in a public venue or on your website, do not mix politics with ragtime such as dedicating a song to a certain politician. In my opinion, it's simply not in good taste. Not in this political climate when you have basically a 50% chance of offending somebody. Keep politics out of ragtime. Just like in the World Championship of Old-time Piano Playing Contest's rules regardng keeping politics out of the competition when playing a piece with no political connotations. And have everybody truly enjoy what ragtime is all about. Pure fun.

Next news is that I'll be moving to Battle Ground, Washington. Hence, the title
of my page Battle Ground Ragtime. Which isn't a bad name to start up a new festival "Battle Ground Ragtime Festival." What do you think? Sounds catchy, eh? I'll arrive at Battle Ground on May 28, 2009. Any ragtimers within 60 miles of the Portland, Oregon area??

Began working in earnest on "Kitten on the Keys" (see Dick Hyman play that piece in YouTube in the right column of my blog) starting last week. An hour here and hour there. I have the first page down almost pat as I get the rhythm down though not at Hyman's amazing speed...at least not yet. Two more pages to go and have just begun on the second page.

Still trying to get around to video tape myself play "Black and White" by George Botsford and "The Easy Winners" by Scott Joplin. Problem is I have a laptop with an embedded camera and that only natural lighting will ensure smooth a smooth video otherwise it'll tend to be jerky. An odd and frustrating thing for me. But it'll come. As for "The Easy Winners", the goal is to make sound lyrical as possible.

And that's it on the news. Keep on raggin'!