They All Played Ragtime

Jazz historian Edward A. Berlin has written (somewhat resentfully, for he feels that its very excellence has been a barrier to further, and sometimes more accurate studies of the subject): "This remarkable book, often called 'the bible of ragtime,' has enthralled, enlightened, and inspired' generations of ragtime enthusiasts. The authors had the foresight to locate and capture the words and stories of surviving ragtimers and cast them in a beguiling form that, more than a half-century later, continues to work its magic on new readers. Though a few, isolated articles on ragtime had preceded publication of this book, They All Played Ragtime, at least figuratively, is where ragtime research begins. The book also has undoubted flaws. It expresses attitudes that clearly reveal leftist political ideology of the 1930s . . . too sharply drawing and exaggerating class distinctions between the purity of 'folk' inspiration against the commercialism of 'Tin Pan Alley' craft. .. and some quotations are even taken out of context. .. Still, the power of the book and its tale remains. Most successive writers merely restate what they read in They All Played Ragtime." I have just read this book in an old edition and have also fallen under its spell and that of the African American geniuses who created this subtle, supremely musical art. What a shame this book is not now more widely available. In my reading I have often stopped to put it down to marvel a bit over a turn of phrase or moving portrait, such as those of Scott Joplin and his idealistic white patron, the unsung hero, John Stark.