Miscellaneous Rags

St. Louis Rag is a delightful piece composed by Tom Turpin in 1903. A wonderful recording of his superb performance on piano roll is available on YouTube.

Tom Turpin (1871 - 1922) was an African-American composer of ragtime music. He taught himself to play the piano, and he saw music as a way of having fun and making money. He wrote five rags: Harlem Rag (1897), The Bowery Buck (1899), A Ragtime Nightmare (1900), St. Louis Rag (1903), and The Buffalo Rag (1904). His Rosebud Cafe was a regular meeting place of St. Louis' best rag players, and was the first stop of any musician traveling through the city. Tom Turpin was a major contributor to the  development of ragtime music.

Charles Leslie Johnson (1876 - 1950) was an American composer of ragtime and popular music. He was born in Kansas City, Kansas. His most popular ragtimes are "Doc Brown’s Cakewalk", "Dill Pickles", "Apple Jack (Some Rag)", and "Snookums Rag". 

Tutorials

• Tom Turpin   St. Louis Rag

Sheetmusic    Mutopia Project

• Charles Leslie Johnson   Dill Pickles

Slow tutorial

Digitally sped to tempo

Sheetmusic on imslp

• Charles Leslie Johnson   Apple Jack Some Rag