 |
|
Patrick Aranda |
Patrick Aranda is one of ragtime's most entertaining and talented
performers. He plays a mean piano, sings, performs on trombone, tuba, and who knows what all (not necessarily all at once), and
has a huge ragtime repertoire, including the most difficult and flashy novelty-style rags, plus classic rags, Harlem stride
compositions, and favorite tunes from the Tin Pan Alley era.
Fans can currently see him perform at Disneyland as main Street's Ragtime pianist on
Fridays and Saturdays. He also plays piano with various traditional jazz groups including Auntie Skinners Lucky Winners Jazz Band, and The Burgundy Street Jazz Band.
He is a Music Professor at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, where he directs the Jazz Band and Concert Band, as well as teaching classes ranging from theory and musicianship to History of Jazz.
He also stays busy directing at least three musicals a year.
He
made his Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival debut in 2002 and has been invited back by popular demand ever since. In 2003 he was among the
modern ragtime composers we honored at our Festival, having created several of his own ragtime pieces, including one inspired by his
Sutter Creek debut. Patrick is a favorite headliner at Orange County's annual RagFest and The Ragtime Corner of the
Sacramento Jazz Jubilee. He has also been featured at the West Coast Ragtime Festival in
Sacramento.
In his spare time, Patrick plays trombone in his brother's Salsa band; performs with several Southern California Dixieland
groups, and, has finally recorded his own solo CD. |
|
 |
|
Nan Bostick |
Nan Bostick barged into the Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival the very first year, complaining there weren’t any women on the bill. The rest is history. She co-founded the Mother Lode Ragtime Society, ensured that female ragtimers are included in all subsequent Sutter Creek Ragtime Festivals, and served as our Festival's publicity director from 1999-2006.
Nan is the grand-niece and biographer of ragtime era composer and music publisher Charles N. Daniels, who helped Scott Joplin promote his first rag in 1899. As Nan will readily demonstrate at the piano, her “Uncle Charlie” composed some excellent rags himself along with such well loved standards as Chlo-e: Song of the Swamp, She’s Funny That Way, Sweet and Lovely, and You Tell Me Your Dream, I’ll Tell You Mine.
An avid scholar, educator, writer, and producer, Nan always adds a bit of history to the toe-tapping music she plays. She is the acknowledged “expert” on the ragtime era of Detroit and the “Indian Intermezzo” craze inadvertently initiated by her great uncle’s 1901 hit Hiawatha. She continues tracking down details about ragtime’s women composers, having co-authored the Lexicon of Ragtime’s Women Composers with Dr. Nora Hulse.
Nan served on the board of the West Coast Ragtime Society and continues to coordinate the seminars at November’s West Coast Ragtime Festival in Sacramento. Her own multi-media seminars and concerts are warmly received at festivals throughout the country including the West Coast, Scott Joplin, Blind Boone, Lake Superior, Ragtime in Randall, and Indianapolis Classic Ragtime Festivals as well as the new Ragtime Street Fair at the Henry Ford Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Mich. Cuts from Nan's first CD were used by Ken Burns in his PBS documentary Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson. Nan’s own ragtime compositions are featured on her susequent CDs, also available via CDBaby.com.
|
|
 |
|
Jack and Chris
Bradshaw |
Jack and Chris Bradshaw, ragtime piano duo artists from Gilroy, Calif., are bringing their unique sound to Sutter Creek
again this year. Jack's four-hand arrangements of popular rags, cakewalks, marches
and novelty numbers are played with a sparkle reminiscent of old-time piano rolls. This lively
pair has also appeared at the West Coast, Scott Joplin, Blind Boone, RagFest,
Shaniko, Cascade, and the Fresno Flats Ragtime Festivals, The Ragtime Corners of the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, and Old Town Music Hall in El Segundo. The rollicking road to ragtime thus far has taken them to 11 states and Canada.
Jack also plays classic and new ragtime solos to round out their programs. Jack and Chris each hold advanced degrees in
music and perform regularly at Sacramento Ragtime Society and South Valley Music Makers meetings. |
|
 |
|
Tom
Brier |
Tom Brier, affectionately dubbed "Hot Rod Tommy," used to be
California’s greatest ragtime secret until the summer of 2001, when he
made his debut to tremendous applause (and much jaw-dropping) at the Scott Joplin Festival in Sedalia, MO and the Blind Boone Festival in
Columbia, MO. In his early thirties, this composing genius and pianist extraordinaire, hails from Oakdale, a Central Valley farming community
south of Sacramento. He currently lives in Sacramento where he works as a programmer/analyst for the County of Sacramento. Tom caught the
ragtime bug when his parents purchased a Schubert mechanical player. He was only 4, but when he started picking out tunes he heard on the piano
rolls, his parents immediately found him a piano teacher. Soon Tom was notating his own music and by age 11, he had composed nearly a dozen
rags. Today he has over 160 ragtime compositions to his name, all remarkably original but clearly demonstrating his depth of
understanding of early ragtime subtleties. In 1985, at age 14, Brier made his first
appearance at the Sacramento Ragtime Society meeting, blowing everyone away with his signature rapid-fire left hand runs.
Since that time, Brier has been a mainstay at the Ragtime Corner of the Sacramento
Jazz Jubilee, the West Coast Ragtime Festival, and recently our Mother Lode Ragtime Society gatherings.
He has recorded six CDs, has a vast ragtime sheet music collection, is noted for performing and
popularizing extremely rare but wonderful rags, and for inspiring pianists to attempt to keep up with him. |
|
 |
|
The Crown Syncopators |
Featuring the virtuoso piano stylings of Frederick Hodges,
with accompaniment by Marty Eggers on tuba and Virginia Tichenor
on drums, The Crown Syncopators were formed
to perform at San Francisco's Pier 23, where each of its members also
plays solo piano monthly. Their repetoire is almost exclusively ragtime.
|
|
 |
|
Marty
Eggers |
Marty Eggers is well
known on the West Coast as a top-notch ragtime pianist and bassist. Marty's
music career began in Sacramento where as a teenager he helped found the
Sacramento Ragtime Society in 1982. He has played with numerous San Francisco
Bay Area jazz and ragtime groups, most notably John Gill's San Francisco
JazzBand and the Black Diamond Jazz Band. His talent and versatility have led
him into several varied and prestigious engagements, from recording with
traditional jazz legend Bob Helm to touring Germany with Hal Smith's Rhythm Cats
to playing in backup bands for both Leon Redbone and Butch Thompson. Marty is
also a skilled composer and arranger of ragtime and traditional jazz.
He also appears with the Tichenor Family Trio (Trebor Tichenor, Virginia
Tichenor, and Marty) and performs as a soloist at least once a month on Tuesday evenings at
Pier 23 in San Francisco and Wednesday evenings at the Straw Hat Pizza Parlor in
Rancho Cordova, CA.
Terry Waldo describes Marty as having "..an encyclopedic knowledge of
the ragtime and early jazz repertoire ..."
Marty is married to ragtime pianist Virginia Tichenor (see below) and is a past
president of the West Coast Ragtime Society.
|
|
 |
|
Ann Gibson |
Ann Gibson has been gracing Bay Area stages
for over 10 years with her velvety voiced renditions of tunes from the 1920s, '30s and '40s.
She has worked as staff vocalist for the Black Tie Jazz Orchestra during that time, and has
also appeared with other groups such as the Martini Brothers Band and the Peninsula Pops
Orchestra. Her love of American popular song has also brought her together with great piano
artists such as Frederick Hodges and Tom Bopp. She has also produced music reviews for the
Art Deco Society of California acclaimed for their originality of content and attention to
authentic detail in presenting popular music from between the great wars.
Raised in a musical family in Pleasant Hill, Calif., Ann was classically trained
as a child on piano, French horn and also sang with several local choirs. Her father, local
band leader and composer Bob Soder, was instrumental in her development as he exposed her
to many different forms of music, from classical to jazz. She always claims having got her
start in a late-night pinochle game with Dizzy Gillespie at the age of 8. She has performed
as a child in local theatrical productions and was a character at Children's Fairyland in
Oakland.
Ann's singing style has been compared to the likes of Alice Faye, Frances Langford and
Lee Wiley. She has performed at Davies Symphony Hall with the Black Tie Jazz Orchestra,
at the Herb Caen Memorial, and
has introduced the Big Band postage stamps for the U.S. Postal Service.
The BTJO also regularly plays for the Art Deco Preservation Ball, the International
Diplomacy Council Ball and at many other large events in the Bay Area. She has performed for
the Park Service at the 100th anniversary of Camp Curry and the 75th anniversary of the
Ahwanee Hotel in Yosemite, and now is asked back for their annual "Heritage
Holidays" each spring. She performs with Frederick Hodges regularly at Pier 23 in San Francisco.
|
|
 |
|
Heebee Jeebees
Bub Sullivan, Petra Sullivan,
Robyn Drivon, and Steve Drivon |
The Heebee Jeebees offer
an array of contemporary and classic rags, including Latin tangos and
waltzes, plus ragtime and novelty songs.
Among the pillars of the Sacramento Ragtime Society, the Sullivans
have been part of the ragtime world for over 20 years.
They have had the rather unique pleasure of being interviewed and
performing in China for Shanghai television.
A Sacramento native, Petra has a degree in Music and
teaches violin and piano. Bub,
originally from Chicago, also studied classical piano as a child, then
later took up string instruments before discovering ragtime
The Sullivans are very pleased to have the Drivons
(since 2002) rounding out the quartet with their excellent and tasteful
musicality. Robyn is Counsel for Yolo County, and Steve tours with the
Port City Jazz Band and the Washboard Wizards.
He also teaches band and horns.
In 2006, they moved from Stockton to Woodland. |
|
 |
|
Frederick
Hodges |
Frederick Hodges, of Berkeley, CA was groomed for a career as a concert
pianist but was happily lured away from his path after he found a stack of
turn-of-the-century sheet music in his grandmother’s piano bench.
Repeated exposure to the rollicking ragtime rhythms of player pianos and 78 rpm
phonograph records sealed his fate and he set out to master the ragtime playing styles that had captivated him.
While still an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, he was hired as pianist for the
Royal Society Jazz Orchestra, for which he has played for 20 years. He also
performs with the Peter Mintun Orchestra, with jazz ensembles, and as a soloist.
He appears at least once a month on Tuesday evenings at Pier 23 in San Francisco and Wednesday evenings at the Straw Hat
Pizza Parlor in Rancho Cordova, CA and he is a much applauded featured performer at the
Sacramento Jazz Jubilee's Ragtime Corner and West Coast Ragtime Festival. |
|
|
 |
|
Carl Sonny Leyland |
Carl Sonny Leyland blew everyone’s socks off at our 4th Sutter Creek Ragtime
Festival (when he was lesser known) and has subsequently done the same at
just about all the prestigious festivals in the country, including the Scott Joplin
and Blind Boone Festivals in Missouri, the West Coast Ragtime Festival in
Sacramento, Orange County’s RagFest, plus the Sacramento and San Diego Jazz
Jubilees. We’re lucky he loves us and agreed to thrill us with a return
appearance this year. His ability to recreate obscure and primitive styles in the genre of
barrelhouse, blues, and boogie woogie, combined with the originality and
soulfulness of his own music, makes him one of today’s most exciting pianists.
Plus he sings!
Born in the south of England in 1965, Sonny took up piano at age 15.
His inspiration was the boogie woogie music of Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson &
Meade Lux Lewis. Fascinated by this style, Sonny traced it back to its Barrelhouse roots, incorporating the stylings of Jimmy
Yancey, Cow Cow Davenport, Little Brother Montgomery and other notables into his own playing. In
1988, Sonny headed for New Orleans, where he lived for 10 years, appeared at
the world-renowned New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and furthered his
exploration of piano genres, including Blues, country, R&B, rockabilly, Rock and Roll, and, of
course, traditional jazz and ragtime. He has toured in Europe and the United States as a solo act and with bands
such as Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets and Big Sandy and His Flyrite Boys. Following a trip
out west in 1995, Sonny relocated to California. He now resides with his wife in New
Cuyama, CA. Sonny has several
CDs to his name, his most recent with the Carl Sonny Leyland Trio, featuring Carl, Hal Smith on
drums, and Marty Eggers on bass. |
|
|
 |
|
Stevens
Price |
Stevens Price, owner of the Sutter Creek Ice Cream Emporium, is the
founder, director, and producer of the Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival, greatly assisted by
the creative genius of his talented wife, Jan ("Ah Sweet Sue") Price, reigning star
of the Dill Pickle Ranch Ragtime Melodrama. After hearing his dad perform "boogie
woogie" on the family piano, Stevens began picking out music by age 12 and was soon playing
boogie and other styles as a self-taught artist. Then he went to college as a music and drama major, where he decided to take piano
lessons. Needless to say, he had to unlearn certain techniques. When he discovered ragtime, Stevens became a regular at the Maple Leaf Club
meetings in Los Angeles. He still remembers playing Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" with six
other club members on six pianos. At the Ice Cream Emporium, Stevens plays whenever possible for the enjoyment of
the customers, and due to the success of the Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival, his ice cream parlor has become the ragtime
center of the Mother Lode and home of the Mother Lode Ragtime Society. Recently
Stevens has taken to composing ragtime and has at least seven ice-cream flavored
toe-tappers to his credit. Stevens is active with the Sacramento Ragtime Society, has performed at the Ragtime Corner at the
Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, and is the pianist and chief shtick artist of the Dill Pickle
Ranch Ragtime Melodrama crew. |
|
 |
|
Raspberry Jam Band
|
The Raspberry Jam Band consists of:
| Tom Brier - piano |
| Mark Meeker - tuba |
| George Preston -
euphonium/vocals |
| Mary Preston -
violin/percussion |
| Julia Riley -
flute/piccolo |
| Kitty Wilson -
percussion |
Formed in December 2005, the band has become part of the ragtime scene in
the Sacramento and Sierra foothills areas. They have participated in the Ragtime Corner of
the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, the West Coast Ragtime Festival, and have been featured at
Auburn Concert Band performances. They perform at the Sacramento Ragtime Society
and The Mother Lode Ragtime Society meetings.
Interested in playing diverse works from classic ragtime to contemporary works,
the group's byword is variety. Eclectic in nature, the Raspberries especially seek out obscure or
seldom performed rags and feature the works of various contemporary composers. The
addition of slide whistles, kazoos, costuming and props add an element of whimsy to
their performances.
A smaller collection of Raspberries make up the ensemble called Tom Brier and the Saloon Sweeties, which also will be performing at the festival this year. They include Tom Brier (naturally), Mary Preston, Julia Riley and Kitty Wilson, joined by Allan Rogers on gutbucket bass. |
|
|
|
Hal Smith |
Drummer Hal Smith became interested in ragtime in the 1950s when he discovered 78s by Johnny Maddox, Marvin Ash and others in his father’s record collection. He did not become a pianist, but has always enjoyed playing ragtime on drums. Hal has been privileged to play with legendary pianists such as Wally Rose, Pete Clute, Knocky Parker, Burt Bales, Dick Wellstood, Trebor Tichenor, Bill Mitchell, Ralph Sutton and Dick Hyman.
Currently, Hal works with the Butch Thompson Trio, the Carl Sonny Leyland Trio and the Ray Skjelbred Quartet. In addition, Hal continues to drum alongside such notable pianists as Paul Asaro, John Royen, Jeff Barnhart and Neville Dickie.
Hal has also worked with many of the best traditional jazz groups in the U.S. At the present time he leads a swing combo—Blue Voo (including Sonny on piano). As a sideman he plays with a variety of bands, from the Yerba Buena Stompers (a Lu Watters-style band) to the Cash Kings (a Johnny Cash tribute band).
He is the President of America’s Finest City Dixieland Jazz Society and a noted jazz writer, whose articles have appeared in Mississippi Rag, American Rag, Jazz Rambler,
Just Jazz (U.K.), the Bulletin of the Hot Club of France and in reprints across the U.S.
When not involved in the business of music, Hal pursues a variety of hobbies: Railroads, the Old West, the War Between The States and Herpetology. |
|
 |
|
Adam Swanson |
Adam Swanson is a 16-year-old pianist originally from
Michigan, but now living in a little town in southwest Iowa called Shenandoah. He discovered
ragtime on his grandparents' "Web-TV" and has played the piano for about seven years. Adam is an
accomplished performer, ragtime pianist, and historian/author. He is a three-time junior champion
of the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest, placed fifth in the adult division in 2007 at age 15, and won the overall competition this year!
Adam has played at popular ragtime and jazz fesivals everywhere from Missouri, Wisconsin and
California, to the Republic of Hungary. He has played for/with several noted ragtime artists,
including the great Johnny Maddox and the late John Arpin. Adam has studied piano with Waleed
Howrani of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and plays the trumpet in school. He is also an avid railroad fan,
collects antique sheet music and records. Adam's recent CD is entitled Chestnut Street in the
90's.
|
|
 |
|
Keith Taylor |
Keith Taylor began playing ragtime in 1972. Until that time, his
musical background was classically oriented. Earning a Bachelor of Music degree in piano and a Masters in composition, including
studying composition in Paris, France, he continues to perform and compose both types of music. For many years he taught
instrumental music in the Los Angeles Public Schools. He currently lives with his wife in Azalea,
Oregon where he freelances as a composer and a pianist. Since boyhood, Keith has
traveled twice a year to the Mother Lode to photograph the historic towns and to play every saloon piano he finds — tuning
and repairing them while he's at it — a very popular fellow! In 1998 he dropped by the Sutter Creek Ice Cream Emporium,
where he discovered another piano and Stevens Price, someone he hadn't seen since the two
met at The Maple Leaf Club in Los Angeles 20 years earlier. Keith was the inspiration behind
Stevens' decision to organize the Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival of 1999, and that was such a success, Keith returned
home and re-organized the Cascade Ragtime Society which now sponsors an early April Ragtime Festival in
Roseberg, Oregon. Keith, along with Tom Bopp, is also responsible for initiating the Fresno Flats Vintage Music Festival held each February in Oakhurst, CA. Keith’s latest
undertaking is the Annual Shaniko Ragtime and Vintage Music Festival held in a wonderful ghost town in
Oregon each September. |
|
|
 |
|
Virginia
Tichenor |
Virginia Tichenor has been consumed by ragtime her entire life. She is the daughter of Trebor
Tichenor, the noted ragtime scholar, pianist, collector and founder of the St. Louis
Ragtimers. She studied music at the St. Louis Community Association for the Arts and took advanced training from concert pianist, John Phillips. Always at the crossroads of the ragtime revival, her parental home houses the world's largest library of ragtime sheet music and piano rolls. Virginia grew up with legends like Eubie Blake, Max Morath and Butch Thompson chatting in her own living room. Her father is advisor-confidant for most of the ragtime community, so Virginia often heard new rags when they were forming in the minds of their composers. The topic of her college research project? The ragtime revival, of course! In 1998, Virginia released her first solo recording, a CD entitled Virginia's Favorites. It includes four two-piano duets with her father,
Trebor. It was so popular, the family has since released two other CDs, "The Tichenor Trio" which includes Virginia's father and her multi-talented husband, Marty
Eggers, and most recently, "Ragtime Reunion - Tichenor Family Five" featuring Virginia, her dad, her husband, her brother, and her sister-in-law. She is the Vice President, and past President, of the West Coast Ragtime Society. |
|
 |
|
Town Square Harmonizers
|
Town Square Harmonizers will perform at
the Festival on Saturday. For additional information, go to their
website at: www.townsquareharmonizers.com |
|
|
|
