So I would do things on the piano, like take, similar to what I just did in the very beginning-- I would take a song like "Big Poppa," Notorious BIG, and turn it into ragtime . And when I did it the first time-- Pretty genius.
Listening has been a really big part of my musical education, like you with the cassette. Before I did that ragtime '80s video, I didn't have anything of mine on the internet, because I felt like it wasn't good enough.
Seattle. Nashville. OK. And last one-- dream role in any musical? I'm going to say Mother in "Ragtime " in 20 years. Phantom in "The Phantom of the Opera." Oh.
It's a dream come true. I mean, you mentioned "Ragtime ." But I did that show in high school, which, if you've ever seen it, I hope that you didn't see it at a high school.
Eric: For me the differences are purely semantic. You know, ragtime was imitating the John Phillip Sousa concept and the Scott Joplin turned it around this and that. But Lynard Skynard was, you know, approaching the eighth note another kind of -- that's just not my personality anymore at least. You know.
And you quickly showed them your number one party trick, which was? Yeah, so I was really into ragtime piano and early jazz. And you can imagine, if you're a 16-year-old kid or 17-year-old kid, that's not what other people are listening to.
And I don't even know if you, Lynn and Stephen, if you know what you were starting when you wrote it. Quentin and Kenita, you had actually worked together in-- In "Ragtime ." They were Coalhouse and Sarah.
And then go straight into a little bit of performance. - Now on Broadway, from the Tony award winning creators of "Ragtime ," a brand new journey beings. "Anastasia," the musical, on Broadway.
Okay. Well, let's look at -- well, just now, you know, that was hard beat so it has this line. Eric: Right? So we can look at that as sort of a modified ragtime type of deal. That's how we experience it -- experience stuff like that in piano, you know, that kind of counterpoint
But then I just thought, what have I got to lose? And I uploaded this medley of '80s-- you know, just like we just did, these '80s hits reinterpreted as ragtime piano. And the next day I went, and I checked my email.
Right, and you went on to do music for "BioShock Infinite"? Yeah, and that was my first-- so, as a result of that medley where I went viral, and I did the ragtime '80s thing, I got a call from a dude that was like, "hey man, I really like what you're doing.
And I don't even know if you, Lynn and Stephen, if you know what you were starting when you wrote it. And it's Kenita. From day one-- I've known Kenita now since 2001 when we started "Ragtime " together with Lynn and Stephen.
as a profession on the saxophone in the early part of the century. As the saxophone continued to increase in its popularity, it became more involved in community bands, ragtime music, show music, and then in the late 19 teens, it became a late comer to this new music called jazz.
That's what Africans are going to translate when the missionaries in the 1650s brings them Christianity and the piano. The syncopation of the banjo are going to be translated on the left hand of the piano to give America a new form of music that we call ragtime . So it's interesting to see how the transfer of standard of aesthetics in music have applied,
After hitting the American Top 10 charts in 1965 with his novelty record "You Turn Me On" and finding himself in the company of young bands like The Rolling Stones, he devoted his work to resurrecting the roots of pop music, especially ragtime and Tin Pan Alley. He's performed everywhere, from the Hollywood Bowl, to the Montreux Jazz Festival, and has appeared on Johnny Carson, "The Tonight Show." As an author he has published