REVIEW: RAGTIME AND AGAIN
"In America," Max Morath says in his new one-man show at the York, "it's our music that labels our history." Ragtime and Again is not merely the history of one kind of music, it's the history of a culture, the history of America. Far from a lecture or a concert, Morath recreates a bygone epoch through stories and music, letting us see how the syncopated rhythms that became ragtime transformed not only modern music, but American culture and society.
"What's ragtime?" Morath asks rhetorically st the beginning of the show. Ragtime was the first music to syncopate rhythms, to make the beat (the "time") of the music "ragged." It gave birth to jazz, which gave birth to rock, which gave birth to all the modern varieties of music. So what is ragtime? "What isn't?" Morath answers his own question with gentle amusement. As he plays the first song ("The Steeplechase Rag," by Jimmy Johnson), Morath casually mentions that Johnson composed the song in 1912- when he was only sixteen years old. "Popular music has always belonged to the kids," he says, "and ragtime was the first popular music." Throughout the show, Morath emphasizes the youth of many of the ragtime composers, and reminds us of the many odds against which they struggled to get their music heard: age, race, poverty, gender, to name only a few. Indeed, these very obstacles became the themes of several rags, as Morath quietly points out by dividing the evening into motifs. The music and the stories work together to keep us enlightened, but most importantly, entertained. At one point, he even has the audience sing along to a famous rag, bringing us deeper into the music. It's a lovely moment that lets us experience the song not as audience members in 2004, but as fans a century ago might have enjoyed it.
In fact, the only weak moment in the show is a recitation of Robert Service's poem "The Ballad of Salvation Bill," which, while interesting on a historical and societal level, does not fit in with the theme of history through music. It's certainly impressive to hear Morath recite such a long piece, and to see him act out the poem's narrative, but it noticeably breaks the flow of the evening.
Apart from that, Ragtime and Again is very enjoyable. Morath clearly loves what he does, and his excitement is contagious. Even people unfamiliar with ragtime can find something to enjoy in this show, and at best, can leave having discovered how modern music began.
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