When one considers popular music today, either streamed, or housed/played digitally on various devices, then traces it back several generations, we find the roots and the sprouting of America’s popular music heritage.
Back in the late 1890s and into the 1930s, pop music was shaped by technology (early recordings, radio, film), fads (flappers, Prohibition), historic milestones (migration of former slave descendants from the south to the north, WWI, the Great Depression).
The KSO’s Newport Ragtime Band (NRB) was originally formed in 1996 when composer/musician Gunther Schuller sold the KSO his New England Ragtime Band arrangements from the 1970s (Ragtime music experienced a revival after its use in the 1973 hit movie The Sting). The NRB then scaled the group down (from 13) to its current 9-piece ensemble to mirror the 1920s instrumentation of the King Oliver Band. KSO arrangers Scot Woolley and Terry LaBolt added specific charts to capture the various new styles and genres developed and performed across the U.S. and in Cincinnati.
The NRB with vocalists Deondra Means and Tangie Wyatt will bring its authentic mix of tunes to the parks, tracing the formation of the blues, ragtime, Dixieland and early jazz by composer/musicians who set the stage for Swing, Big Band, R&B, Rock & Roll, and popular styles to come. From “His Eye is on the Sparrow” to St. Louis Blues, The Entertainer to the Queen Rag, Darktown Strutters Ball to “Minnie the Moocher,” the KSO will have audiences toe-tapping, clapping and singing along with American classics from more than a century ago.
Even Betty Boop cartoons originated via the music from this era, as international child star Esther Lee Jones provided the inspiration for everyone’s favorite flapper and her signature “boo-boopy-doo.”
Join the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra Newport Ragtime Band 7:30 p.m. Saturday, August 2 in Devou Park in Covington, and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, August 3 at Tower Park in Fort Thomas. The TANK park & ride shuttle from Covington Catholic departs on the half hour starting at 6 p.m. ($1 each way). Concessions are available in Devou Park. Food trucks will be on-site in Tower Park. Bring blankets, picnics or lawn chairs.
For more information, registration (for weather updates) and directions, visit the KSO at www.kyso.org. The concert and parking are free, though a $5 per person donation to the KSO is suggested.
Kentucky Symphony Orchestra