You hear the word “ragtime” and you might think old, like a hundred years old.
But Kylan DeGhetaldi is having none of that. In his view, ragtime is the sound of young America.
“We have 20 solo pianists,” said DeGhetaldi in reference to the second annual Santa Cruz Ragtime Festival to take place this weekend, “and all but five of them are under 30.”
The festival that is set to invade downtown Santa Cruz for three days will in fact feature more than 50 musicians in total. And, said DeGhetaldi, more than half of them are younger than 25. They include pianists Daniel Souvigny and Ramona Baker who are both 16, as well as headlining South Korean-born phenom Jimin Park, who is all of 22.
DeGhetaldi, who is also an accomplished ragtime pianist, said, “I’m 31, so I’m a little old for this festival.”
DeGhetaldi admits that the youthful vigor of his festival is no accident, but it is instead a strategic move to distinguish Santa Cruz from other ragtime festivals around the country. But he also insists that ragtime and other forms of early 20th-century jazz are becoming more and more popular with those too young to remember a world before wi-fi.
DeGhetaldi himself has become part of a group of musicians known as Postmodern Jukebox, the brainchild of Southern California pianist Scott Bradlee, which produces slick, gorgeous-sounding YouTube videos of young musicians reworking well-known pop songs in vintage ragtime/early jazz/Americana styles (Imagine the Black Eyed Peas’ “My Humps” redone in a bawdy, 1920s flapper sound). The musicians, which often include talented vocalists like “American Idol” stars Haley Reinhart and Casey Abrams, even look the part, dressing up in deliciously throwback fashions.
After producing the first Santa Cruz Ragtime Festival last February, DeGhetaldi was contacted by Bradlee, and became part of the Postmodern Jukebox touring band.
As referenced in its name, Postmodern Jukebox is directly throwing musical traditions in the mixer, inviting in curious listeners with famous modern tunes and exposing them to an older tradition in their big-band/old jazz arrangements. In that spirit, DeGhetaldi takes a wider, more generous approach to the term “ragtime” than many jazz purists might.
Technically, ragtime is the form of early piano-based jazz, characterized by high-energy rhythm syncopation, which enjoyed its heyday for about 20 years at the beginning of the 20th century. Ragtime’s Bob Marley figure was the African-American composer Scott Joplin, who composed such classics as “The Maple Leaf Rag” and “The Entertainer.”
DeGhetaldi has a more expansive view of ragtime, using the term to embrace many styles of early jazz from stride to boogie-woogie to swing. In a nod to purists, most American ragtime festivals usually call themselves “ragtime/early jazz” festivals. “I just wanted to keep it short and sweet,” said DeGhetaldi. His festival puts its arms around many forms of pre-1940s jazz, from Louis Armstrong to Fats Waller to Jelly Roll Morton.
This year’s festival is one day longer than last year’s, which established the template of (mostly) free performances centered on a handful of venues in downtown Santa Cruz. Among the venues for this year’s event are Woodstock’s Pizza, Calvary Church and Parish Hall, Emily’s Bakery, Lupulo Craft Beer House and, most memorably from last year, outdoors on Pacific Avenue, where various musicians entertained passersby on a sidewalk piano.
The Kuumbwa Jazz Center will also be the venue for the two showcase concerts of the Festival Friday and Saturday night, featuring, among others, 51-year-old boogie-woogie piano legend Carl “Sonny” Leyland.
Last year’s inaugural festival, in fact, changed Santa Cruz law. DeGhetaldi found an old ordinance on the city’s books prohibiting several styles of dance known at the time as “ragging.” In a clever bit of marketing, DeGhetaldi got the city to formally suspend the ordinance and to get a city proclamation claiming the weekend officially as Santa Cruz Ragtime Festival Weekend.
This weekend’s festival, said DeGhetaldi, is a natural evolution of last year’s. Expanded by one day, the music kicks off noon on Friday – the piano at Pacific Avenue and Cooper Street should be jumping all weekend long.
For his part, DeGhetaldi is a true believer that his approach to developing a young festival is going to make Santa Cruz memorable in the history of the “postmodern” traditional sound.
“The average age of these musicians is in the early 20s,” he said. “They are going to be the best in the world. I will be proud to say, in a couple of decades, that I brought all these people together in one place.”
Santa Cruz Ragtime Festival
When: Friday, Saturday and Sunday, various times
Where: Various venues around downtown Santa Cruz, showcase concerts at Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz, 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Tickets: For Kuumbwa shows, $25 good for both shows. All other events are free
Details: For a full schedule, go to www.santacruzragtime.com
