Joplin celebration features two days of ragtime, jazz and more
Grammy-nominated pianist Richard Dowling, hometown jazz artists, a school jazz band competition and more all mark the second annual Scott Joplin Regional Music Celebration as the place to be Friday, March 30, and Saturday, March 31.
The two-day follow-up to last year’s inaugural event presented by the Regional Music Heritage Center includes a Friday night Gala “Meet and Greet” Preview from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Silvermoon on Broad with Candace Taylor and Carol Miles performing with jazz trio Three of a Kind and guitarist Tom Morrissey.
There’s also a silent auction to benefit the RMHC building renovation fund, wine, hors d’oeuvres, door prizes and more at this opening night party.
Then that Saturday night is “Ragtime ‘n Jazz” from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the Perot Theatre. It’s an evening featuring Dowling on piano, the Texarkana Jazz Orchestra and new Texarkana Ragtime Orchestra under the director of Dick Eckstein, soprano Carol Miles performing “A Real Slow Drag” from Joplin’s “Treemonisha” opera and special honorees.
Honored that night will be longtime drummer and teacher Dave Daily with the RMHC’s Lifetime Achievement
Award and guitarist and Berklee College of Music graduate James Norton with a Young Musician Award. Student jazz band and ragtime piano competition winners will also perform.
In Dowling, a Texas native, the SJRMC has a performer who’s been praised by the New York Times, New York Concert Review and San Antonio Express-News. His Grammy nomination came for his 3-disc collection of Joplin works. He’s appeared across the country for recitals, chamber music shows and ragtime events.
Dowling has also traveled overseas to perform and appeared at venues like Carnegie Hall, where he gave recitals of Joplin’s entire piano repertoire on the exact 100-year anniversary of Joplin’s death. His studies include a master’s degree from Yale University and a doctorate achieved at the University of Texas at Austin.
The RMHC is the brainchild of David Mallette, who now sees the Joplin festival take off for a second year. He’s excited.
“Friday night’s going to be a lot of fun,” Mallette said, noting that Dowling will play a few tunes to give a preview of Saturday night. It’s called a “meet and greet,” but think of it as a more relaxed party, he said. Last year’s Friday night party was a big hit.
“I think the reason they’re so much fun is the atmosphere at the Silvermoon is great. It’s social,” Mallette said. Add to that a freeform style of entertainment that encouraged people to move around, talk and get up close to the music.
About Saturday night, Mallette said, “We are so proud of our Lifetime Achievement and Young Musician Award recipients this year.”
In Daily, the RMHC is honoring a “giant in drumming,” Mallette said. “Both as a drummer and as an educator of several generations of drummers.” Of Norton, Mallette has stellar praise, describing his musicianship as stunning after seeing him do an impromptu performance one night. “This guy just completely electrified me,” he said of Norton’s skill with heavy metal guitar work.
Miles has performed this “Treemonisha” selection before and also attended a St. Louis Opera performance of the Joplin work.
“The SJRMC Perot performance is twofold: to honor Scott Joplin during the event and to launch or plant seeds for a future Texarkana 1911 Opera Company,” Miles said. “A company that will debut its first full performance with ‘Treemonisha.’ Local voices with local emotions.” The year 1911 is the year the opera’s vocal score was published, she said.
“I am excited to perform with the brilliant pianist Richard Dowling. Halfway through his presentation we will perform ‘ A Real Slow Drag’ as Scott Joplin wrote it,” Miles said. Several other local performers will join, as will the Lonoke Baptist Church Choir, the church that La Erma White, who is Joplin’s grand-niece, attends.
The Four States Jazz Festival from noon to 5:30 p.m. that Saturday afternoon at Texarkana College’s Stilwell Theatre is part of the celebration once again. It features competing school jazz bands from the Four States Area, said Eckstein, the organizer of this part of the SJRMC.
“Each school will be giving a 20- to 40-minute concert throughout that afternoon,” he said, noting participants hail from Arkansas High School, Redwater and Liberty-Eylau, North Heights Junior High and elsewhere. Altogether about eight to 10 schools will perform. Admission is free.
Several awards will be given, including the top award for the most outstanding jazz band, the Jerry Loveall Award.
“The winner of that award plays on the concert at the Perot Theatre that night. They’re the opening band,” said Eckstein, who runs the band program at North Heights.
For the Texarkana Ragtime Orchestra, this will be their first performance. “We think we’re going to have two violins, a clarinet, a flute, two coronets, one trombone, a double bass and a piano,” Eckstein said. And for the Texarkana Jazz Orchestra, expect to see the full big band that’s performed in the Texarkana area for more than 20 years.
About the student jazz bands competing, Eckstein said, “It’s a really rewarding and fun experience. We get to play a lot of great music and hear a lot of great bands throughout the day.”
Mallette describes it as an awesome feeling to see the Joplin celebration held a second year.
“I came into this last year with unbounded optimism and ran into brick walls six ways from Sunday trying to get things done. And by Sunday afternoon that first weekend, I thought I needed to go to an ER,” recalled Mallette.
Mallette was exhausted, but it was all worth it. He was satisfied, and it’s strengthened his belief in the RMHC and its mission.
(“Meet and Greet” tickets: $18 with reservation, $20 at the door, $14 discounted ticket with proof of purchased ticket to the Saturday night Perot event. Silvermoon on Broad is located at 217 W. Broad St. For reservations, call or text 903-490-5471. “Ragtime ‘n Jazz” tickets: “$40, $25 and $15 with student discount available and free single student entry with single ticket-holding adult; group rates available. Get tickets at the Perot Theatre box office or direct at ScottJoplinCelebration. com.)
“I am excited to perform with
the brilliant pianist Richard Dowling. Halfway through his presentation we will perform ‘A Real Slow Drag’ as Scott Joplin
wrote it.”
—Carol Miles