Aug/103
Artist in Residence
Smells like victory.
Wow, I have some amazing news.
Every year, the Scott Joplin Foundation invites one musician to be their Artist in Residence for the year. This person is in Sedalia, MO for a week doing a Scott Joplin/Sedalia history outreach to local schools. The list of people who have done this reads like a who’s who in ragtime, including my mentor, friend, and all-around musical genius Tony Caramia.
And guess who is the Artist in Residence for 2011? THIS GUY. [points to self]
It basically breaks down to this: 11 schools, 5 days, 2 mini-concert/sessions each morning and afternoon for a total of 20 during the week, and then the week is capped off with a benefit concert of some sort on Friday night. I’m the youngest person they’ve ever asked to do it, which is awesome. The hope is that I’ll be able to connect with the kids, which shouldn’t be hard considering I’m already plotting how to turn Lady Gaga into ragtime.
I first went to Sedalia in 1998. I was 15, and I had to sneak onto a piano when my dad was in the bathroom in order to get a chance to play. Now I’m the Artist in Residence. Artist! With a capital “A”! That’s pretty awesome 
Jul/100
The Masters at Work
This picture can barely contain the power.
If the dusty corner of the musical world that is ragtime has rock stars, they would be Brian Holland and Jeff Barnhart.
I was 15 years old when I first heard them play together. They were then the age I am now, and had just discovered the kind of magic musical synergy — Brian, with his classical technique, control, and flourish; Jeff with his power and energy — that has made them legends in their own time.
To wit, with help from the epic Danny Coots:
I’m not ashamed to admit that the 5-minute mark to the end makes me twitch with glee.
Always fun to watch the masters at work
Jun/102
Reviews Are Weird
The hat is offended.
Okay. So:
Martin Spitznagel, a 27-year-old with growing technical prowess, moved next into novelty pieces. He played Joseph Lamb’s “Hot Cinders,” a simple piece built on a two-note pattern, followed by Billy Mayerl’s 1927 hit “Marigold,” a leisurely paced excursion of surges and softness that faded away on high light notes. Spitznagel then played one of the oddest and hardest pieces of the entire festival, Arthur Schutt’s “Blue in the Black Keys,” a charging work that changed keys every few bars. (Monett Times, 06/18/10)
Is this a… uh… good review? I can’t really tell. “Growing technical prowess” sounds like I’m either a Chia Pet who needs watered or a special-needs musician. “Martin has clearly been trying really hard to get better.” Someone get me a helmet to wear.
For comparison, read the next paragraph of the article, which reviews Paul Asaro:
Asaro played the most strenuous pieces with impeccable ease. His fingers danced through James P. Johnson’s “After Tonight” and “Blueberry Rhyme,” and brought out exotic atmosphere in Fats Waller’s “Martinique” from a 1943 musical. Asaro closed with his specialty, the romping “Caravan,” written by Juan Tizol for Duke Ellington.
Okay, first, Paul is impeccable, his fingers do dance, and his “Caravan” is considered a fire hazard it’s brought down so many houses. That’s beside the point. Read the two reviews again and tell me this: Which pianist would you rather listen to? One that’s “impeccable,” “exotic,” “romping,” and whose fingers “dance,” or one that’s “growing,” “leisurely,” and “simple”? Exactly. My review, by comparison, reads like a book report. “Next up was Martin Spitznagel, who clearly played more notes than the other pianists.” Sigh. For a musician who tries to be musical above all else, this is a pretty disappointing review.
May/101
Anderson & Whoa
...because all pianists hang out in fields in their free time...
It’s hard to believe YouTube is just five years old. Like cellphones, the web, and barcodes, it’s hard to remember the world before it, even for those of us, like moi, who were around.
One of the best parts of YouTube, besides of course the abundance of piano playing cats, is finding other human pianists and musicians. Two of the best I’ve found are Anderson and Roe, a dynamic duo that is doing so many things right. Their videos have high production values, spunk, attitude, and best of all they’re damn fine piano players. They also do epic arrangements of Star Wars music, so they had me at hello.
Here’s there latest video, a dizzying version of Mozart’s “Rondo alla Turca.” Of course, this being my website, it’s an arrangement they’ve titled “Ragtime alla Turca.” Gotta love it below:
It’s great to see artists of this caliber experimenting with ragtime! And if the audience reaction at the end, which looks more like they just scored a touchdown to win a game than concluded a piano performance, is any indication, it looks like this music I love is in pretty good shape
Mar/103
Try Harder or Quit
I need to become this person.
My French teacher in high school had a thing. Whenever a student would come to talk to him about late homework, he would curtly ask, “Is this a big long story ending with ‘I don’t have it’?” And invariably, if the student (usually me) indicated that yes, this was indeed a story ending with “I don’t have it,” he would quickly go, “Okay, sorry. Better luck next time.”
My point: Hi. Sorry. I’ve been a negligent blogger. The reason why? A big long story ending with “I don’t have it.” Moving on.
There are few things more pleasurable for a person interested in ragtime, stride, and early jazz than finding other, ridiculously talented people who are also into it. The internet is more adept at causing this phenomenon than any technology ever, and helped me discover this guy. His name is Bernd Lohtzky. He’s a German. And he might be one of the best interpreters of this style of music I’ve ever heard.
To wit:
It’s hard to communicate how watching something like this makes me feel. To be honest, it elicits a mountain of self-doubt. First, I’ve been thinking about ragging/striding this etude for a long time. It lends itself to it very well. And then I see this and… I quit. I mean, I cannot do what this guy does. I don’t think I ever will be able to. His playing is nearly flawless. He has no trouble keeping rhythm. It’s effortless and beautiful and sparkling. Listen to some of his other videos on YouTube. He plays Jimmy Johnson’s “Caprice Rag” like it’s a piece for children. My playing sounds sodden and weak in comparison.
Feb/100
Billy Mayerl Rocks
Had to share this epic video, courtesy of Scott N. Here is one of my heroes, Billy Mayerl, making all other pianists look like hacks and liars.
BILLY MAYERL AND HIS CLAVIERS
Fun fact: Flying across those keys on the right is a very young Marian McPartland, the famous host of Piano Jazz on NPR!
I play a number of Billy’s pieces, but no one alive can play them as well as he did. That said, I really, really want to try that play-two-pianos-at-a-time trick now
Feb/106
The Seagull Shuffle
Seagulls are really bad dancers.
I’ve been working on a couple new tunes lately. I had a relative dry spell there for *cough* six years *cough* but am happily back to writing music on a pretty regular basis. And, unlike when I was a teenager, I’m actually writing things down this time.
Part of this latest effort has involved going back to tunes that I wrote when I was a teenager and sprucing them up, updating them with new harmonies and ideas. It’s not like anyone has heard those old pieces, and I’d rather turn them into something I perform than just have them sitting in the past forgotten. Besides, I can do a lot of things at the piano that I couldn’t do then, which helps.
Oh, and I have some idea of how music works now. That helps too.
And so, with that said, here’s my latest tune. I’ve been writing a bunch of meaningful pieces – Theresa Novelette, Marty’s Blues – and I thought it was time I went back to my roots and wrote a piece of beer drinkin’, cigar smokin’ ragtime.
Oh, and it needed to be named after a bird. Don’t ask questions.
I give you “The Seagull Shuffle”:
Jan/101
“Get that ragtime out of my house!”
Here is one of my favorite things ever.
In 1970, Max Morath (of Martin’s-Day-Making fame) interviewed Eubie Blake, one of the most talented and enduring musicians of the 20th century. Eubie wrote a gaggle of ridiculously famous tunes including “I’m Just Wild About Harry” and “Memories of You.” He scored the first all-black Broadway musical “Shuffle Along.” I’m pretty sure he invented raindrops on roses, bright copper kettles, and warm woolen mittens.
Eubie Blake: Musician. Lover. Stamp.
You’ve never heard of him? They put him on a frigging stamp, people, right next to Louis Armstrong. Wake up.
I perform a number of Eubie’s tunes, including Baltimore Todolo and Charleston Rag, and consider his music to be one of the major pillars of my life (along with whining, wood-fired pizza, and whining about wood-fired pizza). Which is why it is so awesome to hear him telling the story of how he got started playing ragtime:
This interview, which I yoinked from the US Survey Course on the Web at GMU (link), captures everything I love about ragtime: its playfulness, its subversiveness, its low lows and high highs. I smile the whole time that I listen to Eubie talk. His voice inspires me. My favorite part is when he says, “[Ragtime] was out of the houses of ill repute, or bordellos, I guess that’s a better word, and it was low, low, low. It was considered low music, see. It wasn’t, it wasn’t art, see.” Squee.
I also need to find an opportunity to exclaim, “You know I didn’t know no music!” Only then will I truly feel complete.
Jan/101
John “Fingers” Williams
My handwriting is not neat enough to compose like this
I started writing ragtime when I was 13. My first piece of music was called the “Starlight March,” and no you cannot hear it. All the Internet needs to know about Martin Spitznagel the composer is that he was an amazing supergenius who never wrote a bad tune ever. Why don’t you preserve that, Wayback Machine.
Since that fateful afternoon at Mom’s house on the Baldwin spinet 14 years ago, plunking my way through “Starlight,” I’ve written mainly for the piano. Okay, only for the piano (with some tiny exceptions). This past December, however, I had the opportunity to do a full-on orchestral score for my company’s holiday card, which you can watch/listen to/mock incessantly here.
Now, I didn’t have a live orchestra to work with, so I used a combination of virtual instruments, Logic Pro 7, and a 49-key midi keyboard pulled from the action-less depths of Piano Hell in order to score the card. Not that I would have known what to do with a real orchestra, seeing as I only know how to play the piano – it’d be like asking a person with a driver’s license to fly a fleet of airplanes, i.e., I sort of get what they do and I know what not flying looks like, but I’m not sure you’d want me running the show – but despite all that, and the ridiculously compressed schedule I had to work with, I’m really pleased with the way it turned out.
Dec/090
Rosie’s Corner
Being interviewed made me feel like a star...
Early in 2009, I had the privilege of being interviewed by Dr. Rosemary Hallum for her “Rosie’s Corner” article in “The American Rag,” a periodical devoted to traditional jazz and ragtime. Rosemary has interviewed many, many people, including many of my favorite ragtimers, and it was a surprise and an honor when she contacted me and asked if she could profile me for her July column.
What started as a simple interview blossomed into a wonderful dialog about everything from religion and politics to the muses and everything in between. I think we found in each other a fellow traveler and fellow seeker, and our extended conversation, held over the course of a few months via e-mail and phone (and including a few Google searches of me, I think, as some bits of my resume snuck in here!) was one of the most enjoyable parts of 2009.
Here’s the article in its entirety. Warning: This is one of my most self-indulgent posts ever, which is really saying something. You might want to grab a cup of coffee, a pillow, and an in-flight magazine because damn, can I talk, but enjoy! I think she captured my voice very well. Thanks again, Rosemary, for making me feel like a star.
IT’S EASIER TO ENJOY HIS MUSIC THAN TO SPELL HIS LAST NAME: MARTIN SPITZNAGEL
by Dr. Rosemary Hallum
Human beings are remarkable, each one unique and different from the next, from their fingerprints and body structure to their thought processes, talents, and interests. This makes my writing work very intriguing, because I get to interview many diverse people from sports stars to cooks, from composers to performers.
Welcome
Welcome to the homepage of musician, writer, and filmmaker Martin Spitznagel!
Any questions, please e-mail me at martin@spitzfire.com.