Search - Brun Campbell :: Joplin's Disciple

Eccentric, unpolished, authentic ragtime

Nicolas Arteaga | Chico CA | 09/06/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Brun Campbell was an early white ragtime pianists and was the only Scott Joplin student to record. His style of ragtime is much different than the classic Joplin rags and the rags of his black pupils. After studying with Joplin, Cambell left the St. Louis area to play all sorts of different places in the west. He reportedly played ragtime for Teddy Rossevelt, Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp and all kinds of other wild west characters. He retired from professional piano playing around 1910 to become a Barber in California where these recordings were made. The compositions on this albulm, if they can be called compositions at all, consists of putting random strains together usually without changing keys. He usually sticks to simple harmonies but changes chords in wierd places. Campbell probably wasn't very good but some of these performances are still very entertaining. To me Campbells playing evokes the saloons and brothels of the old west with gun fights and barroom brawls. I expecially like the 2 essays in ragtime and remininiscings, these really swing and make you want to stamp your feet. Generally Campbells performances swing hard unlike modern academic ragtime performers like Joshua Rifkin or many others.

These recordings were made in the late forties and some were made on acetates so the sound quality varies. If you play ragtime this albulm is of great help to get the right style excpecially in early folk ragtime.



"