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FATHER OF RAG-TIM5 MUSIC.Ernest Hogan Once a KUi*oas Cityan, to Blame for these *Vngs.“Several years ago,” says Frederick Xei] I lines, in the New York Telegram, “there was a negro dance in that section of Kansas City known is Belvidere Hollow, and as a special inducement for the colored folk to attend it was announced that an important negro from the sunny districts of New Orleans would lie on hand to call the dance.“This negro made a most pronounced impression from the start, but when lie began to call the figures for the intricate movements of the old-fashioned quadrillo he created a sensation, and, in the vernacular of the theatrical profession, the New Orleans darky made a ‘hit.”“A single expression of this negro filled the dancers with wonderment; in fact, it caused such a sensation as to form the principal topic of public gossip in Belvidere for many weeks after. The negro's expression was ‘pns-mn-la.’ It means pass and swing, nothing more.“Another negro in Belvidere, musically inclined, originated a dauce and called it the Tas-ma-Ia.’ lie composed some music for it, and within a few weeks any one in the negro district of Kansas City who couldn't dance the Tas-ma-la’ wasn’t eligible for colored society.“The author of the new dance wasErnest llogan, who afterward gained a measure of faiYie for other songs lie composed, hut when asked what hisinitial effort meant he said ‘ragtime.’Ernest Hogan is the ‘father of ragtime,’ for ‘Pns-ma-la’ was the first effort of this kind that ever attracted general attention. Following this came F. A. Mills’ ‘Georgia Camp Meeting.’“1 dare say that 10,000 songs and instrumental numbers, popularly known as ragtime, have been composed and put on the market since Hogan introduced the fad to Kansas City negro elite. The country for rt while seemed ragtime mad. Certainly no one ever considered a ragtime so1 lection from a serious standpoint, and no one, surely, can he surprised that that form of alleged music is now anthe wane.”
Newspaper Details
Waterloo Press
Waterloo, Indiana, US
Thu, Jan 18, 1906
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Forrest O.
USA 02 Mar 2018
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