A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

(C) 1970, 1987 Nonesuch Records/Warner Communications “Don t play this piece fast. It is never right to play ragtime fast.” – Scott Joplin In November 1970, Nonesuch Records released Joshua Rifkin’s Scott Joplin Piano Rags, an album that featured nine compositions written in ragtime by Arkansas-born pianist-composer Scott Joplin (1868-1917). Rifkin’s album – the first of three such records – became an instant best-seller and helped kickstart the early ‘70s revival of ragtime that was epitomized by the use of Joplin’s rags in Marvin Hamlisch’s score for George Roy Hill’s comedy-drama The Sting.  Official Warner Music Video: Solace - A Mexican Solace “Because it has such a ragged movement. It suggests something like that.” – Scott Joplin on the derivation of the word "ragtime" Although the album only contained nine of Joplin’s rags, Rifkin’s spirited performance of the music that inspired the first musical craze in 20 th Century America became Nonesuch Record...