What was it like to live in the good old days of ragtime?
Max Morath gives audiences a flavor of the era during his ragtime piano performances — and mostly, he says, those good old days were a nice time frame to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there.
So sans a time machine, Morath transports listeners to the days of the first popular music in America — ragtime.
Morath is scheduled to perform at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. His show was originally scheduled for June 8, but was postponed due to a minor medical emergency.
The pianist credits ragtime with being the first popular music — rather than gospel or folk music — because it became a favorite at a most opportune time in history.
Technology, he said during a telephone interview, is what made that possible.
“It came out of the folk world, out of the black world,” he said. “It was the first music that went national. That didn’t happen until the turn of the century. It was because of the phonograph and strictly economic matters such as the existence of the 5 and 10 cent stores where you bought sheet music.”
Like popular music of any era, Morath said ragtime went deeper than just the music. It was a mind-set adopted by the youth of the day.
“Popular music has always belonged to the kids,” he said. “It was an era of rebellion. Ragtime was the whole umbrella term to define an era.”
Ragtime was carefree, but also optimistic, says Morath, who has devoted his career to learning not just the music but the mores and events of the day.
“People really believed in 1905 and 1910 that there weren’t going to be any more wars, that we were too smart for that,” Morath said.
Despite the hopeful outlook, Morath says he’s glad not to have lived in those days. For one thing, he says, the diet wasn’t all that great for the average American.
“It was lard and starch,” he said. “They had no fresh vegetables unless you were rich.” Or lived on a farm.
The workplace didn’t make living conditions any better, either. Forget 9- to-5 jobs or eight-hour work days.
“The average person worked 12 hours a day for 25 cents an hour,” Morath said.
Public transportation was horse power and not all that preferable to gas exhaust, the pianist added.
“People talk about pollution — we had horse manure,” he said. “If the automobile hadn’t come along, we’d be deep in it.”
Then there were the vestiges of outdoor plumbing, a 25 percent infant mortality rate and old-fashioned dentistry.
He also credits those ragtime days with introducing labor unions, cocaine, assembly lines, movies, potato chips, income tax, aspirin, cocktail parties, organized crime and “that money-making hustle called popular music.”
For music, Morath, points out, isn’t just about songs, it’s a business.
“Ask yourself, where would popular music be without the phonograph?” Morath asks, then answers. “Nowhere. Or radio? I tip my hat to David Sarnoff.”
He defines ragtime as constant syncopation against a steady beat, but Morath’s earliest introduction to the sound was less technical than it was personal.
Morath’s mother had played piano for the silent movie theaters and after the introduction of “talkies” continued to play the tunes in their home in Colorado Springs, Colo.
He pursued his interest in that format and took his show on tour with his ragtime routines long before renewed interest was sparked by Scott Joplin’s music in the movie The Sting.
There was his one-man show, Turn of the Century, which began in 1969, followed by Ragtime Years and Living the Ragtime Life. He also was featured in two PBS special series on the era — 29 half-hour shows in all that aired during the 1960s.
The New York Times recently compared Morath’s style on stage to that of Mark Twain — the gift of gab that accompanies his piano entertainment.
“It (ragtime) amalgamated my interest in Americana,” Morath said. “I found a niche in this crazy business and it’s been good to me.”
Max Morath Living a Ragtime Life is available on the Omega label. The World of Scott Joplin Vols. 1 and 2 are on the Vanguard label.
The entertainer also has written two musicals: One for the Road, which enjoyed a brief run in St. Louis, and his latest, Mister Dooley, which he says he is still working on producing.
Mister Dooley focuses on the career of columnist Peter Finley Dunne whom Morath sees as amalgam of Art Buchwald, Russell Baker and Dave Barry.
“He said ‘Trust everybody, but cut the cards,”‘ Morath recalled. Dunne was also anti-war and Morath quotes him as saying: “Whenever I’m called upon to fight for God and my country, I’d like to be sure the senior partner has been consulted.”
Such anecdotes represent extensive research and a vast knowledge of his favorite era.
Although he prefers the comforts of the present to the antiquities of the past, Morath admits to a single weakness for the turn of the century.
“One thing I’m nostalgic about is the old trains,” he said. “I never sat in a train for three hours circling the depot.”
— Rayna Gardner is a free-lance writer based in Pompano Beach who has covered events in Palm Beach County for several years.
— Max Morath is booked at 1 p.m. Tuesday for the Adults at Leisure series at the Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach. Tickets are $10. Call 832-7469 or 1-800-572-8471.
