Jesse Pickett: The Anonymous Contributions of an Itinerate ComposerJesse Pickett: The Anonymous Contributions of an Itinerate Composer

“A good definition of folk musicians is this: people who don’t know about copyright.”
Ian Whitcomb^[1]

Jason ---REDACTED---
6 October 2015

Imagine attending the first demonstration of the inclined plane. Maybe the first ramp was given a beautiful presentation. Maybe its developer simply showed the first observer her invention and then told him to get to work, pushing some mass up the slope. Whether it was made for construction, like the ramps presumed to construct ancient earthworks, or violence, like the siege ramp at Masada, it was almost certainly developed for function. Such folk engineering, like many disciplines, has relegated quite a few of its most significant pioneers to the realm of anonymity. This is often due to the functional and experimental nature of such innovations. Much to the chagrin of our celebrity culture, the same can be said of music. While a great deal can be known about the individual styles of developed renaissance composers, it is futile asking just who invented the madrigal. Although most Americans can name their favorite rock band at the drop of a hat, no one can name the first composer of a twelve bar blues. This paper will demonstrate how difficult it can be to determine the specific contributions of an innovative folk artist such as ragtime composer Jesse Pickett.

In fact, some of the musical ideas this man developed may have been discovered as a result of the same wild, itinerate lifestyle that left such a dearth of information about him to study. One thing that is known about Pickett is that he was present for the accepted genesis of ragtime. The 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago is considered ground zero for the growing awareness of ragtime, and Jesse Pickett is not only reputed to have been present, but H. Loring White has even claimed he performed, “the only ragtime strain known from that pre-publication time.”^[2] Pickett was not a Chicago native though. John Storm Roberts quotes Eubie Blake as saying that Pickett originally hailed from Philadelphia.^[3] According to Al Rose, there were also Pickett sightings by Blake in Baltimore.^[4] David Cayer says he made his way to New York, where he was spotted by James P. Johnson.^[5] It is not difficult to imagine farther travels than these given that almost all sources agree he was a gambler and a pimp in addition to a piano-playing composer. On top of constant traveling and these less than reputable sources of income, it should be noted that itinerate pianists of this time were known to be exceedingly competitive with one another. Constant travel, socially deviant tendencies, and a competitive nature do not inherently lend themselves to the kind of stability that makes biographical reconstruction easy. They do, however, provide a musician with ample opportunity to hear local music of diverse populations and the ability to integrate it into his own style. More so, these three traits would have placed Pickett in awkward situations where improvisation and creativity may be helpful skills for basic survival.

Pickett’s Dream Rag, the aforementioned piece performed at the Chicago World’s Fair, may be a representative example of music produced by this formula. White’s belief that this is the oldest strain of known ragtime is interesting given the mythology surrounding its authorship, title and dedication. In one interview with Tom Davin, James P. Johnson didn’t even attribute the piece to Pickett but to another infamous traveling pianist who went by the handle “Jack the Bear.”^[6] Eubie Blake is recorded saying, “People think I wrote the Dream Rag.”^[7] Willie “The Lion” Smith has discovered alternative titles as diverse as The Bull-Diker’s Dream, The Bowdiger’s Dream, Ladies’ Dream, Digah’s Dream, and Digah’s Stomp.^[8] Edward A. Berlin quotes Smith as also saying, “it was a tune that was dedicated to lesbians.”^[9] This dedication, juxtaposed against some of these pejorative titles creates a world of possibilities for programmatic speculation.

The issues of authorship, title, and dedication are less concerning than the problems we encounter by actually listening to performances. Blake claims in the liner notes to his 1969 record, The Eighty Six Years of Eubie Blake, that he plays the piece, “just as Jesse Pickett taught it to me over seventy years ago.”^[10] However, the recordings Blake made are slightly different from each other and significantly different from recordings by other pianists who allegedly learned the piece directly from Pickett.^[11] When questioned about deviating the form from Blake’s recordings, ragtime scholar and performer Scott Kirby has noted that “Eubie never played ANYTHING as it was written.”^[12] Also, with the better part of a century separating the World’s Columbian Exposition and the earliest recordings, it can’t be determined how much more radical these variations would have been in Blake’s youthful years. With this in mind, one needs keen, or maybe super-human, discernment to determine which innovative features of the Dream Rag are the products of performer or composer.

Given Blake’s intentional deferment of authorship, and his relative consistency of performance, the recording from The Eighty-Six Years of Eubie Blake seems as reliable as any for the primary source of analysis. From the introduction, Blake’s performance defies 1890s ragtime convention. This raucous introduction extends twice as long as the four measure standard and features secondary ragtime rhythms that don’t become prevalent until decades after the rag’s alleged composition.^[13] For such an early rag, the form of intro AB interlude CCDE only seems unconventional until compared to the bizarre key changes between strains. The listener is carried through Eb minor, Gb major, B major, Eb major, and B major. Again, while these may have been unique keys for Pickett’s time, Riccardo Scivales has noted, “Blake was a ‘black keys player’: Ebm and B were two of his favorite keys.”^[14] Even the related keys of Eb minor and Gb major are blended together by chromatic planing, devoid of melodic embellishment. The E strain is the grand finale of convention breaking. No melody is present. A series of double whole-note chords that defy roman numeral analysis rest over a syncopated ostinato bass with grace note embellishment. Throughout, the stride bass is replaced by the habanera rhythm.^[15] This, along with the key movement to the relative major in the B strain, is the only consistent quality between Blake’s performances and James P. Johnson’s two recorded performances in 1945.

Jesse Pickett’s contributions to ragtime may forever remain in the same mythic ether as his Dream Rag. The recordings by people who learned it from him are as wild and deviant as the man himself presumably was. Pickett’s travels parallel his rag’s changes in name. In the earliest days of ragtime, like all explosions of innovation, it is impossible to tag a particular idea to a particular person. Jesse Pickett will forever sit in lists of other unpublished, nomadic ragtime composers.

BibliographyBibliography

Berlin, Edward. Reflections and Research on Ragtime. New York: Institute for Studies in American Music, 1987.

Blake, Eubie. Live Concert. Eubie Blake. Stash Records Inc. ST130. LP. 1985.

___. The Eighty-Six Years of Eubie Blake. Eubie Blake. Columbia Records C2S847. LP. 1969.

Cayer, David. Liner notes to The Original James P. Johnson. James P. Johnson. Smithsonian Folkways SF40812. CD. 1996.

Davin, Tom. “Conversations with James P. Johnson.” In Ragtime: Its History, Composers, and Music, edited by John Edward Hasse, 166-177. New York: Schirmer Books, 1985.

Johnson, James. The Original James P. Johnson. James P. Johnson. Smithsonian Folkways SF40812. CD. 1996.

Kimball, Robert. Liner notes to The Eighty-Six Years of Eubie Blake. Eubie Blake. Columbia Records C2S847. LP. 1969.

Kirby, Scott. info@scottkirby.net “Jesse Pickett.” 29 September 2015. Personal email (29 September 2015).

Roberts, John Storm. The Latin Tinge. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Rose, Al. Eubie Blake. New York: Schirmer Books, 1983.

Scivales, Riccardo Scivales. Harlem Stride Piano Solos. Bedford Hills, NY: Ekay Music, 1995.

Smith, Willie the Lion. Music on My Mind. London: The Jazz Book Club, 1966.

Whitcomb, Ian. Liner notes to Scott Joplin: His Complete Works. Richard Zimmerman. Murray Hill Records 931079. LP. 1974.

White, H. Loring. Ragging It. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, 2005.

1. Ian Whitcomb, liner notes to Scott Joplin: His Complete Works, Richard Zimmerman, Murray
   Hill Records 931079, LP, 1974. ↩

2. H. Loring White, Ragging It (Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, 2005), 68. ↩

3. John Storm Roberts, The Latin Tinge (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 39. ↩

4. Al Rose, Eubie Blake (New York: Schirmer Books, 1983), 12. ↩

5. David Cayer, liner notes to The Original James P. Johnson, James P. Johnson, Smithsonian
   Folkways SF40812, CD, 1996. ↩

6. Tom Davin, “Conversations with James P. Johnson,” in Ragtime: Its History, Composers, and
   Music, ed. John Edward Hasse (New York: Schirmer Books, 1985), 172. ↩

7. Eubie Blake, Live Concert, Eubie Blake, Stash Records Inc. ST130, LP, 1985. ↩

8. Willie the Lion Smith, Music on My Mind (London: The Jazz Book Club, 1966), 56. ↩

9. Edward A. Berlin, Reflections and Research on Ragtime (New York: Institute for Studies in
   American Music, 1987), 55. ↩

10. Robert E. Kimball, liner notes to The Eighty-Six Years of Eubie Blake, Eubie Blake, Columbia
    Records C2S847, LP, 1969. ↩

11. James P. Johnson, The Original James P. Johnson, James P. Johnson, Smithsonian Folkways
    SF40812, CD, 1996. ↩

12. Scott Kirby, info@scottkirby.net “Jesse Pickett,” 29 September 2015, personal email (29
    September 2015). ↩

13. Eubie Blake, The Eighty-Six Years of Eubie Blake, Eubie Blake, Columbia Records C2S847, LP, 1969. ↩

14. Riccardo Scivales, Harlem Stride Piano Solos (Bedford Hills, NY: Ekay Music, 1995), 45. ↩

15. Blake, The Eighty-Six Years of Eubie Blake. ↩