New ragtime society springs up in southern California

The ragtime world has a new ragtime society - the Orange County Ragtime Society, in southern California.

The society was founded by ragtime pianist and composer Eric Marchese, who first moved to Orange County from the east coast in 1970. A member of the Los Angeles-based Maple Leaf Club and Pasadena's Rose Leaf club, Marchese thought that Orange County needed its own nexus for ragtime performers. The heavily populated county - nearly 3 million residents - is just south of Los Angeles, just north of San Diego.

OCRS held its first two Saturday afternoon musicales in November and December 2001 at Steamers Cafe, a noted jazz club in the city of Fullerton, attracting such performers as Patrick Aranda, Carl Sonny Leyland, Bill Mitchell, Doug Haise, Bob Pinsker, Ron Ross and Paul Kosmala. Marchese, who has acted as emcee for each meeting, chose Steamers for its wonderful ambiance and its beautiful Kawai grand piano, which has drawn raves from nearly every pianist who has played it.

Steamers has been the headquarters for the first two Orange County ragtime festivals, RagFest 2000 and RagFest 2001. Marchese expects that each OCRS event will attract local performers from both previous festivals. The new society, he noted, will not only function as a solid base upon which future area ragtime festivals can be built; it will also help attract new performers previously unknown to the ragtime community, as well as up-and-coming music and piano students who have taken an interest in ragtime music. Information about OCRS can be found via the RagFest festival website at ragfest.com.

One of the main purposes of OCRS is to allow the public to hear the many fine pianists who live and perform in Southern California who specialize in American pop music circa 1895-1930. Most of the focus is ragtime, which was the foundation for the pop music of the era. But we get lots and lots of related stuff: blues, barrelhouse, boogie, Harlem stride, Broadway show tunes, vaudeville tunes, popular and ragtime songs, patriotic tunes, and much more.

Also, many of the pianists who perform at OCRS are also composers who have written new piano pieces that are cast in the mold of the original music. Each musician has his or her own areas of specialty, so you're not likely to hear the same tunes more than once during each OCRS gathering.

Steamers is a wonderful venue. It's essentially a "storefront" location on Commonwealth Avenue in the beautiful, restored historical area of downtown Fullerton. Steamers is a noted jazz club, but there isn't much going on there during the afternoon, so we book the club whenever it's available. They've got a great menu, and the stage area is at the back of the club, away from the front entrance. It's got a great sound system and one of the best pianos any of us has ever had the pleasure to play.

Best of all, we do not charge admission for these OCRS events. We believe it's best to let the musicians do their thing and allow the public to hear their great music without having to pay for it. Someday we may ask for a very small donation to help cover costs, but for now, we are not asking for anything but your presence.

OCRS founder Eric Marchese usually functions as Master of Ceremonies ("emcee"), opening each meeting with a couple of tunes before turning the stage over to the first performer, who introduces his or her own material and proceeds to play it. Each performer gets at least one full set (usually, 3-5 numbers). Time permitting, the hottest performers of the afternoon are given an encore appearance in which to do another one or two pieces.

Some of our performers are also vocalists, so they'll sing while playing. But most of the day consists of piano solos. So, if you love piano music in general, that era in particular and ragtime music is a passion of yours, you are going to love coming to OCRS.