Mississippi State University and Starkville residents will have plenty to tap their toes to this weekend with the third annual Charles Templeton Ragtime Jazz Festival beginning today at the Mitchell Memorial Library and Lee Hall Auditorium.
Featuring internationally known performers, the two-day showcase is free to students and will include concerts, discussions with artists and tours of the library’s Charles H. Templeton, Sr. Music Museum.
Stephen Cunetto, co-chairman of the music event, said the festival evolved from library officials and the Templeton family wanting to display their collection.
“It [the festival] is a great way to bring ragtime back to Mississippi and highlight the collection we have here,” he said.
Cunneto said the ragtime genre is an important part of American popular music and deserves to be recognized.
“Ragtime music is the trunk of the tree of popular music with jazz, blues and rock ‘n’ roll the leaves or the sprouts,” he said. “Of course it had its roots in the South beginning near New Orleans and worked its way up the Mississippi River.”
The festival kicks off at 9:30 a.m. with a formal tour of the Templeton Museum, which is home to more than 20,000 pieces of sheet music and more than 200 instruments.
World-renown popular music historian David A. Jansen and Lyle Tate will be leading the tour with another taking place at the same time Saturday.
Aside from the tours, small-scale concerts and intimate chats with performers will take place throughout both days, with each day concluding with concerts at 7:30 p.m. in the Lee Hall Auditorium.
Quebec native Mimi Blais and World Piano Playing Champion Brian Holland will tackle the ivories tonight for the festival’s first large concert.
Known as the “Celine Dion of the keyboard,” Blais said she and Holland go well together because of their varying styles.
“Brian is great because he is a big improviser and he goes more into the jazz of ragtime,” Blais said. “Me, I am more in the classical way, but I have a comedic personality.”
Boogie-woogie pianist Sonny Leyland and jazz performer Butch Thompson will close the music showcase Saturday night.
Recognized for looking like Elvis Presley and belting out rock ‘n’ roll, Blais said Leyland is sure to entertain.
Balancing out Sonny Leyland’s foot stomping performance will be Butch Leyland. Grammy award-winning Leyland plays all over the world and performs on National Public Radio’s “A Prairie Home Companion.”
Named after the late Charles Templeton Sr., the ragtime and jazz festival is one of numerous showcases hosted in the country to educate people about the birth of American music.
Son of the event’s namesake Chip Templeton Jr. said his father would enjoy the festival’s success.
“He called his collection the business of music because he knew what it meant to the country,” Chip Templeton Jr. said.
Chip Templeton Jr. said he promises anyone who attends the festival is sure to return.
“Most everyone who comes to the concert can’t wait to come back because the music is so different then what they have heard,” he said.