Songs of the
open road

Performer Bobby Norfolk
pays tribute to Scott Joplin
in 'Rags to Riches'

---

By Scott Vogel
Star-Bulletin

Just like ragtime, which grafts a syncopated melody onto a march-like bass, Bobby Norfolk's art is a hybrid adventure, combining storytelling, acting, poetry and mime. And though the elements might at first seem incompatible, the result -- again like ragtime -- is fascinating, surprising and utterly original.

Norfolk, who's in town for a one-night-only performance of his Scott Joplin stage documentary "Rags to Riches" at University of Hawaii at Manoa, aims to deepen our understanding of a seminal black composer who, in his words, ranks up there with Brahms and Beethoven.

"He was a very important composer," Norfolk said. "He paved the way for all the music in the 20th century that came after him -- jazz, pop, rock, reggae." He even sowed the seeds for hip-hop and future musical forms yet unknown, an unlikely pioneer whose "contributions to world music were amazing."

Like most revolutionaries, Joplin came from the humblest of humble backgrounds, growing up near the town of Texarkana, Texas, which is positioned -- surprise! -- on the Texas-Arkansas border. Indefatigable despite his lot in life, he learned to play the piano at the homes of the rich white families where his mother worked as a housekeeper. He eventually traveled to St. Louis, which would shortly become the cradle of ragtime culture.

In 1899, still in his early 20s, Joplin wrote what would become his most popular composition, "The Maple Leaf Rag," a jaunty piano tune whose name came from a Missouri social club for black men that Joplin himself frequented. His contract specified that the composer would receive one penny for each copy of sheet music sold, a paltry sum, especially given the fact that the piece -- considered too hard for most piano players -- did not initially sell well. However, as the country warmed to the idea of this new music, the skills of amateur pianists apparently improved, for by 1909 more than a half-million copies of "Maple Leaf" had been sold. It was music that announced the American century with a bang, a form as frenzied and hectic as the century itself.

"He was probably one of the originators of syncopated music of this type, taking African polyrhythms and laying them against a European beat," said Norfolk, whose performance will be augmented by the presence of local pianist Eric Schank. "And yet he died broke. Of course, American racism played a large part in denying him his full recognition."

But thanks to "The Sting" in 1974, Joplin's obscurity was short-lived. The popular Paul Newman-Robert Redford Western employed ragtime extensively as bridge music, and Joplin's rag "The Entertainer" vaulted to the top of the pop charts. Interest in the composer subsequently exploded and many long-forgotten works were rediscovered, principally Joplin's opera "Treemonisha," for which he was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 1976.

Like "The Maple Leaf Rag," which slips almost imperceptibly from theme to theme, our conversation with Norfolk soon drifted toward talk of his other projects. He's also been bringing the biography of another celebrated black composer to life, Duke Ellington, in a work commissioned in honor of the centenary of the jazz pioneer's birth. Norfolk continues traveling the country with his wife Sherry, also an expert storyteller. The pair have produced award-winning stories on tape, as well as a book named "The Moral of the Story," a collection of character-building folk tales from around the world. (They'll be giving a series of free performances at libraries throughout the islands through June 15. Call 586-3617 for more information.)

It's been quite a trip for this self-described "itinerant storyteller," who first entertained audiences as a national park ranger at the St. Louis Gateway Arch and once opened for Roberta Flack and B.B. King as a stand-up comic. Like Joplin, who was never happier than when performing in a traveling band, Norfolk is a wanderer by nature, personally delivering the rhythms of his art to locales both famous and far-flung.

A night of adventure What: "Rags to Riches: A History of Ragtime in America" When: 7:30 p.m. tomorrow Where: Orvis Auditorium, University of Hawai'i at Manoa Cost: $15; $9 for children 12 and under Call: 956-6878

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