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Ragtime Karl's Hot Jazz & Ragtime Piano
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A self taught pianist such as Karl Schroder, AKA Fletcher P. St. Cyr, can come across as supremely confident at the keyboard and nonchalant about the piercing focus needed to learn and play Ragtime and 1920's Jazz by ear. But for Karl Schroder this craft really does seem to come easily to him.

Having collected an extensive cache of 78-RPM records and piano rolls and finding the supply of jazz and ragtime sheet music in short number, Schroder learns to play the pieces by listening to the recordings.

Extensive practice and many years of performing have made Schroder what he is today: a top flight performer of ragtime and 1920's Jazz and Blues.
"I Listen to a lot of music rolls"

In a demonstration of jazz and ragtime, Schroder sat elegantly at a Starr grand, shined black shoes stepping the pedals and French cuffed wrists loose in the fury of light and strong fingers on dozens of sinking keys. He was playing a piece called "The Dream Rag" written shortly after the War Between the States by Jesse Pickett, a black Union soldier who was one of the first composers of Ragtime.

The music, pure Ragtime, is unexpectedly dark, passionate, dangerous and moody. No fancy, parlor-inspired Scott Joplin here.

Schroder plays the blues like a young lion. They are full of passion and seduction. They have a certain vampishness about them that reminds one of this style's sporting house origin.

Watching Schroder play one could almost see the dancers in the dimly lit ballroom beyond his piano bench.


Email Karl Schroder:

ilovemizzourah@yahoo.com