The Kings feature two of the St. Louis Ragtimers, Bill Mason and Glen Meyer. Don Franz is included on the poster (Bartitone Sax) in tribute to his previous appearances with this group. Any gig these days is hard to come by, so "hat's off" to these guys for landing a steady job and to Evangeline's for continuing the great tradition of Jazz in the Central West End. My parents met at a big band concert at the Chase. My Aunt Effie played trumpet in her Jazz Quartet in a CWE Bar during the WWII years. So, probably.. I wouldn't exist if it weren't for CWE Jazz.
Bob Whiteside 2/22 |
The Goldenrod Festival Archive with over 100 hours of video and photos is online.
In 2018 three of the four surviving members of The Ragtimers re-united at Focal Point Concerts where Bill was a member of T.J. Muller's group and Don sat in for a few songs on tuba. You can still see and hear Bill playing around town with T.J. and with Bill's son's group, "Sins of The Pioneers." Al and Don are still active at St. Louis Banjo club events and were on a float with the club in a televised parade in Downtown St. Louis. They are still greatly appreciated by St. Louis for their contributions to St. Louis and Music History.
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Welcome to the Official Fan Site for this legendary group. Please note the new FACEBOOK Page for the band initiated by The Sheldon Concert Series..
St. Louis Ragtimers Videos & Playlist
Here's a song from their last Sheldon concert....
COMING SOON. Download this great Set of Music.
In the 50th Year that the St. Louis Ragtimers had been playing as a group, we released some archived audio and video recordings. This LIVE! audio recording was located among the many hundreds of hours of recordings made by Don Franz. This session is special. Not only is it the final set of the 79' Festival, but it was recorded in a smaller room which has better natural acoustics for ambient recording. Many of the bands' self-tapings did not record the vocals effectively.. but again, we were lucky with this one. The set ran exactly the right length to fill a traditional vinyl "LP", which makes us all wish this recording had been discovered 30 years ago.
Don's not sure but he thinks he did the taping - which may account for why he disappeared for some songs and had guest tuba players.. giving Al the great joking opportunity to introduce Don's return to the stage as a "guest performer." |