Jim Hession/Eubie Blake/Charleston Rag /original manuscript

http://www.hessionsession.webs.com Charleston Rag was a rag originally called "Sounds of Africa". Jim's copy of Eubie's handwritten manuscript says that it was written in 1899 when he was a teenage boy in Baltimore. This is a difficult and rhythmically challenging early rag/jazz piano solo. While teaching this to Jim he would pound out the rhythms on the top of the piano to illustrate how he wanted it played. This is the premier example of eastcoast ragtime. Jim learned this rag in 1969 at Eubie's urging..... no, insistence.Eubie's original manuscript in his own hand dates from the 1940's.