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Ragtime Rendezvous: Piano Rags and Songs

My ragtime career has really taken care of itself. I started writing rags in 1994 in the middle of an illness.The Friends of Scott Joplin's monthly Ragtime Rendezvous began in November, 1997, and I attended its second meeting at Dressels Cafe in St. Louis, MO. I began performing regularly there in the "open mike" sessions. Eventually, I held every office in the Friends of Scott Joplin, which was primarily focused on establishing the Scott Joplin House as a historical landmark.

I composed my first rag, The Euclid Avenue Rag, while recovering from a gout attack, and over the next decade I composed eight more rags. Rich Egan encouraged me to publish these rags, and eventually a deal was worked out where The Friends of Scott Joplin would share the expenses for the publication of the folio. Eventually in 2004 a folio was published: Ragtime Rendezvous: Piano Rags and Songs by Jim Andris.

I travelled to Sweden for a conference in 2001, and there I met Oleg Mezjuev, publisher of the Swedish Ragtime Home Page. At that time Oleg sequenced midi files for all nine of my ragtime pieces. That page has long since ceased being active, but it still has a short biography of Jim Andris there.

After October, 2013 the Ragtime Rendezvous ceased to be held at Dressels, because the original owner, Jon Dressel, sold the business to his son, and the bar was redesigned and reformatted. For several more years the Ragtime Rendezvous continued to happen monthly at the Rosebud Cafe (in the Scott Joplin House) under the leadership of Brian Cather. Brian died unexpectedly in January of 2020.

Recently, a monthly Ragtime Rendezvous has been relocated at Jack's Joint (in O'Connell's Pub, 4652 Shaw Avenue,St. Louis,MO) and restructured under the leadership of Ethan Leinwand and T.J. Muller. The event occurs on the first Monday of every month. 6-7 pm is sign-up open mike, and 7-8 pm there is a rotating headline act.

And of course, I, Jim Andris, continue to perform ragtime there and elsewhere.