Re: [Harp-L] Cutting Contest - no no no

[Philharpn@xxxxxxx]

Maybe I should have used the word Showcase. Perhaps a Showcase gives a better 
idea of what I was talking about. The idea is to give a large number of 
players the opportunity to Show what they can do. Showcase certainly sounds nicer 
that that vicious term "cutting contest."


I merely said I witnessed a friendly "cutting contest" among ragtime piano 
players at the historic Dearborn Michigan Greenfield Village last weekend and 
thought the same kind of thing might be fun for SPAH.


And -- get this -- there is NOT a cutting contest for SPAH. It was only a 
suggestion. There never was one scheduled.

Here is the WikipediA (the free encyclopedia) entry that offers one definit
ion. Stride piano was a style of playing that followed ragtime piano and was 
called stride because the left hand appears to stride from lower octaves to mid 
keyboard.

"Cutting contests were a form of musical battles between the various stride 
pianoplayers of Harlem in theearly 1920s. The players would cut into the play 
of the other player and as such try to show who was the better performer. In 
this they have much in common with the later emerging rap battles.
 The contests were usually held at parties in the homes of locals of Harlem. 
The entrance money was used to pay off the rent. These parties were therefore 
also known as "rent parties".
 Famous contestants include James P. Johnson and his greatest rival Willie 
"The Lion" Smith. They actually had so much respect for each other that their 
contests usually ended in a draw and both almost never 'cut' into the other's 
play."


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