Max Morath
| Max Morath | |
|---|---|
| Born |
October 1, 1926 Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States |
| Genres | Ragtime |
| Occupation(s) | Pianist, composer, actor, author |
| Instruments | Piano |
| Years active | 1940s–present |
| Labels | Vanguard, various |
Max Morath (born October 1, 1926) is an American ragtime pianist, composer, actor and author. He is best known for his piano playing and is referred to as "Mr. Ragtime". He has been a touring performer as well as being variously a composer, recording artist, actor, playwright, and radio and television presenter.Rudi Blesh billed Morath as a "one-man ragtime army".
Morath was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He studied piano and harmony as a child and was exposed to the rudiments of ragtime piano by his mother, a schooled pianist who had spent several years playing for silent films. He received a Bachelor's degree in English from Colorado College in 1948, before embarking on a career that included jobs in radio and television, jazz, and theater.
His appearances as pianist and musical director with melodrama companies in Cripple Creek and Durango, Colorado, triggered his interest in early American popular music and theater, including a study of its social and economic history, largely inspired by George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and his ragtime heroes Eubie Blake and Scott Joplin. Those theatrical endeavors led to Morath's first professional recordings.
Morath's work in television and theater during the 1960s preceded the 1970s ragtime revival and had an influence on how it was constituted. Commenting on the significance of ragtime, Morath stated, "Scorned by the establishment as ephemeral at best, trashy at worst, ragtime was the fountainhead of every rhythmic and stylistic upheaval that has followed in a century of ever-evolving American popular music."
From 1959 to 1961 Morath wrote, performed, and co-produced 26 half-hour television programs for PBS, then NET (National Educational Television). The programs were produced by Rocky Mountain PBS in Denver (then known as Channel 6) and were fed nationally to the public broadcasting network. The Ragtime Era series showcased the development of the music of that period and brought him national recognition. It was followed by the Turn of the Century series, which dealt with popular music's interaction with the nation's social history (and which he afterwards turned into a one-man touring show). The productions were in syndication throughout the 1960s. In addition to his television series, Morath made other contributions to NPR and PBS. He appeared on The Bell Telephone Hour, Kraft Music Hall, Today, and The Tonight Show. From 1965 to 1972, he was a regular guest of Arthur Godfrey on CBS Radio, and he appeared with Godfrey in television guest appearances.
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