Interview with: Tom McDermott
Length: 13 minutes, 6 seconds
Summary: At the end of the interview, Tom plays a wonderful version of the Maple Leaf Rag. After hitting a broken, high key many times near the end, he says, “I’m not going to ever fix it because Henry Butler personally broke this string.”
Notes: I watched the last 5 minutes of this video at least 15 times in the last two days. Hearing and watching Tom play is truly awesome. Video pales in comparison to the real life experience. Even so, I really treasure this recording. Please support Tom and buy his CDs.
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Always a joy and inspiration to see and hear Tom, our Southern Boy. We have all his CDs and some duplicates! After listening to this interview, Doug headed off to the piano to refresh his Maple Leaf Rag, and improvise a few melodies. Let’s make music.
…on July 9th, 2006, at 12:19 amI continue to watch this video over and over. It lead to some questions and subsequent web searches. Here are the results:
- Background about the Swipesy, cake walk for piano
- Wikipedia entry on Cakewalk
- Wikipedia entry on Scott Joplin
- Re: the May, 1995 flood: From the Wikipedia entry on Drainage in New Orleans:
…on July 9th, 2006, at 1:15 amTom,
Love the chromatic take on Maple Leaf .. man you always make it look so easy.. I’m so glad we had chance to sit down and play at your piano and hang out .. For those of you don’t know.. McDermott is one of the best piano players on earth—he’s humble and modest but i’m just telling it like it..
p.s. Thanks for the booker shirt!
…on July 9th, 2006, at 9:55 pmTomzinho Querido!
Just loved your video…..if it weren´t for the Maple Leaf Rag- we probably wouldn´t have met here in Rio. It never ceases to amaze me how you play …
May you continue to be ever inspired and the awesome musician that you are…
Beijos de Lizinha
…on July 10th, 2006, at 5:50 pmI had only heard of Tom but not Tom himself. I now have to revisit some of my core ragtime as a result of this inspiring session, and additionally for some ideas I have for an upcoming CD. The latin influence on ragtime was well realized by Jelly Roll Morton, and to some degree by Joplin, Artie Matthews, et. al. However, it was in New Orleans where the confluence of this was, and I can’t blame Tom for wanting to be there and absorb some of that history, damned hurricanes or no.
But this was also an expensive free video for me, since I now have to buy a couple of his CDs to help improve the playing on my own. And Tom - as a piano technician as well as ragtime artist, I bet we could find a compromise for that broken string and retain it while also fixing it - perhaps a splice? Tee hee.
RAGards, “Perfessor” Bill Edwards
…on July 11th, 2006, at 11:58 amThat was awesome piano playing.
…on August 21st, 2006, at 2:25 pmI want to comment about some people in New Orleans that are using the tragedy of Katrina for personal gain. I have heard many stories, but can only speak to my personal knowlege of one person. I,m told this is common in N.O., pessonally I think these type of people need to start being held accountable for these actions. I started working with a pastor in the 7th ward (Hamburg St.) by the name of Bruce Davenport. He reopened his church back in Jan. after we gutted it and another church group put a new roof on. I was working with a relief orginization, and ran a relief crew of 15-17 volunteers who helped gut, and do the mold ebatement on five buildings that belonged to the church.
…on September 27th, 2006, at 2:13 pmThis pastor, in virtually all of his sunday services talked about his supposed experiences during and after Katrina. He continually talked about all the creditors that were harrassing him for their money. He started courting private orginizations for donations to rebuild his church, and it’s other properties. He came to me and asked if I would write estimates that he could submit to an orginization that was willing to give the money necessary for rebuilding the church properties, so I did. Then a church from Arizona came and rebuilt two of the properties for free, that he was receiving monies from the other org. for. But then the strangest thing happened, this pastor Davenport started purchasing blighted houses, 4 or 5 at last count, not in the churches name, but rather in his own name, and then hired an inexpensive handyman to rebuild the blighted houses. The only money this pastor has coming in, are all these donations for his church. I believe he his using that money to make himself rich, and I believe that he, and anyone else like him should be held accountable for his fraudulant and criminal behavior. All that I can really say to Mr. Davenport, is to stop using god for his own personal gain, and to return his illgotten gains. And I say to the community of N,O, If you want your city to be better, you as a community need to open your eyes and stop accepting this unsavory behavior, from not only the polititions, and clergy, but from anybody who would try and hustle money from these orginizations that are only trying to do good here. These actions from these people is giving this city a black mark and it is time for the people of New Orleans to put a stop to it.
Jeff Hebb