Fun with two pianos -- Tom Brier & Adam Swanson

Описание: Late at night toward the end of the wrap party following the 2010 West Coast Ragtime Festival, Adam Swanson (right) began challenging Tom Brier with a series of "coon songs". As you recall from an earlier video of mine, coon songs were a major part of African-American entertainment and were one of the primary ways that ragtime music became popularized in the black communities before it made the jump into white society as well. But today these songs are rarely heard because their subject matter is now deemed highly offensive -- yet the earliest of them were written by black musicians and comedians to play to black audiences to laugh at the "coon" stereotype of an uneducated lower-class black man, in much the same way as white musicians and comedians today entertain white audiences by making fun of a "redneck" stereotype of an uneducated lower-class white man. In their day, these songs were equally innocuous.

This video starts after one or two tunes had already been played. The first one here is "Coon, Coon, Coon" from 1900 by Leo Friedman with words by Gene Jefferson. Then Adam plays "I'll Make dat Black Gal Mine" from 1896 by Chas. B. Ward with words by Dave Reed Jr. At first, Tom thinks it's "When You Wore a Tulip and I Wore a Big Red Rose" (not a coon song) from 1914 by Percy Wenrich with words by Jack Mahoney, so then they play that. Then Adam breaks into one of the few coon songs still played often today, "What You Goin' to Do When the Rent Comes 'Round?" (a.k.a. "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown") from 1905 by Harry von Tilzer with words by Andrew Sterling. I pulled out my kazoo for a bit of that one. Then Adam changes to "I'll Lend You Everything I've Got Except My Wife" from 1910 also by Harry von Tilzer, with words by Jean Havez. This song was made popular by famed African-American comedian Bert Williams, hence Adam's remark. Then Adam goes into "Mandy Lane" from 1908 by William J. McKenna. Its melody reminds Tom of something else, so then he finishes off with that tune, which he does not name when asked. It may have a name that is unspeakable today...

Unfortunately, the video editor I'm using, Pinnacle VideoSpin, creates pops and occasional brief pauses when subtitles are used, but I thought it was important to let you know what they're saying to each other as they go along, just as in a previous "Fun with 2 pianos" video featuring Vincent Johnson and Tom Brier where I used the YouTube annotations as I didn't yet have any software that could edit video from my current camera. I couldn't hear everything that Tom said during this one, but I got most of their banter.

http://www.adamgswanson.com
http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/TomBrier