Stride Piano and Ragtime Songs

Austin Shakespeare is taking over the Parker Jazz Club on Sunday, October 11, for Stride Piano and Ragtime Songs, a cabaret-style fundraiser that puts the piano front and center. The night is a tribute to ragtime, that uniquely American piano style defined by syncopated rhythms that flourished from the late 1890s through the 1910s. It's described as the first truly distinct and widely popular African American musical style to influence mainstream American culture, and by the 1920s it had evolved into jazz-adjacent styles like stride piano.

The bill mixes ragtime standards with songs from the theater. You'll hear Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag alongside Wheels of a Dream, Make Them Hear You, and Back to Before, plus a few numbers from the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Ragtime. It's a broad reach, and the whole thing stays true to the company's tagline, "the Bard is only the beginning."

On stage, the vocals are handled by Roderick Sanford, Jill Holmes, and Rachel West, with Acia Gray on tap and Pano Kanelos emceeing. Music director Brian Grothues takes the solo piano, which is the anchor of the whole evening. The mix of voices, tap, and piano should give the set a good amount of variety to lean on.

Tickets run $47 to $60, and the venue is 21+ to enter. You'll find the club downtown at 117 W. Fourth Ste. 107-B.