Scott Joplin

The African-American bouncy dance called Ragtime was all the rage in the early twentieth century, and its syncopated rhythms was a challenge for most classically-trained piano players. Scott Joplin was the absolute master of that style and he wrote its classic and most enduring pieces : the Maple Leaf Rag and The Entertainer, which actually became a hit as a movie soundtrack seventy two years after Joplin recorded it in 1902.