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Ragtime occupies a foundational position in the evolutionary roots of jazz, and Scott Joplin is its high priest. Rags and Roots is a bi-hemispheric ragtime revival that marks the centenary of both Joplin's passing and the first noted jazz recording. By reimagining ragtime and the roots of jazz, Chris Washburne has created a path for new audiences to discover this quintessentially American music. His Rags and Roots is both a tribute to and triumph of ragtime and a sounding out of the truly global roots of jazz. This album embraces and sounds out the remarkable cultural diversity that contributed to the emergence of jazz. Maple Leaf Rag: The album opens with the profoundly influential composition by Scott Joplin (1867 - 1917) that has become the embodiment of ragtime. Washburne transforms Maple Leaf Rag into a multi-stylistic romp that pivots effortlessly between modal and Dixieland elements, exploring the contours of the original using musical forms that may owe their existence to Joplin's pioneering genius. The rarely sung lyrics, which Sarah Elizabeth Charles sings on this track, describe a poor man from the country dressed in rags who finds himself in an elegant dance club with higher-class patrons--an establishment Joplin played in the mid 1890s in Missouri called the "Maple Leaf Club." His prowess at the new dance called "the Maple Leaf Rag" incites violence among the men and intrigue among the women in attendance. Washburne's expansive arrangement sails along, reinforcing the energetic arc of the narrative. St. Louis Blues/El Manicero (The Peanut Vendor): The seminal St. Louis Blues, which was written by the legendary W.C. Handy (1873 - 1958) in 1914, uses the Cuban habanera, or tango, bass line and rhythm, and demonstrates the Latin American influence on early jazz. El Manicero was written in 1928 by Moises Simons (1889 - 1945) and is credited with fueling a decade-long "rumba" craze in the U.S. and Europe,

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