In this first of 3 concerts dedicated to The Age of Ragtime, 1998 Festival Jazz Advisor Dick Hyman, ragtime pianist Richard Zim­merman, vaudevillian and distinguished popular music historian Ian Whit­comb, classical pianist Ruth Laredo, Steve Stone, James Phillips and a veritable host of fellow Festi­val singers and musicians explore the roots of ragtime in the popular, religious, traditional and classical music of 19th century America. From the spirituals and work songs of the plantation to the cakewalks of the minstrel show; from dance hall jigs to camp meeting spirituals, from marching bands that preceded and included John Phillip Sousa to the exotic classical piano “fantasies” of Louis Moreau Gottschalk and the alluring sounds of a turn-of-the-century ragtime orchestra, the evening will trace the development of that new, infectious, syncopated sound that emerged as classic ragtime in the 1890s.