James Scott
*James Scott was born on this date in 1885. He was a Black ragtime composer and pianist.
James Sylvester Scott was born in Neosho, Missouri, to James Scott Sr. and Molly Thomas Scott, both former slaves. Scott was a cousin of blues singer Ada Brown. In 1901, his family moved to Carthage, Missouri, where he attended Lincoln High School. After taking music lessons, he was given a piano.
In 1902, he began working at the music store of Charles L. Dumars, first washing windows, then demonstrating music at the piano as a song plugger, including his pieces. Demand for his music convinced Dumars to print the first of Scott's published compositions, "A Summer Breeze - March and Two Step," in 1903. By 1904, two more compositions by Scott, "Fascinator March" and "On the Pike March" were published and sold well. He went to St. Louis, Missouri, in search of Scott Joplin in 1905. He located Joplin and asked if he would listen to one of his ragtime compositions.
Upon hearing the rag, Joplin introduced him to his publisher, John Stillwell Stark, and recommended he publish the work. Stark published the rag a year later as "Frog Legs Rag." It quickly became a hit and was second in sales in the Stark catalog only to Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag." In 1914, Scott moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where he married Nora Johnson, taught music, and accompanied silent movies as an organist and arranger at the Panama Theater.
Those who knew him recall that theater work was a large part of his activity. Scott became a regular contributor to the John Stillwell Stark catalog until 1922. In the last years of his life, Scott taught, composed, and led an eight-piece band that played for various beer parks and movie theaters in the area. With the arrival of sound movies, however, his fortunes declined. He lost his theater work, his wife died without a child, and his health deteriorated.
He moved in with his cousin Ruth Callahan in Kansas City, Kansas, and even though he was suffering from chronic dropsy, he continued to compose and play piano. He also worked as an accompanist for dances. His best-known compositions include "Climax Rag," '"Frog Legs Rag," "Grace and Beauty," "Ophelia Rag," and "The Ragtime Oriole."
Scott, along with Scott Joplin and Joseph Lamb, is regarded as one of the "Big Three" composers of classical ragtime. He died at Douglas Hospital on August 30, 1938, at age 52, and was buried beside his wife in Westlawn Cemetery.
To Become a musician or Singer
To Become a Conductor or Composer
