Key to this scenario were the dedicated black music teachers of Detroit who went to great lengths to train students in the highest form of musicianship and to bring to their community many examples of refined musical performance. It is unlikely that these dedicated teachers embraced an enduring appreciation for ragtime. Yet, in recollecting his first years in this thriving musical center, Guy used to claim "Why, you might almost say that ragtime was born in Detroit." What Guy meant by this has kept us all pondering.

Detroit's proximity to important exposition fairs made attendance possible for Detroit's musicians - most notably, the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where, peripheral to the official events, ragtime supposedly "took off." There is scant record of Detroit musicians visiting the Chicago fair, but some were to publish popular syncopated pieces not long afterwards. Perhaps Guy was recollecting the 1895 "Rastus on Parade," (penned by the young Frederick A. "Kerry" Mills in his small Detroit studio on Washington Street) when he canonized Detroit as the "cradle" of ragtime. Regardless, "Rastus on Parade" was soon followed by the 1895 "Black America," by Harry H. Zickel, leader of the Zickel Orchestra of Detroit, and, finally, in 1898 by the syncopated compositions of Harry P. Guy and fellow musician and composer, Fred S. Stone, who was a major contributor to Detroit's early role in the proliferation of ragtime.

It should be noted that Guy, Stone, and their contemporaries represented a young generation of Detroit's musicians. This is not to say that their predecessors, the leaders of Detroit's prominent musical groups and societies, failed to keep abreast of the latest musical trends. Clearly it was their business to ensure that their bands and excursion-boat ensembles played what their frequently all-white audiences desired. But considering the decades they invested in cultivating highly skilled performers and proving that Detroit's black musicians were fully capable of demonstrating "musical intelligence," one can imagine their feelings about that controversial cacophony the youngsters were calling "ragtime..."

Above: A Steamer to Belle Isle, upon which both Guy and Stone's musical grouops performed. Below: The American Record Company's recording of Stone's "Belle of the Phillipines."

Hear an electrically transferred cylinder recording of the Edison Concert Band playing Belle of the Phillipines (recorded 1905, #8987) in "RealAudio" format. Again, as per the previous page's instructions, click here to acquire the most recent "RealPlayer" addendum to your operating system. Be prepared to be disaappointed; not all computer "servers" are perfect.