"That's a Plenty" - Ronell Johnson

“That’s a Plenty” (PDF) from the Ronell Johnson album, That Gentilly Swing

Ragtime music was an evolution of the military marches popularized by composer John Phillips Sousa, sharing a similar form and harmonic structure but with an emphasis on the syncopated rhythms that would become known as jazz. In 1914, pianist Lew Pollack published the rag, “That’s a Plenty,” which was immediately arranged and recorded by bandleader Charles Adams Prince. But it was a group of white musicians from New Orleans who had relocated to Chicago and recorded “That’s a Plenty” (among other early jazz standards) as the New Orleans Rhythm Kings in 1932, presenting a more authentic feel to the standard rags that defined Chicago-style jazz.

The mid-century revival of ragtime acknowledged the Southern origins of early jazz and appropriated it as Dixieland music. In a similar manner, Disney lyricist Ray Gilbert added words to “That’s a Plenty” that directly reference the music of New Orleans despite having no other direct connection to the city. But it was trumpeter Louis Armstrong who embraced the revival as a means to compete with the ongoing advancements in jazz, and with performances of “That’s a Plenty” on television and a live album recorded in Pasadena, California, was unintentionally the catalyst for the development of West Coast cool jazz.

Recommended reading: They All Played Ragtime: The True Story of American Music by Rudi Blesh. Published by Nelson Press.