Remembering Max Morath
October 1, 1926 – June 19, 2023
A tribute to the ragtime pianist, composer and author
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Pianist Max Morath passed away on June 19, 2023, in Duluth, Minnesota at the age of 96.
He was born on Oct. 1, 1926, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, studying piano as a child including with his mother who had played piano in movie theaters for silent films.
Morath earned a degree in English from Colorado College in 1948, worked in the theater as a pianist and musical director for shows in Colorado, and became very interested in early American popular music, particularly ragtime.
When ragtime was considered extinct, during 1959-61 he wrote, co-produced, and performed on 26 half-hour television programs titled The Ragtime Era for National Educational Television (later PBS).
Morath later worked on the Turn Of The Century series which could be seen throughout the 1960s and became part of his one-man show.
As a pianist and educator, Morath performed and talked about ragtime on many television shows and was a regular on Arthur Godfrey’s radio series during 1965-72, helping to keep ragtime alive during its lean years.
An enthusiastic and skilled performer, Morath (who had moved to New York in 1963), toured nationally with his Max Morath At The Turn Of The Century show and also had such productions as The Ragtime Years, Living The Ragtime Life, The Ragtime Man, and Ragtime Revisited.
Morath also wrote books (The Road To Ragtime, The NPR Curious Listener’s Guide to Popular Standards) and made quite a few recordings, most notably for the Vanguard label.
Here is Max Morath singing and playing piano on a medley of vintage songs during a television appearance in 1984, even leading the audience in a sing-along on “Sentimental Journey” before the long excerpt cuts off; his enthusiasm was always infectious.
-Scott Yanow
