Danny Coots and Adam Swanson became friends over a shared love of ragtime and early jazz music, that friendship coming decades after ragtime and early jazz were “new” styles of music. Coots was born in 1957, Swanson some 35 years later, both enamored with history, music and a combination of the two, so much that they’ve dedicated their lives to digging into not only ragtime and early jazz, but its rippling affect and influence on popular culture surrounding the genre.
If you go
WHAT: Durango Ragtime and Early Jazz Festival featuring Adam Swanson, Danny Coots and more.
WHEN: Thursday to Sunday.
WHERE: Pullman Room at the Strater Hotel and Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.; Durango Arts Center, 802 East Second Ave.
TICKETS: Prices vary on show. See website for full information.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.durangoragtime.com.
Coots and Swanson, along with musicians Domingo Mancuello, Donald Neely, Jeff Barnhart and Martin Spitznagel, will celebrate this music at the Durango Ragtime and Early Jazz Festival, running through this weekend at the Durango Arts Center and the Strater Hotel.
This festival has been Swanson’s doing since before the pandemic, with Coots coming from his home in Nashville, Tennessee, to perform at the festival since its inception. Swanson is Durango’s own scholar on the genre: The Diamond Belle Saloon has hosted ragtime and honky-tonk piano since 1957, with Swanson keeping that tradition alive, which includes forming this festival and ultimately meeting many aforementioned musicians.
Coots, whose formal education is in the Medieval Renaissance of Baroque music, was immediately struck with Swanson’s talent and interest in this music and its history.
“He was just a little snotty nosed kid, but he could sure play,” Coots said of Swanson. “And I’ve always been charmed by history. It doesn’t surprise me at all to run into somebody who is equally enamored with older stuff.”
The festival itself is loaded with entertainment and education. A seminar about Tin Pan Alley will be presented, which will be a look into the early days of the music publishing district, what basically established the music business. There will also be a seminar presented about ragtime and early jazz’s use in silent film, which will also feature a screening of the 1928 film, “Speedy,” starring Harold Lloyd, who at one point called Durango home.
One thing Swanson as the festival organizer wants to emphasize is this music’s contribution – from the music itself to the surrounding business aspect, to popular culture. These tunes, many of which are ingrained in our heads from just being a mainstay in popular culture, laid the groundwork for modern entertainment. Swanson is enamored with the whole thing, and that interest is infectious. His initial curiosity was that it was good-time music, which has led to studying the style from top to bottom.
“It was simply that it was happy music,” he said. “Joyful. It makes me feel good inside. And then after I learned more about it, I realized that ragtime and early jazz, that is the basis for all of the other popular music that we know and love. It was important because it was influential. There would be no big band, rock ’n’ roll or disco without ragtime first.”
Durango remains the perfect place for an event that celebrates this music. Most Western films feature a barroom with a piano player pounding out early ragtime, while other early films were scored by similar sounds. Coots acknowledges that the people who created this music would remain jazzed that it’s still recognized in 2025.
“The setting is great. The sense of history, it’s just a blast,” he said. “But whether you’re playing in Sacramento or New York City, all these places have a sense of history that you feel explains who you are, your roots and the thread that goes from this stuff. And I’m sure if these ragtime composers could somehow perceive what’s going on, they would be very humbled to think that 100 and some years later, people are still enamored with what they did.”
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
