Tom Turpin
American composer of ragtime music
Died when: 50 years 268 days (608 months)Star Sign: Scorpio
Thomas Million John Turpin (November 18, 1871 – August 13, 1922) was an American composer of ragtime music.Tom Turpin was born in Savannah, Georgia, a son of John L.
Turpin and Lulu Waters Turpin.In his early twenties he opened a saloon in St.Louis, Missouri which became a meeting-place for local pianists and an incubation point for early folk ragtime, such as musician Joe Jordan.
Turpin himself is credited with the first published rag by an African-American, his "Harlem Rag" of 1897 (it was composed by 1892, a year before ragtime's introduction to the world at the 1893 Worlds Fair).
His other published rags include "Bowery Buck," "Ragtime Nightmare," "St.Louis Rag," and "The Buffalo Rag".Turpin was a large man, six feet (1.83 m) tall and 300 pounds (136 kg); his piano had to be raised on blocks so that he could play it standing up, otherwise his stomach would get in the way.
In addition to his saloon-keeping duties and his ragtime composition, he controlled (with his brother Charles) a theater, gambling houses, dance halls, and sporting houses.
He served as a deputy constable and was one of the first politically powerful African-Americans in St.Louis.His influence on local music earned him the title "Father of St.
Louis Ragtime."
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American composer of ragtime music
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