Biography
Arthur Marshall entered the world on a farm in Saline County, Missouri, before his family relocated to Sedalia when he was three or four. Throughout his school years and at Lincoln High School he counted Scott Hayden among his classmates. During a brief stay with the Marshall household in 1896, Scott Joplin sought permanent lodgings while mentoring both young men. Under Joplin’s guidance the pair quickly began writing original pieces, and they soon performed at Sedalia venues such as the Maple Leaf Club and Nellie Hall’s as well as in sporting houses, their earnings easing parental objections by 1899.
Although classically trained, Marshall developed into a polished ragtime pianist through Joplin’s example and through formal theory studies at the Methodist George R. Smith College for Negroes. Around this period the two pianists played for dancers in city parks. Marshall later remarked that “rags were played in Sedalia before Scott Joplin settled there, but he got to making them really go,” and he recalled Joplin’s left hand producing a bassline that “swung exceedingly well.” Their joint composition featured Marshall’s themes and Joplin’s trio section; John Stark issued the work in 1900 under the title “Swipesy Cakewalk,” pairing it with a cover photograph of his shoeshine boy whose expression prompted the name.
Between 1900 and 1902 Marshall toured as pianist with McCabe’s Minstrels and played cymbals in street parades directed by Bunk Johnson. In 1903 he worked at Tom Turpin’s Rosebud Saloon and accompanied the Scott Joplin Drama Company in St. Louis. During the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition he performed at the Spanish Cafe for twelve dollars weekly until, as Rudi Blesh recorded, “the noisy band at Hagenbeck’s Animal Show across the Pike drove him out and an Iberian orchestra took his place.” Marshall settled in Chicago in 1906, appearing at the Lewis Saloon, Charlie Baskett’s Eureka Saloon & Winter Garden, and the Mirror Restaurant.
After an unsuccessful first marriage he wed Julia Jackson and composed the two-step “Kinklets.” While Joplin visited, Marshall orchestrated “Ragtime Dance” and joined him on “Lily Queen.” His final steady Chicago engagement took place at the La Salle Hotel, operated by the nation’s most prominent white-slave traffickers. In 1908 he published “The Peach,” “Pippin Rag,” and “Ham and -- Rag.” Returning to St. Louis in 1910, he spent six years at Tom Turpin’s Eureka and at the Moonshine Gardens, where in 1914 he arranged Turpin’s “Pan-Am Rag.”
Julia’s death in childbirth in 1916 devastated Marshall, triggering a nervous condition marked by weight loss and left-hand tremors. He withdrew from performance, moved to Kansas City, remarried, cultivated a garden, and raised chickens. Three earlier compositions—“National Prize Rag,” “Silver Arrow,” and the slow drag “Missouri Romp”—appeared in 1950, and he enjoyed renewed popularity during the decade. Two additional rags, “Century Prize” and “Silver Rocket,” were issued in 1966; “Little Jack’s Rag” followed posthumously in 1976. Arthur Marshall died on 18 August 1968.
Although classically trained, Marshall developed into a polished ragtime pianist through Joplin’s example and through formal theory studies at the Methodist George R. Smith College for Negroes. Around this period the two pianists played for dancers in city parks. Marshall later remarked that “rags were played in Sedalia before Scott Joplin settled there, but he got to making them really go,” and he recalled Joplin’s left hand producing a bassline that “swung exceedingly well.” Their joint composition featured Marshall’s themes and Joplin’s trio section; John Stark issued the work in 1900 under the title “Swipesy Cakewalk,” pairing it with a cover photograph of his shoeshine boy whose expression prompted the name.
Between 1900 and 1902 Marshall toured as pianist with McCabe’s Minstrels and played cymbals in street parades directed by Bunk Johnson. In 1903 he worked at Tom Turpin’s Rosebud Saloon and accompanied the Scott Joplin Drama Company in St. Louis. During the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition he performed at the Spanish Cafe for twelve dollars weekly until, as Rudi Blesh recorded, “the noisy band at Hagenbeck’s Animal Show across the Pike drove him out and an Iberian orchestra took his place.” Marshall settled in Chicago in 1906, appearing at the Lewis Saloon, Charlie Baskett’s Eureka Saloon & Winter Garden, and the Mirror Restaurant.
After an unsuccessful first marriage he wed Julia Jackson and composed the two-step “Kinklets.” While Joplin visited, Marshall orchestrated “Ragtime Dance” and joined him on “Lily Queen.” His final steady Chicago engagement took place at the La Salle Hotel, operated by the nation’s most prominent white-slave traffickers. In 1908 he published “The Peach,” “Pippin Rag,” and “Ham and -- Rag.” Returning to St. Louis in 1910, he spent six years at Tom Turpin’s Eureka and at the Moonshine Gardens, where in 1914 he arranged Turpin’s “Pan-Am Rag.”
Julia’s death in childbirth in 1916 devastated Marshall, triggering a nervous condition marked by weight loss and left-hand tremors. He withdrew from performance, moved to Kansas City, remarried, cultivated a garden, and raised chickens. Three earlier compositions—“National Prize Rag,” “Silver Arrow,” and the slow drag “Missouri Romp”—appeared in 1950, and he enjoyed renewed popularity during the decade. Two additional rags, “Century Prize” and “Silver Rocket,” were issued in 1966; “Little Jack’s Rag” followed posthumously in 1976. Arthur Marshall died on 18 August 1968.