Biography
J. Bodewalt Lampe served as the publishing identity for the Danish-born composer and arranger Jens Bodewalt Lampe, also known as James. Ribe was his birthplace, and he reached America alongside his relatives during 1873 before the household established itself in St. Paul, Minnesota. There his father, Christian Lampe, assumed leadership of the Great Western Band. The younger Lampe quickly mastered the violin and absorbed most other instruments with equal speed, securing a post as first violinist in the Minneapolis Symphony by 1880. In the following decade he directed his own dance orchestra while developing a commercial interest in sheet music; one of the earliest publications under his name appeared in 1893 as “What the Wires Tell to Me.”
Encouraged by the breakthrough success of Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” in 1899, Lampe released “Creole Belles” the next year, which became the second major ragtime sensation and moved millions of copies. Pianist C. H. H. Booth cut a version for Victor in 1901 that would have constituted the earliest documented piano-ragtime recording, yet the disc was never located and may never have been issued despite announced plans. By 1905, however, the piece had been interpreted repeatedly by Sousa’s Band, Pryor’s Band, and additional ensembles, remaining a standard repertoire item for decades and still performed by Dixieland groups in the 1950s.
Until roughly 1920 Lampe maintained a steady output of syncopated dance compositions that included such successes as “Dixie Girl” (1903), “Happy Heinie” (1905), “Georgia Sunset Cake Walk” (1908), “Hero of the Isthmus” (1912), and “Turkey Trot” (1912), the last of which became a signature selection for dancers Vernon and Irene Castle. During the First World War he also produced several patriotic American pieces. He toured with his own Lampe’s Grand Concert Band, joined charity recitals alongside his wife and daughters, served at times as a church organist, directed opera companies, created countless arrangements, and sustained close relationships with music publishers.
Following the death of his wife in 1918, Lampe withdrew from public performance. In the early 1920s his son Dell Lampe took charge of the orchestra at the Trianon Ballroom, with J. Bodewalt Lampe installed as musical director and principal arranger. The ensemble recorded for the little-known Chicago label Autograph in 1924 and 1925; those scarce discs supply the nearest surviving evidence of his own playing, since he never documented his instrumental work elsewhere. In 1927 he urged saxophonist and bandmember Wayne King to form an independent orchestra and supplied King with roughly half a dozen arrangements that remained in use until the group disbanded in 1942.
Although Lampe’s music remained syncopated, his melodic language often reflected Danish and German folk traditions, a trait sometimes signaled by his adoption of the pseudonym “Ribe Danmark.” Partly for this reason he has received less scholarly attention than many contemporaries from the classic ragtime period. During his own era, however, he ranked among the leading figures in the field and, apart from Scott Joplin, enjoyed greater renown as a ragtime composer than nearly all others.
Encouraged by the breakthrough success of Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” in 1899, Lampe released “Creole Belles” the next year, which became the second major ragtime sensation and moved millions of copies. Pianist C. H. H. Booth cut a version for Victor in 1901 that would have constituted the earliest documented piano-ragtime recording, yet the disc was never located and may never have been issued despite announced plans. By 1905, however, the piece had been interpreted repeatedly by Sousa’s Band, Pryor’s Band, and additional ensembles, remaining a standard repertoire item for decades and still performed by Dixieland groups in the 1950s.
Until roughly 1920 Lampe maintained a steady output of syncopated dance compositions that included such successes as “Dixie Girl” (1903), “Happy Heinie” (1905), “Georgia Sunset Cake Walk” (1908), “Hero of the Isthmus” (1912), and “Turkey Trot” (1912), the last of which became a signature selection for dancers Vernon and Irene Castle. During the First World War he also produced several patriotic American pieces. He toured with his own Lampe’s Grand Concert Band, joined charity recitals alongside his wife and daughters, served at times as a church organist, directed opera companies, created countless arrangements, and sustained close relationships with music publishers.
Following the death of his wife in 1918, Lampe withdrew from public performance. In the early 1920s his son Dell Lampe took charge of the orchestra at the Trianon Ballroom, with J. Bodewalt Lampe installed as musical director and principal arranger. The ensemble recorded for the little-known Chicago label Autograph in 1924 and 1925; those scarce discs supply the nearest surviving evidence of his own playing, since he never documented his instrumental work elsewhere. In 1927 he urged saxophonist and bandmember Wayne King to form an independent orchestra and supplied King with roughly half a dozen arrangements that remained in use until the group disbanded in 1942.
Although Lampe’s music remained syncopated, his melodic language often reflected Danish and German folk traditions, a trait sometimes signaled by his adoption of the pseudonym “Ribe Danmark.” Partly for this reason he has received less scholarly attention than many contemporaries from the classic ragtime period. During his own era, however, he ranked among the leading figures in the field and, apart from Scott Joplin, enjoyed greater renown as a ragtime composer than nearly all others.