Tom Brier, The Entertainer

Please keep Tom in your thoughts. Saturday he was critically injured in a traffic accident and remains in intensive care with head injuries, broken ribs and a punctured lung. They are keeping him sedated to assist in the reduction of brain swelling. Best case scenario, he should continue to be sedated for several weeks, I'm told through a friend who spoke to another friend who had gone to see him. UPDATE: Tom's brother has set up a CaringBridge site where he will post updates on Tom's condition. www.caringbrid...
From happier times, here is a rare instance of him playing Scott Joplin music solo, recorded during the Santa Cruz Ragtime Festival this past February.
You pretty much can't play ragtime in public without someone requesting to hear "The Entertainer". Tom couldn't remember the intro (until the very end when you hear him play it quickly), so he just breaks straight into the first strain here.
This rag was published in 1902. It is in the public domain, so you can download the sheet music from the Library of Congress: www.loc.gov/it...
While not a particularly big hit in its day, it became a huge hit in the early 1970s, when a recording from the soundtrack of the movie "The Sting" reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop music chart, and #1 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart. I must admit: that recording is what hooked me into ragtime as a child.