Conversations with John Reed-Torres

Today we’d like to introduce you to John Reed-Torres.

Hi John, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’m a ragtime pianist and composer. If you don’t know what ragtime music is, don’t worry. You’re not alone. Due to the lengthy span of time between its initial heyday and today, it’s understandable that this iconic musical genre may be obscure today. Ragtime is a late 19th/ early 20th-century musical style which originated from African American folk musical traditions in conjunction with other musical norms of the day. This new, consistently syncopated music drew its hypnotic rhythms from the polyrhythmic drumming and singing of the earlier music of the enslaved Africans in the Americas. But the turn of the 20th century, composers like Scott Joplin, James Scott, Arthur Marshall, Eubie Blake, and other composers of color were producing scores of this music; transforming the musical culture forever.

Ragtime music carried American pop culture from Victorian rigidity to the freeness of Jazz and beyond.

I first fell in love with this music as a child in South Central LA. My environment was fraught with the circumstantial poverty and the gang violence which followed the Rodney King incident.

Being raised by a single mother in the “hood” at this time did not present many opportunities for pursuing an education in music, let alone obtaining an instrument, nor exploring musical culture beyond what was immediately around me.

Therefore, I began to educate myself as best as I could at the time through listening to this music, borrowing CDs from the local library, and later using music books and the pianos at church and in the school auditoriums for my benefit. Not always with the permission of course.

Though this was a slow and tedious process, I developed a small repertoire of pieces. During high school, I learned trombone in band and used that knowledge to further my piano endeavors.

Shortly after graduation, I took music at Pasadena City College as well as lessons in classical at the Neighborhood Music School in Boyle heights through work study scholarships. I also began performing weekends at the Old Town Music Hall in El Segundo, as well as various ragtime music festivals nationwide, including Buenos Aires.

This catapulted my creative pallet; forging the path to where I am now.

I’m one of the few musicians of color who perform and create music within this genre today. I’ve written nearly twenty pieces and see no end in sight.

However, my music is only part of my life today. I am also a bus operator for Los Angeles Metro (MTA).

But luckily, I still maintain a schedule which permits me to perform weekly at 1642 bar in Echo Park with Eve Elliot on Tuesday Nights, as well as monthly at The Varnish bar, at Cole’s Sandwich shop in Down Town LA, as well as at various other venues around town.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Well in my aforementioned commentary, I would say that there were many obstacles getting to where I am today. Single parentage, poverty, environmental ptsd, bullying in amount of being LGBTQ, and ADHD, and overweight, and Black-Xican, all presented hardships, that I’m proud to have weathered as well as I have. For I believe that although troublesome, I wouldn’t be half the compassionate and creative person that I am today otherwise.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I believe that my work is unique in that it is an expression of my own that I create with the tools I created through perseverance and struggle. I worked against many odds to obtain a musical education, whereas most of my peers were lucky enough to have given to them in form of familial wealth and support systems. Though that is fine and dandy for them, my story differs in that my music is a product of sheer struggle and a will to pursue something that was nearly out of reach to myself and most of my socioeconomic class. My specialty is ragtime piano music, which I feel a deep connection to in that it originated from a generation of black composers who also faced heavy obstacles in everyday life. Ranging from Jim Crow to post-reconstruction era poverty. Our community was the caged bird, of which Maya Angelou spoke in her poem. However, the ragtime music was our song. Our song we sang triumphantly in spite of the cages society tried to place us in.

I’m proud of being known as one of the few musicians of color who’s keeping this fine music alive for future generations to enjoy and create.

I believe my music is unique by comparison for this reason and that I don’t simply follow a pattern or formula, but rather compose from my heart. I tell a story with my music.

Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
Please check out my album: Angels Flight – Genuine Los Angeles Ragtime on all streaming platforms.

My compositions are also in print and can be ordered from my directly.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Instagram.com/mista_ragtime
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/user/ragtimejohn