Ragger

Marc Riordan and Jon Leland make music together under the name Ragger. Each are multi-instrumentalists and avid collaborators in their wide artistic practices. The two met in 2017 after being invited to join the current trio lineup of Sun Araw. They formed Ragger shortly thereafter, performing as a duo for a bi-weekly residency at Zebulon in LA, with a very specific scope of material in mind: the ragtime compositions of Scott Joplin and his contemporaries, presented in synthetic tones for synthesizers and electronic V drums. Drawing inspiration from the Switched-On series and video game music composers like Koji Kondo and Nobuo Uematsu as much as the head-spinning prog instrumentals of bands like Horse Lords and Cheer-Accident, Riordan and Leland approach the Scott Joplin ragtime songbook without any interest in “reviving” the style or presenting an authoritative survey of the music’s history, but rather as an opportunity to inject their own varied musical interests into the framework of ragtime. Ragger overflows with whimsy and joy as much as a brand of casual virtuosity in service of the intricacies of music composed over a century ago. While ragtime might nominally be catalogued closer to “classical music” by today’s listeners, its deep roots weave into the origins of jazz, blues, pop, and dance music. We hear Ragger tease these threads out while transplanting the style into modern tones and ideas from the perspective of the avant-underground.