David Thomas Roberts


David Thomas Roberts is an American composer and musician, known primarily as a modern ragtime composer. Roberts is also a painter in a primitivist style.
Born in Moss Point, Mississippi, United States, his first recording, "Music For a Pretty Baby", appeared in 1978. Pieces such as "The Early Life of Larry Hoffer", "Roberto Clemente", "Pinelands Memoir", "Through the Bottomlands", and the suite, "New Orleans Streets" have caused Roberts to be considered one of the leading contemporary ragtime-based composers. The New Orleans historian Al Rose called him "the most important composer of this half of the century in America."
Roberts coined the term "Terra Verde" as a label for compositions which can not be considered as conventional ragtime, mostly by contemporary ragtime writers such as himself, Frank French, Scott Kirby, Hal Isbitz and others.
Roberts also works as a writer and visual artist, and is currently writing a critical history of New Ragtime. His mixed-media art appears in the magazine of visionary art, Raw Vision, and his poetry has been anthologized in Another South, a collection of experimental writing published in 2003 by the University of Alabama Press.

Selected discography

From ''Discovery'' (2005)

  1. Discovery
  2. Charbonneau
  3. Mariana's Waltz
  4. Ice Floes in Eden
  5. Memories of a Missouri Confederate
  6. Fantasy in D
  7. Chorale-Prelude
  8. Chorale No. 2
  9. Frederic and the Coast
  10. Cynthia
  11. Babe of the Mountains
  12. Nancy's Library

    From ''American Landscapes'' (1998)

  13. Pinelands Memoir
  14. The Girl Who Moved Away
  15. Back to Marion County
  16. Through the Bottomlands
  17. Muscatine
  18. Kreole
  19. Dixon
  20. The Girl On the Other Side
  21. Franklin Avenue
  22. Fontainebleau Drive
  23. Napoleon Avenue
  24. Madison Heights Girl
  25. Anna
  26. Roberto Clemente
  27. For Kansas City

    From ''Early Tangoes to New Ragtime'' (1994)

  28. Odeon
  29. Matuto
  30. Rapid Transit
  31. Bee Hive Rag
  32. The Naked Dance
  33. For Molly Kaufmann
  34. The Show-me Rag
  35. The Nonpareil
  36. Mississippi River Boulevard
  37. Show Fly
  38. Memories of a Missouri Confederate
  39. Belle of Louisville
  40. Morelia
  41. Esta' Chumbado
  42. Escovado
  43. The Big Man
  44. Mississippi Soul
  45. The Queen of North Missouri
  46. Ravenna

    From ''Scott Joplin the Complete Piano Music, Vol. 1''

  47. Original Rags
  48. Leola
  49. Pleasant Moments
  50. Peacherine Rag
  51. Sunflower Slow Drag
  52. Maple Leaf Rag
  53. Weeping Willow
  54. Bink's Waltz
  55. Elite Syncopations
  56. The Favorite
  57. Swipesy
  58. Antoinette
  59. The Nonpareil
  60. Gladiolus Rag
  61. The Easy Winners

    From ''15 Ragtime Compositions''

  62. Waterloo Girls
  63. Camille
  64. Kreole
  65. Frederic and the Coast
  66. Madison Heights Girl
  67. Poplarville
  68. Through the Bottomlands
  69. Pinelands Memoir
  70. For Kansas City
  71. The Girl Who Moved Away
  72. Mississippi Brown Eyes
  73. The Early Life of Larry Hoffer
  74. The South Mississippi Glide
  75. Roberto Clemente
  76. Maria Antonieta Pons

    From ''New Orleans Streets''

  77. Introduction
  78. Decatur Street
  79. Burgundy Street
  80. Franklin Avenue
  81. Jackson Avenue
  82. Waltz
  83. Napoleon Avenue
  84. Magazine Street
  85. Toulouse Street
  86. Annunciation Street
  87. Broad Avenue
  88. Interlude
  89. Fontainbleau Drive
  90. Revenge
  91. Farewell

    From ''New Orleans Ragtime Piano''

  92. Pretty Baby
  93. Kansas City Stomps
  94. Mamanita
  95. Fat Frances
  96. Honky Tonk Music
  97. Stratford Hunch
  98. The Pearls
  99. Tom Cat Blues
  100. Mr. Jelly Lord
  101. New Orleans Joys
  102. The Naked Dance
  103. Sponge

    From ''Folk Ragtime: 1899-1914''

  104. Blue Blazes
  105. Tennessee Tantalizer
  106. A Tennessee Jubilee
  107. Tickled to Death
  108. Poison Rag
  109. Scizzor Bill
  110. The Dockstader Rag
  111. Camp Meeting Melodies
  112. Blind Boone's Southern Rag Medley No.2
  113. Felix Rag
  114. The Pirate Rag
  115. Medic Rag
  116. Just Ask Me
  117. Why We Smile
  118. Cotton Bolls
  119. Possum and 'Taters
  120. The Black Cat Rag
  121. X.L. Rag
  122. A Barn Dance Shuffle
  123. Whittling Remus
  124. Lover's Lane Glide

    Other David Thomas Roberts compositions / recordings