Ted Jones
was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1947. He lives in Point Chevalier, Auckland, together with
his wife and his son. Ted is earning his living as a computer manager/programmer. He's been
playing the piano as long as he can remember and has composed piano music of various types
since his late teens. In recent years improvisation (not necessarily jazz related) has become
increasingly important to him as an end in itself. However, certain types of composition have
never lost their appeal, and ragtime is one of those. Ted admires particularly the music of
Chopin, Scott Joplin, Gershwin, Ives, Elgar, Delius, Keith Jarrett and Mary Lou Williams. While
at university he read "They All Played Ragtime" and resolved to play and write ragtime himself.
He too began with "Maple Leaf Rag", probably because it was the only one available in
print in New Zealand. Ted plays a large number of Scott Joplin's and James Scott's rags. It
wasn't until about 1977 or so that recordings and scores became accessible in New Zealand (the
only recordings he had were by Joshua Rifkin and Max Morath). He says that "ragtime" is
sometimes a misleading word because for most people it conveys images of booze and somebody
thumping an out-of-tune piano. Ted looks forward to the new and exciting development of the rag
into the universal language and form hinted at in many of Joplin's works.
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