The Ragtime Jug Orchestra offer a variety of performance presentations and workshops for children, young people and adults.
Workshops are available for all occasions:
festivals, schools, colleges and universities,
Black History Month events, blues and folk clubs, societies, parties and social events.
Learning to play the jug
Leicester City Blues Festival 2008
Workshopsand presentations can be as fun'
or as 'educational' as required. They usually involve
audio-visual and multi-media presentations as well
as performance and 'hands-on' workshop experience.
House-party, birthday bash, or a corporate 'do'? Why not let The RJO entertain the guests?
Music for dining, music for listening and authentic dance steps to enliven the event.
We can even suggest an authentic menu!
'Home-made Instruments'
Get your rhythm bones going, and learn to play some percussion, the diddley-bow,cigar-box guitar,
kazoo and jug, or, just
shake that thing!
For a more educational event, performance-based presentations focus on the development of African American musics and their impact on popular culture during the second half
of the19th and first half of the 20th Centuries.
'Down The Mississippi' -
A journey through African-American Music from St Louis to New Orleans - suitable for all levels
'Ragtime and Early Blues' -
A history, dispelling some of the myths about the development of Ragtime and Blues -
from Scott Joplin through to Robert Johnson
'Lightening Up - Black Context and White Listener'
From African American signifying on slavery and segregation to the mainstream
appropriation of Minstrelsy and Tin Pan Alley
'Romancing The Folk'
Collectors, activists and the creation of American 'folk' cultures
Others: 'The Roots of Rock', 'Shared Tradition', 'Music and Migration','Memphis Music', etc