(Scott Joplin) improvised 2-piano duet; Barrett & Spitznagel

Andrew Barrett (KawhackitaRag) and Martin Spitznagel (spitzfire1138) had never played together before this moment at 1:30 a.m. Friday night / early Saturday during the weekend of the 2008 West Coast Ragtime Festival.

Sneaking into the room with the Yamaha pianos after hours, they played several tunes together, improvising their own duets. This was one of them. "Elite Syncopations" is an early rag by Scott Joplin, published in 1902. It lends itself to plenty of improvisation.

Andrew is on the 9-foot Yamaha CFIIIS concert grand, while Martin is on the 6- or 7-foot piano (not sure which exact model Yamaha it is). Their improvisations end up getting each of them lost at one point!
Their YouTube profiles are:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Kawhackit...
http://www.youtube.com/user/spitzfire...

The festival is held every November in Sacramento, California. Please see http://www.westcoastragtime.com for information. The woman behind the curtain is another ragtime performer, Mimi Blais. She was working on props for a ragtime comedy show to be held the following night.