Courtney Kowalke/Winonan

The Winona State University Department of Music and the WSU Foundation proved there’s no business quite like show business with last Wednesday’s presentation of “Ragtime with Mimi Blais.”

“If you’re not ready to do a striptease of your soul when you play music, forget it,” said Mimi Blais, one of the today’s most popular comedic ragtime performers. “Go home.”

Held on the main stage of the Performing Arts Center, the concert was attended by nearly 210 members of the Winona community eager to see “the comedy star of the genre.”

Classically trained at the Quebec Conservatory of Music and McGill University in Montreal, Blais decided to forge her own path telling stories and creating music.

Blais wrote and performs two one-woman shows, “Once Upon a Time, Ragtime” and “An Afternoon with Jean-Baptiste LaFrenière.”  The former chronicles the importance of ragtime music in the evolution of American culture, which Blais highlighted during Wednesday evening’s performance.

“I’ve always played ragtime,” said Blais, who began playing the piano at age seven and gave her first concert at age 9.

“It really opened the door to my own creativity and artistry,” she said.

Blais has received several nicknames during her career, including the female Victor Borge, the Céline Dion of the keyboard, the French Canadian Liberacette, and her favorite, the New Queen Of Ragtime.

According to her website, “[Blais] loves the theatrical. She often uses costumes to present or invent characters, making her piano concerts more visual and animated.  Sometimes, when she steps out on stage, the audience may not even be sure that it’s actually her.”

The statement held true for Wednesday’s performance, where Blais spent the first third of the evening as Jean-Baptiste LaFreniere.

One of the originators of ragtime from Quebec, LaFreniere was known as the National Strauss of Canada and wrote many waltzes.

Blais performed his 1907 “Raggity Rag” and the “Jannot Valse.”

Blais also noted that 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of LaFreniere’s death.

“This was very popular in 1900, but the music faded,” Blais said, adding that ragtime was the first form of popular music in the United States.  This point was repeated during her performance of Cecil Macklin’s “Tres Moutarde (Too Much Mustard),” which was the first popular song in the states.

No discussion of ragtime would be complete without mentioning Scott Joplin of “The Entertainer” and “Maple Leaf Rag” fame, both of which Blais played.

Like Blais, Joplin was a classically trained pianist. However, as she pointed out, he was “playing great music in kind of suspicious places.”

“That’s why there was a lot of taboo with this music,” Blais noted. “The composers and performers were black and they played in bordellos.”

“Ragtime was partially the result of a culture mash in the United States,” Blais said.  She explained how African music focused on “big rhythm” while White culture emphasizes melodies.  According to Blais, ragtime artists “created melody with their rhythm. Syncopation was something that really hit the world.”

Between songs Blais discussed her view of ragtime as being part of a trunk of the tree of American music.

“There are black and white roots, and then the trunk is ragtime and blues, with many branches shooting off from there,” she said.

Blais also talked about different types of ragtime, including Novelty Piano rags that opened the door to show tunes and Broadway-style numbers. She illustrated this point with Zez Confrey’s “Kitten on the Keys.”

“This was about the time real ragtime faded and the branches took over,” she said.

Blais closed the show with two original compositions, a slower rag composed for a Valentine’s Day radio show and a piece in the vein of Louis Armstrong written to honor Lil Hardin, Armstrong’s wife, pianist, and composer.

“I like to leave you with a smile,” Blais said of the tune, titled “Lili” and featuring her impression of Armstrong’s distinct singing style.

“There is so much love in ragtime,” Blais said.  “There is something with this music, especially when you think about where it comes from, that provides a big dose of happiness and freedom.”

Contact Courtney at [email protected]