shows of the mid-1800s, but, as with jazz, any clear knowledge of when the ragtime style first emerged seems impossible in view of the lack of documentation. The career of the Creole composer and pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-69) offered some tantalizing clues about the very old age of these genres since his work featured clear ragtime elements, portents of jazz style, and even some of the Latin American traits that did not become well-known until the 1890s. As Gammond notes, however, the prophetic quality of Gottschalk's music is probab
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