J. Bodewalt Lampe

Who was J. Bodewalt Lampe?

Jens Bodewalt Lampe was a Danish-born American composer, arranger, performer and band-leader of ragtime and syncopated dance music. With the exception of Scott Joplin, Lampe was possibly the most famous composer of ragtime songs of the early-20th century.

Lampe was born in Ribe, Denmark to Christian and Sophia Lampe. In 1873, his family moved with his family to St. Paul, Minnesota, where his father took over leadership of the Great Western Band. Lampe was a child prodigy on the violin and became the first chair violinist for the Minneapolis Symphony at age 16. He met and married his wife, Josephine, while receiving tuition in Chicago in 1888. In the early 1890s, he and his wife moved to Buffalo where they had four children, Walter, Petra, Dorothy and Joseph Dell. At this time, he began composing and publishing his own music and led a dance orchestra.

In 1900, a year after the success of Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag", he published his most successful and enduring song "Creole Belles", a rag or cakewalk that sold more than a million copies in sheet music. The song was recorded by Sousa's Band in 1902 and has been a staple of jazz bands and ragtime pianists into the 21st century.