Thomas (Tom) Turpin (b. June 18th, 1873 in Savannah, Georgia; d. August 13th, 1922 in St. Louis,) was an American ragtime pianist and composer.
Tom Turpin was the second son of John and Lulu Turpin. He taught himself to play piano. Turpin was a ragtime pioneer who lived and worked in St. Louis, the capital of ragtime. To and his older brother Charlie bought a goldmine in Nevada bust were forced to return to St. Louis when it didn’t pan out. In 1897 he published Harlem Rag, a composition that followed his own style.
Turpin opened the Rosebud Café in 1900, near the St. Louis streetcar depot. Many famous ragtime pianists met there. Scott Joplin wrote some of his works there. Tom and his brother also direct r the Booker T. Washington theatre, where Joe Jordan and Artie Matthews also performed. Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters and Josephine Baker also got their starts there. The Turpin brothers were the first African-American politicians to run gambling and dance halls and bordellos. Turpin’s piano needed to be mounted on blocks of wood because he was too fat to play seated. Although he only published four “rags” in his lifetime, he had an enormous musical influence.
