Composer. He was a self-taught piano player, who was regarded as one of the best composers of classic ragtime music. Born into an Irish-American family, he was the only non-African American of the "Big Three" composers of classical ragtime, the other two being Scott Joplin and James Scott. Song writing came naturally to him as he started composing songs while still in school. He was sent to St. Jerome's College in Ontario, Canada to study engineering but never finished. He wanted a musical career and it bloomed after meeting Joplin in 1907. Using great diversity, his contributions to ragtime music literature surpassed ragtime's usual four-measure phrase structure. His many scores which are still in publication in the 21st century, included "Ethiopia Rag" in 1909, "Champagne Rag" in 1910, "American Beauty Rag" in 1913, "Ragtime Nightingale" in 1915, "The Top Liner Rag" in 1916 and "Bohemia Rag" in 1919. He died of a heart attack. In 1964 posthumously, Mills Music published "Ragtime Treasures," a 64-page folio of thirteen Joseph Lamb's rags, which had never before been published. He married twice. His first wife, the former Henrietta Schultz, died of influenza at the end of the great pandemic that followed World War I. Having a seven-year-old son, the widower married to Amelia Collins and the couple had three more sons and a daughter.
Composer. He was a self-taught piano player, who was regarded as one of the best composers of classic ragtime music. Born into an Irish-American family, he was the only non-African American of the "Big Three" composers of classical ragtime, the other two being Scott Joplin and James Scott. Song writing came naturally to him as he started composing songs while still in school. He was sent to St. Jerome's College in Ontario, Canada to study engineering but never finished. He wanted a musical career and it bloomed after meeting Joplin in 1907. Using great diversity, his contributions to ragtime music literature surpassed ragtime's usual four-measure phrase structure. His many scores which are still in publication in the 21st century, included "Ethiopia Rag" in 1909, "Champagne Rag" in 1910, "American Beauty Rag" in 1913, "Ragtime Nightingale" in 1915, "The Top Liner Rag" in 1916 and "Bohemia Rag" in 1919. He died of a heart attack. In 1964 posthumously, Mills Music published "Ragtime Treasures," a 64-page folio of thirteen Joseph Lamb's rags, which had never before been published. He married twice. His first wife, the former Henrietta Schultz, died of influenza at the end of the great pandemic that followed World War I. Having a seven-year-old son, the widower married to Amelia Collins and the couple had three more sons and a daughter.
Bio by: Linda Davis
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