Known as a "Ragtimist" (a term he coined), Bob Milne plays and enjoys a wide variety of musical styles.   He specializes in ragtime and boogie-woogie that developed in the late 1800s and early 1900s.   He can pound out the rhythm and blues, or slow down for waltzes, gospel hymns, popular songs or anything else he fancies.   Whether his is playing a gently swinging Missouri classic rag, setting fire to the piano with a knockout boogie or syncopating a traditional tune like "Wabash Cannonball," he leaves the audience gasping in awe.

As a student in the late 1960s at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., Mr. Milne began his musical career not as a pianist, but as a French horn virtuoso.   He performed in the Rochester Philharmonic and the Baltimore Symphony.   When the performances were over, the symphony musicians would relax and "ham it up" in a local saloon.   Often times, because he didn't carry his horn around with him, Bob found himself at the piano, quickly learning how to accompany the singers and entertain the crowd.   It was so much fun that he kept at it, and soon discovered that not only did people love what he was doing, they were paying him for it!

Today he continues to have fun on the concert stage, and his audiences have fun with him.   His enthusiasm is contagious, he loves to share his knowledge, and is excited about keeping ragtime music alive.

His first saloon job led to more than 25 years as what Milne calls "a journeyman piano player."   For the last few years, Milne has concentrated on solo concerts, performing two to five nights a week across Canada and the U.S.   He has performed at every ragtime festival in the country and has been a regular at the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival in Sedalia, MO.

Often Milne appears on stage dressed in a somewhat rumpled tuxedo, which he may soon shed.   His unassuming demeanor has that rode-hard-and put-away-wet look and leaves the uninitiated listeners completely unprepared for the fireworks that follow.   On occasion he also helps to create nostalgia by accompanying silent movies.

One of his most unique tours included the world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS George Washington.   In June 1999 the captain of the ship invited Milne to perform for an audience that totaled 6,000.   In December of 2000, Bob traveled to Japan where he performed concerts in Kanan, Miyagiken and the American School in Japan.   His ragtime and boogie delighted Americans and Japanese alike with an absolutely dazzling display of musical and technical virtuosity.

Bob is able to draw an amazing palette of colors from the instrument.   His dynamic shadings are second to none.   He plays the gamut from soft, slow, gentle tonality to super incredibly fast, thunderous crashing finales.   One listener at a Milne concert commented, "I was almost exhausted, just watching his hands fly over the keyboard.   He makes the piano sound like six instruments."

In addition to ragtime, Milne dazzles audiences with his energetic rendition of typical Texas barrelhouse boogie.   Few pianists attempt the boogie-woogie solos of Meade Lux Lewis, because Lewis, a musical illiterate, played impossibly conflicting rhythms.   Milne makes Lewis's boggie-woogie sound easy.   He has recorded numerous tapes and CDs, almost all of which include ragtime and boogie-woogie pieces.   He is also the author of "The Journeyman Piano Player" published by Woodland Press.   This book documents the trials and tribulations of the itinerant piano player.