Born in Tacoma, Washington, Jack Rummel has pursued the piano for most of his life.   He discovered ragtime in the 1950s through the recordings of Joe "Fingers" Carr, and began serious study of the idiom in 1971 after hearing Scott Joplin’s music performed by Joshua Rifkin.   He has performed at ragtime and jazz festivals from California to Missouri.   He plays the complete repertoire of ragtime, but can most often be found featuring "folk ragtime" or performing his own compositions.   He has released three ragtime CDs, which are available at several ragtime sources.   When he performs, Jack is commonly called on to handle Master of Ceremonies duties, and he has presented ragtime research papers at various symposia.

He began composing in 1978 and twenty seven of his works have been published in three folios.   Other artists who have recorded and/or performed his works include Tony Caramia, Dave Dallwitz, Frank French, Brian Keenan and David Thomas Roberts.

Jack has hosted a weekly ragtime radio program for over twenty years in Boulder, Colorado.   His program can be heard on most Thursday evenings at 9:00 P.M. on KGNU on the web.   His two hour broadcast celebrating twenty years of his ragtime program included congratulatory messages from ragtimers worldwide.   In his spare time he writes articles and reviews CDs for ragtime publications.

He is a cofounder of the annual Rocky Mountain Ragtime Festival, which will present its tenth annual festival July 15-17, 2002 in Boulder.   He works with Scott Kirby, last year’s Tulsa Ragtime House Concert pianist, to choose performers for the festival.   To support his ragtime "habit" he practices dentistry in Boulder.