Louis Chauvin Dies

Louis Chauvin (March 13, 1881 — March 26, 1908, aged 27) was an African American ragtime musician.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri of a Mexican Spanish-Indian father and an African American mother, he was widely considered the finest pianist in the St. Louis area at the turn of the century. He was part of the ragtime community that met at Tom Turpin's Rosebud bar, along with Joe Jordan and others.

Chauvin died in Chicago. Whereas his death certificate lists causes of death as "multiple sclerosis, probably syphilitic," and starvation due to coma, a modern diagnosis would probably conclude he had a neurosyphilitic sclerosis and not link it to multiple sclerosis. He is buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis, MO.

He left only three published compositions and died without having recorded, so his ability is hard to judge today. However, he was long remembered by his peers as an exceptionally gifted performer and composer. He is primarily remembered today for Heliotrope Bouquet, the rag he wrote with Scott Joplin, in which the first two strains are his and the last two Joplins.