Scott Joplin Music

I've collected ragtime recordings for some time, and I'm always delighted to find "non-traditional" arrangements of my favorite classic piano rags. Usually, I'm amused by the novelty of hearing these rags orchestrated for instruments other than the piano, but after a few plays, the novelty frequently wears off and I'm back to my piano recordings. Not so here! This is a magnificent recording by a top-notch group in the style of the Canadian Brass. The arrangements are fresh and exciting, they breathe new life into many of these classics. Still, the arrangements are faithful to the originals, and make no attempt to "jazz up" these old rags. The disc has a beautiful warm sound to it, and the members of the Avatar Brass Quintet play magnificently. I particularly like their versions of "Creole Belles," "A Real Slow Drag," and one of the prettiest rags I've ever heard, "Slippery Elm Rag." This has quickly become one of my favorite ragtime discs in my collection. I've listened to it dozens of times, but I never tire of it. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up before it goes out of print. Highly recommended!

This is a wonderful disc featuring classic American rags performed by a talented brass quintet. The timbral dynamics of the quintet are gentle and stunning at the same time. The ensemble's timing and inflection are excellent. Track times are good.

I endeavored to track down some music written by William Ryden, and ran across this gem of an album, consisting of rags arranged, and in one case composed, by him for brass quintet. (Some time back, I had been at a chamber orchestra concert, and one of the featured works, by Ryden, impressed me enough for such a search. That featured work, a setting of Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass" for vocal quartet, narrator and chamber orchestra, was perfect "pops concert" fare, but alas has yet to be recorded. Too bad; it was both charming and amusing.)

Ryden has to his credit the composing of more than 250 rags for piano. One of them-"Frogmore Stew"-is among the brass quintet arrangements on this album, and, based on its hearing, he seemingly deserves as much prominence as William Bolcom, following in the tradition of Scott Joplin (who has five of his more famous rags included on the album).

Scott Joplin! Who can forget the pathbreaking Nonesuch LP of his piano rags that Joshua Rifkin did more three decades ago, and the effect that album had on the genre? It wasn't just "The Sting" that reflected this rediscovery; this "craze of the times"; it seemed that everyone and his brother wanted to get in on the act. One popular release of the times was Gunther Schuller's "The Redback Book," with the New England Conservatory Orchestra. And I could swear that the Canadian Brass had taken their own whack at the craze, but, in checking my LP library, as well as an Amazon search, I may have conflated a possible Joplin album from them with "The Village Band" album, brass quintet transcriptions of other music from the Gilded Era.

Well, never mind the Canadian Brass! The Avatar Brass Quintet perform these works with all the skill and panache that one could ask for. Not only do we have five Joplin rags, as well as the one by Ryden himself, but equally famous works by Eubie Blake and Irving Berlin, a rare piece by George Gershwin, and a number of rags by some lesser-known contemporaries of Joplin.

What more could one ask for? Well, I for one would like to hear more of Ryden's own rags; maybe not all 250 of them, but at least a few more than just "Frogmore Stew." Perhaps an album that combines Bolcom and Ryden rags as arranged by Ryden for brass quintet would be just the ticket.

In the meantime, this "Magnetic Rags" album fills the bill nicely.

Bob Zeidler

This disc is a real gem, with its companion "The Entertainer".The original rolls are executed with a vintage piano-reproducer Welte-Steinway 1910, and performed part by Scott Joplin himself (six pieces in total for the two CD)and part by other period pianists.
It is a journey in the earth of American Classic Music, the link between the european salon music and the afro american traditional, with a strong classical compositional background as Scott Joplin himself was proud to say. You can listen to it with the real performing style and with an original piano.
A revelation.

I think we have a tendency to play older music to match the expectations of our modern ear. This can bring new views and fresh insights, but it can also lose the original vision of the composer. I enjoy the massive orchestrations played on modern instruments, but I also value the original orchestrations played on period instruments. This disk is an example of the latter. W. C. Handy is one of the greats of the era and here he plays the masterpieces of his time in the style of the time. The clean (re-)recording brings out new emphasis and subtleties that I hadn't heard in modern performances. Eugenia is a lovely piece as is Cleopha. A Real Slow Rag starts out almost in a tango mood. Scott Joplin's New Rag picks up the pace. And there's the continuous thrill of "hearing" W. C. Handy play for us. I keep coming back to this disk for a refreshing look back to the American music of a century ago.

Biograph issued three great CDs of Scott Joplin's works.In this one,we are sure that Scott Joplin (1868-1917) plays on three rolls: "maple leaf rag","ole Miss rag" (written by W.C.Handy),and "magnetic rag".The other rolls were produced in the sixties by Hal Boulware, a collector.All the tunes were digitally recorded from a 1910 Stenway.All the past-time charm and melancholy of this music is here.And listening to these tunes,I can't help thinking that Joplin knew perfectly Frederic Chopin's works.The beautiful "Elite syncopations" was marvelously played by MaryLou Williams in 1971 on his great "Nite life" album on CHiaroscuro.And there are rare tunes like "paragon rag","Eugenia","Cleopha",or "Heliotrope bouquet",all beeing marvelous compositions.Don't forget that this music was one of the roots of jazz : after Joplin came Eubie Blake (1883-1983),Luckey Roberts (1887 ?-1968) and James P.Johnson (1891-1955),and that was the birth of stride.Scott Joplin's music is part of the basement of jazz.And the beauty of his tunes has something timeless.

Ignore the notes which identify Gershwin as an Afro-American ;-). Fumo performs his speciality, Afro-American piano works, well. This collection includes:
1. The overture from "Treemonisha" by Scott Joplin, who is best known for his ragtime piano works. The overture was published for piano and voice; the original orchestration is lost. While overtures are usually best when heard in the context of the entire work, the work stands well on its own.
2. Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin is given a solid performance - listeners may well have other favorite performances.
3. Yamekraw by James Price Johnson is one of two pieces that make this recording special. Most of his work is relegated to jazz. This piece was written as an answer to Rhapsody in Blue - the pairing gives this composer his due. Johnson's music is worth pursuing further.
4. Africa by William Grant Still, another composer unknown to me. This piece is played from the original manuscript rather than a transcription of the symphonic form. Still's music as well is worth pursuing further.
5. New World a-Comin' by Duke Ellington is a wonderful piece to round-out the album.
If you are interested in American classical music, this cd is a great introduction to unfamilar works with just enough familar to make the listener feel welcomed.

The word "masterpiece" is often over-used in reviews here on Amazon, but in this case, it's certainly appropriate. Richard Dowling may be better known as a classical pianist, renowned for his interpretations of such romantic and impressionist composers Chopin and Ravel, but his sensitive touch transfers beautifully to these ragtime, stride, and early jazz selections. There are some familiar rags here from Scott Joplin, Eubie Blake, Euday L. Bowman, Felix Arndt, Zez Confrey, and others, but also some delightful obscurities such as Abram Chasins's "Rush Hour In Hong Kong," Gershwin's "Two Waltzes In C," and Ferde Grofé's previously unrecorded "Three Shades of Blue." Admittedly, much of the music on this CD falls outside the realm of so-called "classic ragtime," and leans more towards the 1920s/1930s "novelty" and Gershwin-esque classically-influenced jazz, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. As a long-time classic ragtime fan, I found the selections on this disc a refreshing change of pace from the usual fare. I'm particularly astounded by Dowling's performance of Bix Beiderbecke's "In A Mist." Aside from Bix's own solo piano recording of his most famous work, I consider Dowling's to be the definitive performance of the score as it was originally published (and I've heard several dozen solo piano recordings of "In A Mist"). Dowling's mastery of the impressionist style gives "In A Mist" a warmth and beauty I've never heard anywhere else. Forget Claude Bolling, forget Ralph Sutton, forget Dick Hyman, Dill Jones, Lincoln Mayorga, Ken Werner, or any other pianist you've heard play "In a Mist." They may be decent, but THIS is it! Having said that, I would have liked a little more "oomph" in Dowling's performances of Fats Waller's "Handful of Keys" or Eubie Blake's "Charleston Rag," but on the whole, this is a remarkable CD that I consider one of the highlights in my extensive ragtime collection. The recorded sound is brilliant--like sitting in the front row of a concert hall listening to a beautifully-tuned Steinway grand piano. No out-of-tune, rinky-dink upright here! Dowling treats the pieces with the respect they deserve, and his flawless technique and energetic performances make him one of the best ragtime pianists around today. Highly recommended!

The word "masterpiece" is often over-used in reviews here on Amazon, but in this case, it's certainly appropriate. Richard Dowling may be better known as a classical pianist, renowned for his interpretations of such romantic and impressionist composers Chopin and Ravel, but his sensitive touch transfers beautifully to these ragtime, stride, and early jazz selections. There are some familiar rags here from Scott Joplin, Eubie Blake, Euday L. Bowman, Felix Arndt, Zez Confrey, and others, but also some delightful obscurities such as Abram Chasins's "Rush Hour In Hong Kong," Gershwin's "Two Waltzes In C," and Ferde Grofé's previously unrecorded "Three Shades of Blue." Admittedly, much of the music on this CD falls outside the realm of so-called "classic ragtime," and leans more towards the 1920s/1930s "novelty" and Gershwin-esque classically-influenced jazz, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. As a long-time classic ragtime fan, I found the selections on this disc a refreshing change of pace from the usual fare. I'm particularly astounded by Dowling's performance of Bix Beiderbecke's "In A Mist." Aside from Bix's own solo piano recording of his most famous work, I consider Dowling's to be the definitive performance of the score as it was originally published (and I've heard several dozen solo piano recordings of "In A Mist"). Dowling's mastery of the impressionist style gives "In A Mist" a warmth and beauty I've never heard anywhere else. Forget Claude Bolling, forget Ralph Sutton, forget Dick Hyman, Dill Jones, Lincoln Mayorga, Ken Werner, or any other pianist you've heard play "In a Mist." They may be decent, but THIS is it! Having said that, I would have liked a little more "oomph" in Dowling's performances of Fats Waller's "Handful of Keys" or Eubie Blake's "Charleston Rag," but on the whole, this is a remarkable CD that I consider one of the highlights in my extensive ragtime collection. The recorded sound is brilliant--like sitting in the front row of a concert hall listening to a beautifully-tuned Steinway grand piano. No out-of-tune, rinky-dink upright here! Dowling treats the pieces with the respect they deserve, and his flawless technique and energetic performances make him one of the best ragtime pianists around today. Highly recommended!

This CD is a delight. Including some well-known gems by Jolin and Gershwin, the disc also offers some lesser known corners of the ragtime canon, including two selections by modern rag composer (and winner of the 1997 Scott Joplin prize for the best new rag), Brian Dykstra. The selections are brilliantly played by Lester and the sound is excellent. A winner all around.