Ragtime Music

I red the comments of two other people who have bought this 4 CD BOX SET and it is not really so bad. I will even add that there are some excellent tunes. However, I must agree with the fact that few tunes seem to have been recorded 40 or 50 years ago, mainly when you hear the scratches of an old turntable but it is just 2 or 3 tunes. Furthermore, if you do not know American music, it is a good BOX SET to buy if you consider that you received 4 CD for 4$ including 100 tunes. On these 4 CD, I have heard some orchestration that I have never heard before and I consider that they are different but interesting. Any way, after hearing these 100 tunes, you will say to yourself that you like this tune, this other tune, this other tune and so on and you will be able to buy a more expensive CD with the tunes that you like. However, I have bought many CDs in the last few weeks and as you know, there are always some tunes that you like and some tunes that you do not like on every CD that you will buy. So, don't buy it at 25$ but at 4 or 5$ dollars, it is a very good choice for 100 tunes.

We were disappointed with this CD, but for the price I guess we can't expect much. I didn't care for the new style presentation of the songs. I like a more traditional rendering.

You get what you pay for. The singers put their own spin on the singing of each song. If you didn't hear the words you would not recognize some of them. Even some of the music sounds like a bad recording of music played on a turntable. Definitely not worth the price.

I wish this review had been here when I was thinking of purchasing it. I guess you get what you pay for. If you are thinking of buying this, you are better off recording your own CDs (or at least buying one that you can listen to a sampling of the songs). This album includes songs that were mere recordings of the songs playing on an old record player. It's almost so unbelievable that it is funny.

Unlike the 1976 festival recording, which concentrated on New Orleans' R&B heritage, this disc gives us a taste of other flavours of Louisiana music - cajun, zydeco, blues, jazz, gospel.

It's crackin' good stuff, every last minute of it, the very best sort of live album, where you can feel the mutual excitement of a bunch of great performers cutting sick for the delight of a loving crowd. Exemplified by a 90-plus year old Eubie Blake shouting at the end of the Charleston Rag - "That's RAGTIME!"

You'll wish it was 5 times as long.

Unlike the 1976 festival recording, which concentrated on New Orleans' R&B heritage, this disc gives us a taste of other flavours of Louisiana music - cajun, zydeco, blues, jazz, gospel.

It's crackin' good stuff, every last minute of it, the very best sort of live album, where you can feel the mutual excitement of a bunch of great performers cutting sick for the delight of a loving crowd. Exemplified by a 90-plus year old Eubie Blake shouting at the end of the Charleston Rag - "That's RAGTIME!"

You'll wish it was 5 times as long.

Charles Thompson was a contemporary of Jelly Roll Morton and James P. Johnson, and was one of the leading figues of the second generation of St. Louis ragtime pianists.

This album, made up of live recordings from the early 1960s, finds Thompson in reasonable form, playing some of his best known pieces plus a few standards. His powers had declined a little from his 1948-49 American Music recordings, but he was still able to play in an entertaining fashion. Many of the performances are rather short, but these are historic recordings by a little known but important figue in ragtime.

Delmark is to be commended for this release: let's hope they re-issue the rest of the Euphonic back catalogue. Anyone interested in ragtime and early jazz should consider buying this CD.