Ragtime Music

There are only two piano players who I find exciting. One is Jerry Lee Lewis; the other is Jo Ann Castle. Jo Ann practically attacks the piano with such gusto and energy that you are afraid the piano will explode into a zillion pieces before she has finished a song. You have to wonder how many pianos she has broken with her frantic, enthusiastic style. This is raucous, jazzy, rag-time piano and no one does it better than Castle. Seeing her play is a real treat, but the excitement is still here in the sound recording. If you like slow, restful, soft piano pieces, this is NOT for you. This is loud, brash, bouncy music that just flies out of Castle's piano. There is a frenzy and an excitement here that just keeps going throughout the album. I knocked off one star in my rating due to how short the album is. Maybe it is a good idea to keep it short because your heart will be pounding and the adrenaline will be freely flowing. Tiger Rag was a little disappointing, but most all the other songs were top notch.

With a running time of 26:12, this album may not be as long as most CDs, but I'd rather have quality over quantity, and Jo Ann Castle's talent is unquestionable. When I played this for my father, he thought the music had been sped up -- because Jo Ann Castle's fingers can move almost inhumanly fast. The music is upbeat and puts me in a good mood almost instantly. I've heard others say that instead of playing the piano, Jo Ann attacks it! It's obvious that she loves to play, and I can't imagine anyone being immune to her infectious joy on the piano.

I just got done listening to this CD and loved each and every song!

Barely 20 minutes for a full priced CD seems thin. Some of the selections are very good, and some average to below."Tiger Rag" accompanied by a tuba sounds more like a lap cat than a tiger.

I picked this up after craving to hear anything by Scott Joplin. I immediately put Disc 1 in my car and sunk into the musical nirvana that is Scott Joplin. Sure the quality might not be 'top notch,' but unless you are really picky, there wont be a problem. The songs sound fine and you can enjoy them, and thats all that matters. Get this, its all the Scott Joplin you will ever need.

As the title says, this wonderful package has three CDs containing a total of 50 wonderful tunes written by the incomparable Scott Joplin (1868-1917). Played by one piano, and in just the way that you would expect from this music, the music is wonderfully moving. Admittedly, when I listened to the CDs in my car, it was noticeable that something was lacking in quality. But, that said, my family and I do enjoy these CDs (especially my son, who is taking piano lessons), and highly recommend them to you.

If you like ragtime, you should like this CD. Although the sound quality seemed a little inferior, the quality of the songs was above average I thought. The tempo of the songs was superior to that of Joanne Castle's songs which I think are played too fast. I think the CD was definitely worth the money.

We got these CDs to inspire our daughter who is learning to play abridged versions of a couple rags on the piano.

Perhaps we could have guessed from the price and from the information, or lack thereof, on this Amazon site. Overall, these CDs seem to be some kind of cheap copy. The sound quality is really bad. With the CDs there is no information given about who is performing the music, where, when and on what instrument. In fact, no information is given at all but the names of the tunes.

I guess its a matter of "you get what you pay for", but we wouldn't listen to this low quality even if it was free. It makes our stereo sound like the speakers on a laptop computer or a 1960s $8 AM transister radio. Once you're listening on a modern stereo you don't want the $8.00 radio sound, no matter the CD price.

The playing seems good. If you have the volume so low that you can't hear all the notes distincly it sounds pretty good.

The internet sample of the reputed-to-be-low-fidelity CD reprint of the Josh Rifkin Nonesuch 1970s LP recording seems to be higher quality.

I guess if we found out that these were taken from Edison recordings of Joplin playing we'd tolerate the quality for the authenticity. But that doesn't seem to be what we are hearing.