Ragtime Music

Marvelous early jazz easily on a par with the recordings of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, though more big-band in style. I've been an enormous fan of Sweatman ever since hearing "Ringtail Blues" many years ago--"a ragtime orchestra gone berserk" was my description of this wonderful side. If only I'd gotten to hear the manic, drum-dominated "Oh! You La! La!" all those years ago, a side even more remarkable in its raggy jazzness than "Ringtail." And there is the remarkable Sweatman-penned jam number, "That's Got 'Em," which nearly qualifies as pre-1920 swing! There's a delightful kind of controlled sloppiness to the playing on these sides, a quality that is calculated and studied and always effective. I refer to a type of jazzy looseness that only the very best musicians can pull off. And these are great musicians. Bless Archeophone for giving us this priceless slice of jazz history. Get this one in your collection!