Ragtime

Fifteen years after the New England Ragtime Ensemble's initial recording, Gunther Schuller brought the group back into the studios to perform a well-rounded set of agtime-oriented music. The ensemble (consisting of up to five brass, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, a string quartet and a...

Mooney is one of a handful of younger blues players who has forged his own style, a jarring juxtaposition of angular Delta guitar and funky New Orleans backbeats. He explores the dark sides of those traditions in Against the Wall, a harrowing and stark work. Mooney's voice and guitar, both...

Pianist Terry Waldo & the Gutbucket Syncopators have had their original LP of eight selections expanded to 13 in this CD reissue. This consistently exciting date has Waldo joined by trumpeter Roy Tate, trombonist Jim Snyder, Frank Powers on clarinet and tenor, banjoist Bob Sundstrom, Mike...

Scott Joplin was the king of ragtime composers. The great success of his Maple Leaf Rag, which was published in 1899, launched a ragtime craze that dominated popular music until around 1915. It seems only fitting that the ragtime revival that occurred in the early 1970s was inspired by the...

This compilation is culled from three albums produced by John Hammond in the '60s. The collection is rather interesting as a comparison of the styles of these three fine traditional jazz pianists. Henderson's unaccompanied pieces are a direct line from the stride playing of Fats...

The pioneering African-American performer Bert Williams was best-known for his humorous and philosophical monologues during various editions of the Ziegfeld Follies. He was also a decent singer (particularly in his early days), and the first solo, non-religious, African-American artist to be...

Coleman Hawkins was the first major jazz saxophonist, debuting on records in 1921 and really coming into his own with his solo on "The Stampede" in 1925. The World Saxophone Quartet, the first important a cappella saxophone section in jazz, was founded in 1976. However, the Six Brown...

Known for the passionate assault he commits upon his guitar when he plays, this disc is him playing acoustically by himself in a live setting, and he is every bit as alive and dynamic here as with a full band. Listen to his subtle playing and impeccable timing on "U Told Me," or the...

One of the few lues guitarists to forge a unique style, John Mooney continues to refine his Delta blues/New Orleans second-line approach on this excellent follow-up to 2000's Gone to Hell comeback. Whether digging into the Delta on an acoustic version of Willie Brown's "Future...

Norwegian transplant Lars Edegran formed the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra in 1967 to preserve some of the New Orleans music that he loved. The band has been going strong ever since, playing gigs from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival to the Satchmo Summer Fest. They specialize in...

Starting in the 1970s and accelerating in the '90s, agtime made a comeback, with many talented new composers writing for the once nearly extinct music. Pianist Brian Keenan plays six of his melodic, wistful, and thoughtful pieces on this CD along with one song apiece from fellow agtime...

George Chisholm was one of Great Britain's finest trombonists of the 1935-1950 period. This definitive CD features him on sessions with clarinetist Danny Polo in 1938, two songs with pianist Gerry Moore's Chicago Brethren in 1937, a pair of titles with Lew Stone's Stonecrackers in...

Bert Williams was a gifted and convincingly expressive entertainer. His thematic repertoire speaks volumes about the nature of the entertainment industry at the beginning of the 20th century. Bert Williams: The Remaining Titles 1915-1921 (Document 5661)presents 23 vintage performances lifted...

This remarkable CD has the first recordings of Bert Williams, the black comedian/actor/singer who was a pioneer in vaudeville and Broadway. The last of three Williams' CDs to be released by Archeophone but chronologically the first, this disc has extremely rare recordings (some taken from...

This is an odd solo piano recital by Marcus Roberts that is sure to upset agtime purists. Instead of really conveying "the joy of Scott Joplin," Roberts merely uses some of the agtime composer's melodies as vehicles for his own improvising. The results are often quite jarring,...

Like several sessions originally recorded for Asch and later reissued by Stinson, this Collectables CD compiles two unrelated dates onto one disc. Stride pianist James P. Johnson leads a June 1944 session featuring mostly original material, accompanied by trumpeter Frankie Newton, guitarist Al...