COMPACT DISC REVIEW

By

Jack Rummel

A Sterling Idea!

Cali-Co Ragtime Quartet

Ragophile 1006

Boodle-Am Shake / Calico Rag / The Man in the Moon / Harlem Rag / The Curse of an Aching Heart* / Elite Syncopations / Mississippi Rag / Kater Street Rag / The Cascades / King Chanticleer / Good Gravy Rag / Heliotrope Bouquet / Sailing Down the Chesapeake Bay* / Black & White Rag / Honolulu Cake Walk / Blind Boone’s Southern Rag Medley No. 2.  (*Vocal)

     It was at the 2009 Evergreen Jazz Festival that this group first came together.  Sterling Nelson, the Festival’s founder, wanted a ragtime quartet and suggested Marty Eggers (piano and leader), Maurie Walker (banjo), Bill Clark (tuba) and Virginia Tichenor (drums) as the foursome.  At first it was billed as the Marty Eggers Quartet, but since it paired two Californians (Eggers and Tichenor) with two Coloradans (Walker and Clark), the much catchier “Cali-Co Quartet” soon became its permanent name.

     There’s a lot of talent in this group.  Eggers is proficient on piano as well as string bass and tuba and has recorded with numerous groups.  Tichenor’s main instrument is piano but has shown her versatility by recently adopting the drums.  Clark is the leader of Denver ’s Queen City Jazz Band and performs in the Queen City Ragtime Quartet; Walker is an alumnus of both of those groups.  Putting these musicians together was a stroke of genius.

     The playlist contains a fine mix of old warhorses and some infrequently heard numbers.  Eggers channels Paul Lingle as he plays Harry Belding’s Good Gravy Rag and his take on Bennie Moten’s Kater Street Rag gives it an intensity sorta like Morton’s Naked Dance.  The out-and-out rags (Calico Rag, Harlem Rag, Elite Syncopations, Mississippi Rag, The Cascades and Black & White Rag) showcase the talents of both Eggers and Walker , and the latter turns King Chanticleer into a banjo show piece.  Walker also contributes the two vocals, and while they are likeable they are actually more like rhythmic recitations.

      The recorded sound is quite good, as are the graphics, and the tempos are appropriate.   (Disclaimer: I assisted in locating a recording site and an audio engineer.)  Walker ’s liner notes are entertaining and focus on why each piece was selected.  The Cali-Co Quartet has a fine CD as their debut album and I hope we’ll hear more from them.

     Available for $18.00 postpaid from Marty Eggers, P.O. Box 5724, Berkeley, CA 94705-0724 or call (510) 655-6728.