COMPACT DISC REVIEW

By

Jack Rummel

 

 

 

 

Honky-Tonk Piano

Lou Busch, Ray Turner and Marvin Ash

Siggnal Sounds CD-501

 

The Entertainer’s Rag / Two Dollar Rag / Cannon Ball Rag / Hungarian Rag / Maple Leaf Rag / Kitten on the Keys / Jim Jams / That Everlovin’ Rag / Fidgety Feet / Black and White Rag / Kimono Capers / The Entertainer’s Rag (Original) / Hungarian Rag (Original) / Carr’s Hop / Rapscallion Rag / Waltz in Ragtime / Angel Food Rag / Raggin’ The Scale / Too Much Mustard / Bar Room Boogie / Somebody Stole My Gal / The Daughter of Rosie O’Grady / Dardanella / 12th Street Rag / Lou’s Blues / Minute Waltz Boogie / Narcissus / The Darktown Strutter’s Ball.

 

            Here on the first eight tracks, in carefully restored form, is the original 10-inch record released in 1950 that was the first all-ragtime record ever made and the first ragtime recording I ever heard.  Actually, my family’s copy was a box of three 45-rpm platters (minus Hungarian Rag and That Everlovin’ Rag) but I literally wore those records out, listening over and over, captivated by the rinky-tink sounds and wondering how in hell could a human being play all those notes!?!

            Now those tracks are back again, cleaned up to an amazing degree and coupled with some additional tracks from that era, thanks to the dedicated efforts of Bill Edwards (“Perfessor Bill,” as he is called) at Siggnal Sounds.  As I listen once more to the tunes that first turned me on to ragtime I am initially overcome with nostalgia before recognizing that I am also a role model for this quote from Edwards’ liner notes: “While artists of today for the most part have gone different directions in ragtime interpretation, many of them are involved in ragtime in the first place as a result of the 27 original recordings included here.”

            The excellent liner notes constitute a carefully reconstructed history of the “’50s Ragtime Revival,” although many gaps in our knowledge still exist and Capitol Records, who originally released these and other similar recordings, provided little or no help to Edwards on this project.  (The original masters were never located.)  It is also fascinating to read the technical notes and learn of the many intricate steps he executed to eliminate the pops and crackles from the early recordings used in the project and create the level of fidelity that compact disc purchasers expect.

            Ragtime fans who were perhaps a generation removed from this era may look down their noses at this CD but in so doing they will miss out on a significant event in ragtime’s history.  This was the ragtime that was popular in the 1950s and, whether you like it or not, it sold a lot of records, thus, perhaps, paving the way for the more serious embrace of ragtime by the general public that was to come later.  Bill Edwards deserves a big cheer for making these seminal recordings available again.  (In fact, he seems to have created a cottage industry of restoring a lot of the music of this era and releasing it on compact discs.  I encourage you to visit his website.)

            Available for $15.00 plus shipping from www.perfessorbill.com/albums/ .