COMPACT DISC REVIEW

By Jack Rummel

Breakin’ Notes

Bryan Wright, piano

Rivermont BSW-2212

Efficiency Rag / Kinklets / Hoosier Rag / Nove de Julho / Key-Stone Rag / The Harbour Rag / Euphonic Sounds / Red Elephant Rag / Soliloquy / Candlelights / Flashes / In the Dark / In a Mist / Breakin’ Notes / Cottontail Rag / Roberto Clemente / Upright and Grand / The Legend of Lonesome Lake.

            In this, his second CD, Bryan Wright breaks out of the classic ragtime mold that dominated his debut disc and shows that he also has the chops to tackle advanced ragtime, Latin rhythms and some tough novelty pianistics.  Classic rags are still represented on his playlist but they’re no longer the dominant form.  As such, he is following a progression that many other ragtimers have taken, namely, “Now that I’ve invested in Scott Joplin and his contemporaries, what else is out there to challenge me?”

            Homage is paid to the early demigods in James Scott’s Efficiency Rag, Arthur Marshall’s Kinklets, Joplin ’s Euphonic Sounds and Joseph Lamb’s Cottontail Rag, with Julia Lee Niebergall’s Hoosier Rag and Willie Anderson’s Key-Stone Rag thrown in to sweeten the pot.  But then the boundaries expand, as Wright touches down in Brazil for Ernesto Nazareth’s Nove de Julho, then hops to Belgium (!) for Jean Páques’ devilishly difficult Breakin’ Notes, and then rebounds back to New York for Rube Bloom’s none-too-easy Soliloquy and Frank Banta’s fiendish Upright and Grand – all seemingly without breaking a sweat.

            Wright also focuses on today’s composers by including Glenn Jenks’ Harbour Rag, Martin Spitznagel’s Red Elephant Rag and the ever-popular Roberto Clemente by David Thomas Roberts.  Special mention should also be made of Bix Beiderbecke’s four (and only) notated, genre-defying piano works, Candlelights, Flashes, In the Dark and In a Mist, for this is the first time they all have appeared on a single recording since Ralph Sutton and Ken Werner did it on vinyl back in the mid-1970s.  The CD closes with a tone poem by a relatively unknown composer, Eastwood Lane .

            Wright’s technical expertise shines throughout this recording, but of equal note is his awesome control of dynamics.  His fortes are powerful, his pianissimos are gossamer-like and the two are apt to be juxtaposed comfortably in the same 4- or 8-measure strain.  Only in Kinklets does this contrast get a bit out of hand, but that’s a minor complaint.  And almost as much of a pièce de resistance as the music itself is the accompanying 24-page booklet containing miniature essays about every composition.  Add to this some classy artwork and full concert sound quality, and this release by Bryan Wright is a real winner.  Recommended.