2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, May 16, 2010
Butch Thompson is awfully good.
For some years he was Garrison Keillor's house pianist on A Prairie Home Companion, on which he demonstrated that he can play just about anything.
This album is devoted to stride piano. "Stride piano" is a musical style from the 1920's that involves a ragtime bass (oom pah, oom pah) with a melody (and chords) played by the right hand which is not a rag. Like all music with a ragtime bass, it is technically difficult to play.
Sometimes the stride pianists adapted popular songs. More frequently, they wrote their own stuff.
All of the great composer/performers are represented in this album: Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, Willie "The Lion" Smith, Eubie Blake, Jelly Roll Morton. Butch Johnson captures the full flavor of the originals, but adds some stuff of his own which is appropriate and very engaging.
For my money, the only stride piano recordings that come up to this standard are a set of piano rolls made by Fats Waller, which were transcribed onto vinyl years ago, but have never been collected and reissued in CD form.
This is a terrific album.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No