Customer Reviews

Come & Trip It: Instrumental Dance Music 1780s-1920s

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I have had tape recordings of this album since I was a child and am excited to find it on CD. It is truly a wonderful collection that will force you to get up and dance--you won't be able to resist! I can't add to the great review above except to say I heartily agree with everything that was said. I really love these songs.

Honestly, I'm flat-out floored to be the first to review this album. As a lover of early popular music and historical dance, this collection has always meant the world to me - for its selection and scope, it cannot be surpassed.

Three stellar orchestras are featured - the Federal Music Society tends to the Victorian era, Dick Hyman & his Dance Orchestra (need I even go into Hyman's musical contribution to culture) lovingly represent the Edwardian years through the early 1920's, and Gerard Schwartz and his Dance Orchestra treat the 1920's with charming respect and authenticity. The transition from one orchestra to the next is seamless, and the decades just drift by the ears.

Specific numbers that stand out include "Prima Donna Waltz", a wonderfully smooth composition - it practically begs to be danced to. "Country Fiddle Music", a set of six pieces, is a sheer delight. "Flying Cloud Schottische" is the ideal example of this dance - it lilts along, just like the steps demand. "Ma Ragtime Baby" is an utterly delicious cakewalk, with truly addictive usage of upbeats and that certain ineffable swagger that just sums up popular dance at the turn of the twentieth century. Wordy, yes - but it's just that good. "Kansas City Blues" is a marvel, and is PERFECTLY transcribed here. I have an original 78 record here that I've compared it to, and there isn't even the slightest difference. Wonderful. "Waltzing the Blues" is truly unique - it brings to mind the image of the sheiks and honeys of the 1920's embracing a dance of their forebearers, giving it their own little twist. I'm hard pressed to imagine violin and saxophone having a happier relationship musically than in this piece - sheer fun. Finally, we finish the album with an appropriately raucous Charleston, the classic "Sweet Man".

And, that's not all - the many offerings interspersed are truly wonderful, as well. This album is a MUST-HAVE for lovers of early popular music, and especially for vintage dance folks. Every piece is a gem, and ideally timed and arranged for dancing. It's a collection that I wouldn't part with for anything.

If anyone needs proof how America has grown fat, listen to this album, especially the last dozen tracks. Once upon a time dancing was not merely convulsing in place. Nearly every selection here requires a limber body, and our forebears must have been up to it to be able to dance to such extraordinarily lively music. It is hard to believe it was once considered junk, mere hack work, throwaway culture. An utterly adorable tune like "At the Mississippi Cabaret" or "Hold Me" was a fad of the moment, if even of a moment, however brilliantly arranged as it was. It is further hard to believe popular music was so capable of charm, that it required -- indeed, thrived on vigorous social activity. Now we can only pine and sigh for a time when high commerce could, in its own way, yield high art.