Fluffy Ruffle Girls [Original recording reissued]

Virginia Eskin (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 18, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued
• Label: Koch Int'l Classics
• ASIN: B00000IYNJ
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #528,628 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Women In Ragtime - Fluffy Ruffle Girls: Fluffy Ruffle Girls Rag

2. Women In Ragtime - Fluffy Ruffle Girls: Novelty Rag

3. Women In Ragtime - Fluffy Ruffle Girls: A Totally DIfferent Rag

4. Women In Ragtime - Fluffy Ruffle Girls: Possum Rag

5. Women In Ragtime - Fluffy Ruffle Girls: The Richmond Rag

6. Women In Ragtime - Fluffy Ruffle Girls: Horseshoe Rag

7. Women In Ragtime - Fluffy Ruffle Girls: Eatin' Time

8. Women In Ragtime - Fluffy Ruffle Girls: Reflective Rag

9. Women In Ragtime - Fluffy Ruffle Girls: That Poker Rag

10. Women In Ragtime - Fluffy Ruffle Girls: Sleepy Lou

11. Women In Ragtime - Fluffy Ruffle Girls: The Thriller!

12. Women In Ragtime - Fluffy Ruffle Girls: Dusty Rag

13. Women In Ragtime - Fluffy Ruffle Girls: Red Rambler Rag

14. Women In Ragtime - Fluffy Ruffle Girls: Black Feather Two-Step

15. Women In Ragtime - Fluffy Ruffle Girls: Red Peppers

16. Women In Ragtime - Fluffy Ruffle Girls: Buzzer Rag

17. Women In Ragtime - Fluffy Ruffle Girls: Piffle Rag

18. Women In Ragtime - Fluffy Ruffle Girls: Hoosier Rag

19. Women In Ragtime - Fluffy Ruffle Girls: Dish Rag

20. Women In Ragtime - Fluffy Ruffle Girls: Judy's Rag

See all 23 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A valuable addition in a rare niche, July 27, 2009

By 

Interested Observer (Battle Creek, MI) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fluffy Ruffle Girls (Audio CD)

A very good recording of rarely recorded works and I glad to have it. It is good for people like me who are not ragtime fanatics but do want to dig a little deeper into the era than another round of Scott Joplin. It has the benefits of modern technology (clean sound) and deficits of generic pianism (played as if for a formal recital, or even a contest jury, without even a whiff of the sporting house origins of the genre). I prefer the middle of the road, technically clean but leaning away from the studio and the concert hall, as represented by Richard Zimmerman, Sue Keller and Perfessor Bill. There are some others who inject more "flavor", speed and a really rinky tink instrument as well to come off like authentic era mechanical pianos but are still fun to have around.

My bone to pick with Virginia Eskin is her wearing a feminist revisionist agenda on her sleeve (and her front, back and forehead as well it appears). It is admirable to give exposure to a worthy body of neglected work, the approximate cream of ragtime written by women, when few are aware that such works ever existed. (I might venture that to the general public today ragtime itself consists of little more than the soundtrack of "The Sting", if that.) It is another to assert that these works are actually superior to the entire body of ragtime music composed by men with the single exception of Joseph Lamb. In the notes to her "American Beauties" CD she makes the incredible statement that until she heard Lamb she had been under the impression that all the good ragtime had been written by women! Considering Joplin's well known work with over a dozen solid masterpieces of the genre it is simply an astounding statement. If she wants to dismiss the vast body of mass-produced sludge, most of it attributable to men, that flooded the market during the ragtime era I would join her (and you can see a bunch of it yourself. If she wants to dismiss James Scott I might understand. His works are the most vigorous of the big three, more difficult than Joplin, and he deserves his spot among the top three men of the era but I find them superficial, collectively one-dimensional, and even mechanical (ideal for the piano roll, I have that CD for comparison) by comparison. They lack the depth and breadth found in Joplin and Lamb, especially the wide range of moods and styles found in Joplin. But she cannot reasonably dismiss Scott Joplin except as an act of pure idiosyncrasy or chip-on-shoulder provocation.

If you are interested in more along this line, check out Nora Hulse (http://www.nora.hulse.com). She has several CD's, and printed music to go with it, out with the purpose of getting any and all ragtime by women into the sunlight where it can stand on its own merit without invoking a gender war.

1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a compilation of originals. Merely a covers album., October 6, 2008

By 

alainsane (U.S. Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fluffy Ruffle Girls (Audio CD)

After reading the song authors' biographical information in the CD insert, I was disappointed to find that this CD is not a collection of old ragtime recordings but simply a collection of modernly recorded and produced ragtime covers. The production is too slick for me. Instead, I wish it had been a collection of crackly originals from some wax cylinders.