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Halley's Comet: Around the Piano with Mark Twain & John Davis

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If you are a fan of Mark Twain - or just the Gilded Age - you will be enchanted by Halley's Comet: Around the Piano with Mark Twain. (Twain was born in 1835, the year Halley's comet scored its way across the sky; he died in 1910, the year of the comet's return.) John Davis is a concert pianist and a master at dusting off and performing the works of forgotten piano geniuses like Thomas Wiggins and John "Blind" Boone. Here, he presents a compendium of classics enjoyed by Twain and inspired by him. Halley's Comet is a great find for fans of both music and the spoken work, not only due to Davis's brilliant musicianship, but because he includes quotations from, and about Twain and music. Each song is introduced with an excerpt from a novel, letter or other source commenting about Twain's love or in the case of the banjo -- his detestation -- of music. (He wasn't particularly fond of the accordion, either.)

Davis offers here a broad selection of works from the classic Victorian hymn "Nearer My God to Thee" to a Schubert impromptu. But an extra bonus in Halley's Comet comes from hearing some of the less familiar music in Twain's life. He was fascinated by the playing of "Blind" Thomas Wiggins, a former slave who was a brilliant performer and composer but whose bizarre stage behavior attracted Twain's attention. (Wiggins may have been autistic.) Davis, an expert in the life, times and music of Wiggins, presents on this CD the little-known Blind Tom compositions, "The Battle of Manassas" and "The Rain Storm," two tone poems popular during the late 19th century, but rarely performed today.

Don't miss this compilation: this year marks the 175th anniversary of Twain's birth - and there's not better way to celebrate than with Halley's Comet and John Davis.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens heard, and wrote, language as a kind of music. He played it (guitar, piano) and sang it (spirituals, jubilees) as well. How fitting that the admirable musical artist John Davis has given us this wonderful assortment of music that appealed to the soul of this greatest of all masters of American language. A luminous 175th birthday present you've created, John Davis--for Sam, and for us all.

This is John Davis's third CD of 19th century African-American pianists. In this one, he explores not only their music, with its prescience of ragtime, jazz, and Ives, but also their social context. To do this he gives voice to perhaps their biggest fan and the 19th century's greatest social commentator Mark Twain, who wrote as only Twain could about seeing and hearing them play many times. Twain's visceral narrative plays counterpoint and accompaniment to the music to create an interesting and delightful hour that can be listened to again and again.