Customer Reviews

James Scott: The Complete Works 1903-1922

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been waiting for more than twenty years for this recording. I first heard James Scott's works in the 1970's, and hoped that there would be a "complete works" recording. So, I am very glad this has finally happened. First, let me say what I like about this recording.

1) It covers all of Scott's compositions (at least the ones we know of, and that are completely by him).

2) The notes that come with the recording are very well done and interesting.

3) The discs themselves are quite attractive (much effort went into this whole endeavor to give it a complete and consistent look and feel).

4) The sound on the recordings is very good.

Now my qualms. I tend to agree with the review that felt Mr. Nielsen's range of expressiveness is too limited. After hearing these pieces played by others (recorded and live), it seems that the pianist here simply has come up with a rather rigid formula for interpreting Scott's rags (the songs and waltzes are allowed a bit more freedom). For some of these rags, this jaunty, rather chipper style works well. For others (I'm thinking particularly of the Troubadour Rag and "Modesty" here - both of which have received richer, more nuanced recordings elsewhere), it doesn't. While Scott is clearly not as varied and subtle a composer as Joplin or Lamb (there is no frequent thread of melancholy, striving for innovation, or a sense of the "outsider looking in" quality I find in much Joplin and some Lamb), his later works allow for much more variety of interpretation than we get here. Sometimes, especially on the second disc, it sounds uncomfortably like a player-piano.

So, I would recommend this to anyone wanting to learn more of the core Classic Ragtime literature, but I hope that other recordings will eventually be made to explore this repertoire from a slightly more nuanced perspective.

Wow! That's it. Wow! This is a REMARKABLE two-CD set collecting the complete works (rags, waltzes, and songs) of James Scott--except for "Calliope Rag" which has been attributed to Scott (and Bob Darch who supposedly finished the piece from an incomplete manuscript). Others here have likened Guido Nielsen's interpretation of Scott's music with the legendary recordings Joshua Rifkin made of Scott Joplin in the 1970s, and that's certainly appropriate. James Scott has been ignored by those recording ragtime for too long, possibly because his pieces are so difficult to play (I play a few of them myself). Guido Nielsen plays these rags so gracefully! He plays the music as written (no embellishments), and proves that the pieces have plenty of pep and richness on their own. This is exciting ragtime music, played in concert style on a full-sounding piano, NOT some rinky-tink out-of-tune bar room piany. The accompanying booklet is worth the price alone. Its 36 pages are printed in full-color with the most extensive liner notes I have ever seen for a two-CD set (many thanks to Mr. Galen Wilkes!) We get the most complete biography of Scott available today, and detailed commentaries on each piece, along with a healthy dose of color reproductions of original sheet music covers. This entire production is top-notch, obviously a labor of love. Anyone with an interest in ragtime, early jazz, or classical music (and YES, I would consider this a type of classical music) should have this set. I can't begin to fathom the work that went into the production of this set, and I am extremely grateful to those involved for such an amazing tribute to James Scott that is long overdue.

James Scott seemed almost like a rumor . . . you could read about the legend in They All Played Ragtime and subsequent histories of the genre, and you could hear piano rolls (not even made by Scott himself) and even an occasional recording on a miscellaneous ragtime collection . . . but it just didn't seem possible to get an adequate overview of the man's works.

Until now. Guido Nielsen has performed a huge favor for fans of classic ragtime by recording the complete works of this important but neglected composer. The sound is great, the playing is invigorating, idiomatic, and first-rate, and the liner notes are an ample and informative bonus. You simply couldn't ask for a more ideal tribute to this marvelous composer. If you love the great recordings of Joplin's music, this two-disc set should be an automatic purchase.

No, Scott isn't *as* great or original a figure as Joplin, but his work is distinctive--typically livelier and more virtuostic than Joplin's. Scott tossed off such fare as the Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies while still a teenager, and his principal devotion was to the extroverted style of "The Maple Leaf Rag" rather than to that of Joplin's later, more subtle and refined works (e.g., "Gladiolus Rag", "Solace", "Magnetic Rag"). But Scott does have his intimate moments . . . and unerring taste.

Like Joplin and Lamb, Scott's genius seemed perfectly suited to the strict ragtime form, even if in his later works Scott tends to favor three rather than the typical four strains. At least half a dozen of his rags--"Frog Legs", "Grace and Beauty", "The Ragtime Betty", "Quality", "Troubador", and "Broadway"--rank with the very best (and heaviest!) ever written. (Every Scott fan will probably want to add a few more to the list . . .)

Nielsen's set gives us a rare opportunity to appraise the total achievement of an undeservedly neglected figure who will remain of permanent interest to fans (and historians) of American music. Bravo!

I've been playing this music since the revival began circa 1970 with Joshua Rifkin's Nonesuch recordings, and it would later become an integral part of my music studies as I pursued a PhD. From a performance standpoint, I have to say that I'm disappointed. To my ear, Mr. Nielsen plays the notes, but that's about it. His playing reminds me of the technically proficient students who majored in piano performance and could knock out Chopin and Mozart with their eyes closed but couldn't master the performance subtleties of ragtime.

Bottom line: The playing just doesn't swing. To be fair, I come from a school of thought that believes these itinerant composers took their work seriously as compositions but played them with greater syncopated vigor than what I'm hearing in this recording. You can play those 8th and 16th notes literally and be perfect, or you can give them the triplet jazz feel that lifts them from the page to make you tap your feet. It's especially a disappointment with Mr. Scott's music as he was undoubtedly the best performer of the classic ragtime trinity and there's no way he couldn't have been exposed to the budding jazz music that was happening all around him. Surely, he didn't intend these pieces to sound like a march.

Compare Mr. Nielsen's performaces, for instance, of "Efficiency Rag" and "New Era Rag" to William Bolcom's from his now out-of-print Nonesuch recording of rags by James Scott and Artie Matthews. Bolcom's performances literally crackle with energy and brilliance; Scott's writing often calls for that kind of vigorous performance. Nielsen falls painfully short. Perhaps the difference is that one person is playing the notes, the other is making music.

The same comparison is even more grating with the more down-tempo numbers, the Troubador and Modesty rags. Bolcom's performances are rich, shaded, dynamic. Again, Nielsen just sounds like he's playing the notes and little else.

That's harsh, I realize, but either you have it in your fingers or you don't. With Mr. Nielsen, I feel like I'm watching a silent movie; with Mr. Bolcom (Max Morath is another who comes to mind), I feel like I'm listening to a real performance. Nonesuch would do well to re-release Bolcom's ragtime recordings on disc (including the wonderful Heliotrope Bouquet LP).

That said, this is still a valuable recording for any ragtime aficionado's collection. The extensive liner notes are matched only by the bountiful photos of the period, including sheet music covers with their rich color artwork. Scott is vastly underrated by scholars and fans and sorely underrepresented by recording artists. Anyone willing to undertake his entire output deserves credit and for that, a tip of the cap to Mr. Nielsen. One wishes he could've sounded more athletic and less clinical.

This album is SUBLIME! The packaging and liner notes are worth the price alone. Amazing care went into the presentation of this fantastic cd. Some of you know how difficult it can be to find any recordings of James Scott's music. There are those few records where one or two tunes are padded on a mostly Scott Joplin record, or some gimmick-laden jug band version... Let me tell you...file those old vinyl copies in your record bin... this is all you need. The playing by Mr. Guido Nielsen is spot-on (just the right touch, not too fast, nor acrobatic)...the production is fantastic and true (no heavily reverbed digital piano on here)... It's about time this man's music was given it's due respect and celebration, and this cd does that. In a perfect world the creators of this record would be walking down the street with bags full of money and grammys stuffed in their pockets. It might appear that Im a bit over-excited...it's because this album is that good!

I play most of Scott myself and I realised pretty soon that his music cannot be approached in the same way as Joplin's. His accomplished keyboard style inclines people to go flat out as if they were playing a sort of syncopated Liszt study. While this is good fun it fails to transmit his musical personality which, in my opinion, combines earnest energy with endearing naivety. After a while you realise that the trick is to take a light approach, even if the writing is heavy. Take this too far though, and you lose the energy, not far enough and you lose his lyricism in a blur of notes - it's a delicate balance.

The first thing that impressed me was how well Mr Neilsen achieves this important balance. The life force in Scott's music is evident in abundance but there is never any of the heavy-handed thumping sometimes brought to bear on these rags by technically good players. He varies the tempo interestingly from piece to piece and his accents catch the ear. The piano sound is full and clear but never overwhelms with a lot of noise and pedal, which fault is a sure way to kill Scott.

While the Scott rags are not really hard piano music in the strictly physical sense, they do have, in places, a certain mild awkwardness under the hand which is difficult to describe in words. To play them well it is necessary to accommodate this awkwardness musically and with rhythmic fluency; again, this is something Mr Neilsen does very well indeed.

The liner notes are among the best I have read for any CD, with copious and interesting discussion of each rag and of Scott's music and life.

Speaking as one who has played these pieces for many years, this CD gives me much to think about and learn from.

The legacy of pre-jazz piano superstar Scott Joplin looms so large over the history of ragtime music that it is often difficult to imagine or recall that he had contemporaries, and even comptetitors of note. Foremost among those was a Missourian named James Sylvester Scott, whose heyday in the Kansas City nightclub scene roughly coincided with that of Scott Joplin. This is an outstanding 2-CD set which collects all of Scott's known works, ably performed by ragtime revivalist Guido Nielsen. This recording is a real gift to modern listeners: like Joshua Rifkin's groundbreaking renditions of Joplin's classic compositions, these deft, well-recorded modern performances bring this antique pop style back from the musty confines of museums and mechanical piano rolls to infuse it with the liveliness, warmth and humor it had back at the turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries. You'll find yourself listening to these discs over and over, enchanted by the beautiful, engaging, richly melodic performances. Definitely recommended.

First of all, for those of you who care to not read my incessant blabber, I'll give you my review put short and sweet: GO BUY IT.

And now, for the incessant blabber..
Finally, someone has recorded the complete works of James Scott! For those of you who don't know, James Scott was a composer of classic ragtime (like Joseph Lamb and Scott Joplin); of those three, however, he has remained the least appreciated to date. This recording has opened a lot of people's eyes to the underrated value of James Scott's music. It is rich harmonically, structurally and really in every way solo piano music can be rich. It's also very diverse, displaying a wide range of musical concepts and feelings.

Now that I've explained that, I'll review this recording. Guido Nielsen plays these pieces to the best of my knowledge as written; he plays them smoothly and not too fastly, but certainly not lacking musical power and energy. However, in this recording, Nielsen lets the melodies, chords, rhythms and every other aspect of these pieces be that power and energy, instead of making his own embellishments on these works. Like I said at first; GO BUY IT. NOW.

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of James Scott's piano music as recorded by Guido Nielsen. For one thing, for too many years Scott's music has been very difficult to come by, other than the one tune or two stuck into a collection with other composers. This recording is, I believe, the first attempt to produce a collection of all of Scott's known piano compositions. Considering that "Joplin/Scott/Lamb" is to ragtime what "the three B's" are to classical music, it's about time.

Reading through the reviews of various ragtime recordings,
they seem to fall into one of two general categories.

Either:

1) "This guy races around all over the place,
adds too many embellishments, ignores the
composer's intent, and just doesn't
understand ragtime!"

or

2) "This guy slavishly sticks to the score like
it was Bach; has no feeling; no life; and
obviously he just doesn't understand ragtime!"

Well.

After years of studying, playing, composing, and performing ragtime one thing I can say is that ragtime is nothing if not flexible. It lends itself both to Joshua Rifkin-style classical interpretation, and to Dave Jason semi-improvisational interpretation. Neither approach is going to please everybody, and at some point you just have to draw the line, buy the recording, listen to the music, and decide for yourself.

The pieces on this recording are carefully and tastefully performed with, I believe, a serious and respectful desire to execute them as the composer intended. Tempos range from lively without being breakneck, to restrained without being somnolent (as a few of the Rifkin recordings are... Phrasing flows with the rich melodic content, and supporting voices are clearly discernable.

Sure, a few of the tunes could have benefited from a more brisk, embellished treatment. But for a comprehensive first recording I personally feel that it's more important to get "what the composer said" out there, first. Once people have a chance to hear what the composer wrote, then they can take it and make new, more personally interpretive recordings as they deem appropriate.

If you're not familiar with the works of James Scott, this collection is as good an introduction as any. And if you are familiar with his work, this is a very handy package containing all of it (that we know of) on two disks. Here is music every bit as inventive as Joplin's, and yet very different in character. Mr. Nielsen clearly took the time to understand James Scott, and this recording will, I think, become a classic like the Rifkin recordings of Joplin.

Highly recommended.