Living a Ragtime Life

Max Morath | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 2, 1994)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Solo Art
• ASIN: B00005Y90Y
• Also Available in: Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #375,415 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Maple Leaf Rag

2. Grace and Beauty

3. The Easy Winners [A Ragtime Two Step]

4. The Charleston Rag

5. Solace (A Mexican Serenade)

6. Kitten on the Keys

7. Living a Ragtime Life

8. Saloon, Saloon, Saloon

9. At the Drugstore Cabaret

10. Willie the Weeper

11. If You Don't Have Any Money

12. When It's All Goin' Out

13. Ain't That a Shame

14. He Goes to Church on Sunday

15. One for the Road

16. Cottontail Rag

17. Everything in America Is Ragtime

18. I Love a Piano/Cannonball Rag

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Living the ragtime life, March 31, 2004

By 

Richard D. Elder (Durango, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living a Ragtime Life (Audio CD)

Max Morath displays his versatility and outstanding ragtime piano technique in this album. The instrumentals sparkle and the vocals are totally in sinc with the period in which these songs were first perfromed. When it comes to playing ragtime piano, Morath has no living equal. I have listened to this tape dozens of times and never tire of it. I have seen Morath in person and his stage persona is such that you leave the theater thinking, Wow, that was some piano playing.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great piano, Less Wonderful Singing, March 25, 2008

By 

D. Bakish "ProfDave" (New York City and Tucson, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Living a Ragtime Life (Audio CD)

Max Morath here shows great chops in his piano playing on some of the fine ragtime compositions by Scott Joplin (Maple Leaf Rag and The Easy Winners), James Scott (Grace and Beauty), Joseph Lamb (Cottontail Rag), and Zez Confrey (Kitten on the Keys). His vocals, however, interrupt the flow in a way that probably is effective in a stage performance but not in the context of the surrounding rag piano pieces, and his voice is not all that great. The humorous vocals might have worked better on a totally separate recording: some are actually good, like "If You Don't Have Any Money" (don't bother coming around) and "He Goes to Church on Sunday" (but is a hell-raiser the rest of the time, loosely translated). His vocal working of Hughie Cannon's "Bill Bailey" and Irving Berlin's "I Love a Piano" just don't work well away from a stage and a live audience.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Living a Ragtime Life, January 13, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Living a Ragtime Life (Audio CD)

Every other Max Morath recording I've listened to is simply wonderful, and this one was very disappointing. Some of the same songs that were wonderful to listen to before are now done completely differently and aren't nearly as good.