Customer Reviews

Living a Ragtime Life

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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.

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.

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.