Customer Reviews

Memories of You

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

 

 

Eubie Blake was the best of the Ragtime Jazz piano players and this disc is a gem. Dead since long before Digital Compact Discs, this Eubie Blake recording was recorded digitally, mixed digitally, and released digitally. How? They were all taken from piano rolls Eubie Blake cut in his prime. If you think about it, piano rolls were the first digital recordings.

This disc includes Blake's famous Charleston Rag and the song he is best remembered for I'm Just Wild About Harry. However, the stand out highlight is his own interpretation of my favourite standard Memories Of You. He starts it out straight, as a ballad, but halfway through he gives it the Eubie Ragtime Jazz treatment. A real joy to behold.

Now if only somebody would be smart enough to re-release The 86 Years of Eubie Blake, I'd be a happy man. Are you listening, Sony?

This is one of the best recordings of straight-ahead ragtime around. Eubie Blake rivals Scott Joplin, James Scott, and Joe Lamb as one of the original American ragtimers. The recording is fine: original piano roll techne realized on a 1910 Steinway player piano, and recorded with DDD. The tracks are classic rags.

A little confusion on Amazon's listing, however: the label is not Sony, but Biograph--which also issued great piano roll tracks by James Scott, Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, and James Johnson. All highly recommended.

Eubie Blake recorded most of these piano rolls right before jazz emerged and ragtime fell back out of fashion. The sound is clangy and not very attractive, but gives some approximation of his style. For more sophisticated sound of recording pianos I suggest you consider the Pierian CDs. Both the Granados and the Debussy are superior reproduction to most of these things.

Eubie Blake lived a long full life, and made many regular recordings, so listeners are not limited to just the ersatz sound of piano rolls. While the selection of titles on this CD is first rate, the sound of the piano roll reproduction is too limiting to award it a top rating.