Customer Reviews

Ragtime Women

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Not all the little girls studying piano at the turn of the century played "In a Rose Garden." This was the first, and perhaps only, tribute to the female composers of the ragtime era. Many of them had interesting lives to go with their interesting music. May Aufderheide in particular deserves an entire album to herself. Highly recommended for ragtime fans, and thanks to Max Morath for resurrecting these neglected gems.

This CD is great ragtime with typical Max Morath flawless technique. His piano dominates the CD with some nice passages by the quintet as well. He plays very interesting rags on this CD.

If you are into ragtime at all, you are very likely to enjoy this album. On it, as the title implies, Max Morath plays rags written by women, many of them Scott Joplin's contemporaries. Max Morath is a sensitive and highly capable interpreter of classic rags. For some reason not clear, Morath decided to include a guitarist and a cello player on this date. (?) No matter; it's a minor distraction. Most of these rags are very good. Some of them, I now realize, turn up on later dixieland recordings by musicians like Bunk Johnson, suggesting that other musicians thought highly of these rags. As well they might.

Max Morath was much more than a premier ragtime piano man, he was ragtime's leading connoseur and historian. Well-known for his stage shows and his zippy patter on other albums ("Max Morath"; "Oh, Play That Thing!") 'Ragtime Women' leaves the commentary to a fine set of liner notes that Max penned. Max Morath's mother was a well-known movie theater piano player during the 'silent movie' era so Max came early to his appreciation of piano women. As a musicologist, he has carefully selected items to showcase quality composition that he found both entertaining and interesting to play. One result is that each of these pieces stands apart from the others and the total project represents a listenable variety of ragtime styles. Featured composers include Julia Niebergall (Red Rambler Rag and Hoosier Rag,) Gladys Yelvington (Piffle Rag), Muriel Pollack (Rooster Rag), May Alfderheide (The Thriller,') Mable Tilton ('That Sentimental Rag',)and the very early rag, 'X-N-Tric Two-Step Characteristic' (1899) by Louise V. Gustin. In all, there are ten selections here and all are delightful. The only 'tribute' rag here is Kathy Craig's composition, 'Romantic Rag' from 1976, which ably demonstrates that the old form could inspire new life. Not really 'oddities,' these selections sold tens and even hundreds of thousands of copies of sheet music apiece.

The 'Ragtime Quartet' featured on only a few of the cuts is composed of Max Morath, Ruth Alsop, Allen Hanlon, Lynn Milano and Remo Palmier. These are serious musicians with serious credentials as performers and as academics. The extra instruments make for a special night of ragtime: this set provides more than a rolling piano in its tones and timbres. The end result is that music lovers of a variety of stripes will enjoy the results.