Spirit of Ragtime

Various Artists - Jazz - New Orleans/Dixieland/Ragtime

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 19, 1998)
• Original Release Date: May 19, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Asv Living Era
• ASIN: B000006167
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #399,124 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Maple Leaf Rag - Scott Joplin

2. Temptation Rag - Arthur Pryor

3. Waiting for the Robert E. Lee

4. Tiger Rag - The Dixieland Ramblers

5. Carolina Shout - James P. Johnson

6. Snake Rag - King Oliver

7. Ragtime Oriole - Fred Van Eps

8. Alexander's Ragtime Band - Bessie Smith

9. Pearls - Jelly Roll Morton

10. Southern Rag

11. Weather Bird - Louis Armstrong

12. Numb Fumblin' - Fats Waller

13. Darktown Strutters' Ball - Jack Teagarden, Paul Whiteman Orchestra

14. Eccentric (That Eccentric Rag) - Muggsy Spanier & His Ragtime Band

15. Twelfth Street Rag - Fats Waller & His Rhythm

16. Thriller Rag - Bunk Johnson

17. Echoes of Spring - Willie "The Lion" Smith

18. Panama Rag - Kid Ory, Kid Ory's Creole Jazz Band

19. Tiger Rag - Art Tatum

20. Harlem Rag - Lu Watters

See all 25 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Hot Rag and Dixieland jazz, July 25, 2009

By	Annie Van Auken (Planet Earth) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

CONTENTS--
The two Scott Joplin tracks on ASV LIVING ERA's THE SPIRIT OF RAGTIME are clearly dubbed from an LP, perhaps a Nonesuch label disc issued in the wake of Paul Newman and Robert Redford in THE STING (1973).

Arthur Pryor's "Temptation Rag" is a marvelously clean 1910 record. (Trombonist Pryor left JP Sousa's band to form his own.)

Dolly Connally's "Rob't E. Lee" (from '12) may have a touch of filter added. Still clear, though. Dolly was wife of composer Percy Wenrich ("Put on Your Old Gray Bonnet" and "When You Wore a Tulip").

Original Dixieland Jass (sic) Band's 1918 "Tiger Rag" is the finest transcription I've heard of this waxing. (They're credited with the first-ever jazz record.)

James P. Johnson's "Carolina Shout" (1921) is equally clean and impressive. (Stride pioneer Johnson was Fats Waller's mentor.)

Louis Armstrong plays cornet on King Oliver's "Snake Rag" (1923) but doesn't solo.

Fred Van Eps' banjo version of "Ragtime Oriole" (1924) continues the pattern of remarkably clean transcriptions (Van Eps waxed early cylinders for Edison and others).

"Alexander's Ragtime Band" ('27) begins the miked recordings. Nice presence for Bessie Smith (and backup) on this pristine side.

Jelly Roll Morton's "The Pearls" ('27) has excellent low frequencies. Quinn Wilson (tuba) is a stand-out.

'Blind' Blake's "Southern Rag" ('27) is more quick-tempoed blues than ragtime.

'Fatha' Hines backing 'Satchmo' on "Weather Bird" (1928) remains a classic of the genre over 80 years after it was made. Superb dynamics here.

Fats Waller's contemplative solo piano "Numb Fumblin'" ('29) is supposedly an improv.

Paul Whiteman's "Darktown Strutters Ball" features Jack Teagarden's vocal. Impressive stand up bass can be heard on its lowest notes.

Crisp audio (especially on clarinet) highlights Muggsy Spanier's "Eccentric" ('39). (Spanier came out of Prohibition-era Chicago.)

Fidelity on Fats Waller's "Twelfth Street Rag" ('35) is wonderful.

Bunk Johnson's "Thriller Rag" ('40) was part of the New Orleans revival of the late 1930s-early '40s.

Interesting left hand stride technique on Willie 'Lion' Smith's "Echoes of Spring." (Smith's dad was Jewish, his mom Spanish, black and Mohawk Indian.)

Kid Ory was a jazz pioneer in the 1910s. Thirty years later he still performed works like "Panama Rag" ('44) as he had in New Orleans.

Art Tatum's virtuoistic "Tiger Rag" ('40) is a typically breathless piano solo.

Lu Watters was part of the West Coast Dixieland revival. "Harlem Rag" borders on hi-fi in its clarity.

Luckey Roberts (along with James P. Johnson) developed stride piano playing some time around 1919. "Music Box Rag" ('46) clearly illustrates Roberts' technique.

Tony Parenti was a native of the Big Easy but worked for decades in NYC. His "Swipesy Cakewalk" ('47) is pure Nawlins.

Another son of New Orleans, Mutt Carey toured vaudeville in the Teens. Mutt's "Joplin's Cakewalk" ('47) has the widest frequency range here.

"Maple Leaf Rag" ('39) by sax man Sidney Bechet closes the set. He was the earliest saxophone star and one of the first on record to solo above a band.

TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 72 minutes