Cake Walks and Classic Rags (+Online Audio)

Ragtime is in many ways the quintessential American music. It arrived at the turn of the last century with many transitions, notably the discovery of the means to record sound, and the determination of Afro-Americans of genius to be appreciated as artists. The music we call ragtime represents not only a moment of great anticipation (as the advent of jazz was on hand) but also of fulfillment. There are perhaps, 200 classic ragtime pieces that represent a corpus of extraordinary beauty - some of the most straightforward, melodious, and out and out joyful music that there ever was. In the early 1960s guitar players started to tackle arranging this music. David Laibman and Dave Van Ronk were in the vanguard of this movement. Van Ronks arrangement of St. Louis Tickle became a rite of passage for fingerstyle guitarists. Laibmans arrangements of Scott Joplins classic rags amazed and challenged the fingerpickers from coast to coast and across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. By the 1970s other guitarists tried their skills playing ragtime. In the last fifty years this pursuit has carried on. This collection presents eight outstanding guitarists and their approaches to arranging and playing cake walks and classic rags. Tackling the material in this collection will greatly help your development and mastery of the fretboard and what Rev. Gary Davis called your six-string piano. Both your hands will get a complete aerobic workout! An audio download link is included with performances of each title. 1. Rémi Balsacq 2. After the Cakewalk 3. Cotton Bolls 4. The Sun Do Move 5. Walkin On De Rainbow Road 6. Steve McWilliam 7. Peaches And Cream 8. Steven Hicks 9. Temptation Rag 10. Kinklets A Ragtime Two Step 11. Carries Gone to Kansas City 12. Cracked Ice Rag 13. Dorian Henry 14. Alabama Peach Carnival 15. Columbia Rag 16. Echoes From The Snowball Club 17. International Cake Walk 18. Lasse Johansson 19. Junk Man Rag 20. Russian Rag 21. Dick Fegy 22. Bowery Buck 23. Kismet Rag 24. Leo Wijnkamp 25. Hilarity Rag 26. The Sycamore A Concert Rag 27. David Laibman 28. Gladiolus Rag 29. Magnetic Rag 30. Ethiopia Rag 31. Ragtime Nightingale 32. Contentment Rag 33. Pleasant Moment Ragtime Waltz 34. Ragtime Oriole