Pianophilia

Here are the last of the Eric Plessow compositions of which I'm aware....two novelty piano solos with 5 pieces each.

fhimpsl wrote:The following pieces by pianist Malcolm "Johnny" Johnson are posted in honor of Luigi Ranalli in appreciation of his wonderful piano roll transcription of Les Copeland's "Invitation Rag."

Dear Frank,
these Johnny Johnson pieces are great!! I especially enjoyed "Piano Oil" (and even liked the cover)! Thanks!!!
On Olson, it would be very interesting if there was a connection between the two Olsons...i must try to find it out.
I really enjoyed the Plessow novelties! I only had three of them and it's been great to download these "new" pieces

fhimpsl wrote:Glad also that you liked the sheet of "Morocco Blues." Yes I've heard the Golden Reunion LP, and certainly Joe Jordan was all about ragtime, not the blues!.

Yes, even Joe Jordan himself admitted it. Anyway I really like him and, although we both know these recordings very well, I thought that somebody else here may be interested in listening to Jordan play the "Morocco Blues" (I see that a good number of people downloaded the previous mp3s, so I'm incouraged to add some others).
So here I post another unpublished manuscript by Joe Jordan, entitled "Constantinople Fox-Trot", whose first page has been partly typeset and featuring a seconbd strain that is identical to the second strain of another Jordan rag, "J.J.J. Rag".
Then I post the interview of Joe Jordan telling Bob Darch about the "Morocco Blues" in 1960, the Joe Jordan piano solo from that recording session (Golden Reunion in Ragtime, no.2 - the radio show), then two early recordings of "Morocco Blues" from the 1920s played by Joe Jordan with two bands he directed: in one of the two recordings you can hear a dialogue between Joe Jordan and Clarence Williams; in both recordings Joe Jordan plays piano solos.
I hope the stuff is interesting. Joe Jordan was one of the great ragtime piano players.
Best
Luigi

Thanks Luigi,
This is excellent material and much appreciated.

For the Plessow, I agree - although Frank described him as a prolific composer, I only had two of his pieces and have been looking (rather inactively, admittedly) for years for more of his work.
Frank Froeba is another mystery man - I only have "Churchmouse On a Spree" - but apparently he also wrote many others.

Frank's current deluge (and promises of more) is pure gold and your transcriptions and mp3s fill out the treasure chest perfectly.

I'll happily post any gaps I can fill - but I haven't come across any gaps yet!
I must defer to superior collections.


Thanks again.
tobyjj

Dear Luigi,

Thanks for the excellent historical overview of Joe Jordan in regard to his "Morocco Blues." I must confess that I've never seen the score to his "Constantinople Fox Trot" or heard his recordings of "Morocco Blues." Excellent material!! And we all owe a debt of gratitude to "Ragtime Bob" Darch for his foresight (all those years ago) to bring Joe Jordan, Charley Thompson and Eubie Blake together for a grand concert/interview. Some priceless information came from that session!

All Best,

Frank

Dear Frank,
I'm also very grateful to Bob Darch for that invaluable document!
Too bad that most of the pieces recorded by Joe Jordan in that session were his songs and not his ragtime piano solos.
I'm re-thinking to what you wrote about Kortlander and that he seemed to be more interested in his famous songs than his less commercial rags. Maybe it was the same for Jordan...
Anyway I've heard of a videotape featuring an old Joe Jordan playing piano and it seems that the piece was his "Darkey Todalo"...I don't know if that's true.

Dear Tobyjj,
I'm glad you enoyed the recordings! I'll post some more soon and I'm happy there's interest in the playing of these ragtime musicians!
I must admit I'm not familiar with the music of Frank Froeba...
I only know him as co-composer of "Jumpin' Jive", because I'm a Cab Calloway fan.

I post some other unpublished rags by Joe Jordan. Of these, one has been typeset (maybe by Johnny Maddox, but I'm not sure) and it's "Corsica - That French Rag".
The great Johnny Maddox, who was a friend of Joe Jordan, recorded the "Corsica Rag" (just the trio part, the nice part of the piece) and Jordan's famous "That' Teasin' Rag" in a couple of discs.
He also performs the two rags in medley, like you can see in this video that I posted on YouTube some days ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6tFOZ7AFfU
By the way, Johnny Maddox's version of "That Teasin' Rag" is my very favorite (even in comparison with the one played by Joe Jordan & Eubie Blake)!
The other manuscripts I attach are "Bojangles" that is just an alternate title for "Constantinople Fox-Trot" and the music is identical, then "Whip'Poor'Will Dance" and "Defender".
I hope you find the music interesting!
Luigi

tobyjj wrote: Frank Froeba is another mystery man - I only have "Churchmouse On a Spree" - but apparently he also wrote many others.
tobyjj

..by the way, I've looked for Frank Froeba, whom I didn't actually know apart from composing a song with Cab Calloway, and found a couple of Youtube videos featuring his piano music...WOW! That's the kind of pianist I like!
Thanks for mentioning it, Tobyjj! I'll buy some discs of this guy. I thought he must have sounded "modern" to my ear, but he actually played ragtime I see...
If you have this "Churchmouse On a Spree" that he composed, would you please post it on Pianophilia when you have time?
Thanks
Luigi

Hi Luigi,
Here you are - I suspect that this is not one of his best pieces, but that could just be the way I play it!

Regards,
tobyjj

Dear Tobyjj,
thank you very much for this piano solo by Frank Froeba: it sounds interesting and I'll try to find something of this musician.
Since you're interested in the recordings (and I'm very glad you are!), I want to post this piano solo by Duke Ellington, "Swampy River".
Frank kindly posted the sheet music of this piece some time ago and I didn't know that existed before.
I was surprised to see how faithful the score was to the recording by Ellington. A rare gem! Thanks again, Frank!!!
So here's the recording, that is my favorite Ellington piano solo together with his "Soda Fountain Rag", the first piece he had composed (around 1914).
So I also include the Ellington recording of this piece, from a radio show of the 1930s.
Ellington played parts of this piece in several occasions, like in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3cx0unEr_c
He even included it in his recording of "Oklahoma Stomp" with his famous orchestra.
Enjoy!
Luigi

Dear Luigi (and Tobyjj too!),

Many thanks for the Ellington "Soda Fountain Rag" recording!! I've never heard it before, and thought it only existed as a manuscript (which I've also never seen). The tune was recorded back in the 1970s by pianist Brooks Kerr, along with a host of other Ellington piano pieces. Ellington's version is incredibly hot!

Since you both like Frank Froeba, I went down into the stacks and uncovered a folio of his compositions, along with another published version of "Church Mouse On A Spree." I think Froeba recorded 78rpms in the 1940s...seem to remember having an album of his, but right now my 78s are completely inaccessible.

Also for Luigi...I found another Alex Hill song I thought you might like.

All Best,

Frank

........more syncopated odds and ends...... )