Frontiers

(with Scott Kirby and Frank French, Pianomania Music Publishing, Roseville, CA, 1994 - CD)

Status: Available at JazzByMail

Track Listing & Liner Notes for DTR-played pieces

  1. Washington County Breakdown (By David Thomas Roberts (1992), Pianist David Thomas Roberts) The country breakdown and folk ragtime's identity contribute much to this evocation of the eastern Missouri Ozarks. There is no more personal testament to the composer's obsession with terrain and the visionary life it makes possible than this piece.
  2. Columbine (By Scott Kirby, Pianist Scott Kirby)
  3. Bucktown Buck (By Frank French, Pianist Frank French)
  4. For Robin Holtz Williams (By David Thomas Roberts (1993), Pianist David Thomas Roberts) Written for a pianist near New Orleans, this piece mainly reflects the romantic roots of the composer's ragtime language, though folkish touches can be found, especially in the first strain.
  5. The Banjo (By Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Pianist Frank French)
  6. Searchlight Rag (By Scott Joplin, Pianist Scott Kirby)
  7. Fontainebleau Drive (From New Orleans Streets (1981-1985) by David Thomas Roberts, Pianist David Thomas Roberts) Fountainebleau Drive is the shortest - and perhaps the most placid - section of the large-scale New Orleans Streets piano suite, sporting the influences of Ragtime, Romanticism, Jazz, Latin American Music, Hymns, early Rock 'n Roll and Mediterranean material.
  8. La Cumbia (By Frank French, Pianist Frank French)
  9. Pineapple Rag (By Scott Joplin, Pianist Scott Kirby)
  10. Kansas City Stomps (By Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, Pianist David Thomas Roberts) The New Orleans jazz pioneer Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton looms as an important figure in contemporary New World piano circles partly because of his Latin influences and incorporation of Romantic traits into a rhythmically propulsive language. The hard-driving Kansas City Stomps was named for a bar in Tijuana where Morton spent time in his earlier years.
  11. Paramount Rag (By James Scott, Pianist Frank French)
  12. The Alaskan Rag (By Joseph Lamb, Pianist Scott Kirby)
  13. Myosotis (By Ernesto Nazareth, Pianist David Thomas Roberts) Ernesto Nazareth (1863-1934) was Brazil's great tango pioneer and a central figure in New World piano music, past and present. The lovely Myosotis (translated Forget-Me-Not), demonstrates that his tango writing was fully developed by the time ragtime was first published.
  14. Original Rags (By Scott Joplin, Arranged by Ferdinand Morton, Pianist Frank French)
  15. Gladiolus Rag (By Scott Joplin, Pianist David Thomas Roberts) No other work embodies the genius of Scott Joplin quite so thoroughly as Gladiolus. While clearly descended from both Maple Leaf Rag and Leola, it embraces territory well beyond the scope of any ragtime composition preceding it. From the Joplinesque mingling of the playful and the plaintive in the first two strains, to the harmonic ingenuity and American lyricism of the trio, to the unrestrained foment and poignance of the finale, Gladiolus crystallizes the workings of one of American music's most haunting minds.
  16. Troubadour Rag (By James Scott, Pianist Frank French)
  17. 4th of July Medley (Traditional, arranged by Scott Kirby, Pianist Scott Kirby)

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