Adam Swanson introduces his new release Ragtime Australia! Twenty never before recorded works by Australian composers of the ragtime era (1902-1943) as if it was simply an opportunity that presented itself, a little side project so to speak. He is being far too modest. Despite being a download-only affair, a lot of work went into this album. The liner notes, in PDF form, would run to 16 pages printed as a booklet.
Those notes detail the where and why. The project was inspired by Adam’s tour of Australia in 2018, and made possible by his friendship with Michael Mathew, of Melbourne, the sorcerer behind the online Ragtime Compendium. Along with David Beattie of New South Wales, Mathew provided the scores that make up this album. Certain parameters were set, the presentation is simple and almost entirely as written aside from “filling in left hand patterns or adding a repeat occasionally.” The focus is kept to the original ragtimers and novelty artists, excluding those Australian revivalists that came along a bit later.
Using the grand piano at his parent’s house Swanson had hoped only to make a standard presentation of these unheard works so that his fellow musicians might adopt them into their repertoires. They are presented chronologically without regard to overall balance as an album. He chose the twenty he deemed best, or most critical, out of forty selections at hand. Whi
