Through more than three decades of recordings, we’ve come to expect excellence from Rick Benjamin’s Paragon Ragtime Orchestra. Even with that history in mind, this new CD is breathtaking. Every aspect of the performances—the technical playing, tone quality, balance, and even such momentary subtleties as a flashing passage from the piccolo or flute or a brief smear from the trombone – contributes to an exceptional result.
Unlike previous CDs released by PRO, such as those that focus on particular composers or performers like Irving Berlin, George M. Cohan, Joe Jordan, or more generally on Black Manhattan, this one is not built upon any single theme; rather, it is an assortment of rags, blues, and other musical types from the ragtime years.
Of the twenty-five selections, perhaps half are clearly rags or blues. Of these, some are by such notables as Scott Joplin (Cascades, in a new orchestration by Rick Benjamin), James Scott (Hilarity Rag), W. C. Handy (Beale Street and Yellow Dog), and Harry P. Guy (the ragtime waltz Echoes of the Snowball Club).
However, there are also a few writers rarely encountered, like Hubert Bauersachs, a well-known classical violinist and composer of the period who self-published two rags in 1922, one being the CD’s title piece, Deuces Wild. As for the non-rags included, we hear gems from such great composers as Jerome Kern (The Siren’s Song, and
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