Three Novelty Masters | Fred Elizalde, Carroll Gibbons, Rube Bloom play Novelty Piano

First off is British Dance Band Leader, Fred Elizalde playing his insane "Piantrope." What can I say, its pretty wicked awesome.
Carroll Gibbons, also a British Dance Band Leader playing his own fun piece, "Bubbling Over."
Finally, Rube Bloom playing his best-known piece "That Futuristic Rag" and it certianly sounds exactly what it looks like!
Enjoy!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Novelty
• piano
• ragtime
• fred
• elizalde
• rube
• bloom
• carroll
• gibbons
• pianotrope
• bubbling
• over
• that
• futuristic
• rag
• stride
• scott
• joplin
• zez
• confrey
• arthur
• schutt
• vincent
• johnson
• dance
• bands
• billy
• mayerl

[ppetracco]

Woah, crazy stuff!

[syncopeter]

Moonbeam(s) dance was another solo by Gibby. He recorded it both for HMV and Columbia. Both my copies broke when a head phone fell on them. Bubblin' over sure lives up to its name. Gibby is one of may fav pianists, I can listen to him all day.

[Huckabeezer]

A fascinating recording. I've already played it back at least 10 times! I'm particularly taken with Gibbons' solo here and I wonder if you have any other solo performances of his (or know of any)?

[KawhackitaRag]

Clarence M. Jones likewise had the same problem with on his Autograph recordings made by Marsh, and Sid Reinherz didn't fare too well for his early Gennett sides, although to be fair, the latter were acoustically recorded.

Speaking of Rube Bloom, you should really get "Ragtime: The Way It Was 1897-1958", a collection of great old recordings compiled by Dave Jasen and released as a 2-CD set on his own Archive Productions label circa 2000. It has take 2 of Futuristic Rag, with a wonderful coda!

[KawhackitaRag]

And by the way, the Rube Bloom thing is a really beautiful thing. This Okeh recording is one of the very best solo piano recordings I've ever heard made in the 1920s, referring to the recording quality. It almost sounds like a modern recording! I dearly wish EVERY 1920s piano record could have been this good, but sadly, that's not the case. Poor Jimmy Blythe had to put up with the crappy equipment at HARSH (Marsh) labs for his 1925 and '26 sides, although Vocalion finally got a good sound in '28

[KawhackitaRag]

Oh and P.S. if anyone asks what era I go for in my own playing, it's almost strictly 1915-1925 style playing, although I do try to learn earlier styles (it's hard!) and listen to later ones.

[KawhackitaRag]

and... FINALLY listening to Carroll Gibbons play (I'd hear OF him for years), I now understand where Alex Hassan gets a lot of his own style. When I first heard his excellent recording "Phantom Fingers", I loved it but didn't think he was playing authentically, since I was under the mistaken impression he was going for an early-to-mid 1920s style.

NOW I see that he is actually doing a 1930s style, not unlike what Peter Mintun does, and it sounds perfectly authentic and makes sense.

[KawhackitaRag]

I love the second theme of "Pianotrope". It's as if Elizalde got tired of all the flashy bits in the first, and wanted to write a contrasting pretty theme with lots of depth and feeling.

Well, he sure succeeded! Alex Hassan (I believe) wrote once that he hates how Elizalde is always changing tempos on his solo recordings.

Well, I don't mind... I think it makes him a much more relatable piano player! He is not afraid to bend or break convention to say what he wants to say!!!

[phonomono78s]

That´s really an interesting pianists´ meeting. Thanks for uploading this wonderful record. Never heard this before.