Name: The Past Is Yet to Come
Brand: Origin Records
SKU: 1051901
Price: 19.49 USD
Availability: InStock

The Past Is Yet to Come

Rating

Album: The Past Is Yet to Come
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Shuffle Rag
2)	Operatic Rag, An
3)	Goodnight Angeline - Medley
4)	Whoa, You Heifer (A Cowboy Intermezzo)
5)	Tobasco
6)	Ragtime Oriole
7)	Oysters and Clams - Medley
8)	Dance of the Nile Maidens
9)	Black Smoke, A
10)	Sunflower Slow Drag
11)	Shadow Blues
12)	Handsome Harry
13)	Lingering Love - Medley
14)	Georgia Grind, The
15)	Salome
16)	High Brown Blues
17)	Junk Man Rag
18)	Back to Baltimore - Medley

Album: The Past Is Yet to Come
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Shuffle Rag
2)	Operatic Rag, An
3)	Goodnight Angeline - Medley
4)	Whoa, You Heifer (A Cowboy Intermezzo)
5)	Tobasco
6)	Ragtime Oriole
7)	Oysters and Clams - Medley
8)	Dance of the Nile Maidens
9)	Black Smoke, A
10)	Sunflower Slow Drag
11)	Shadow Blues
12)	Handsome Harry
13)	Lingering Love - Medley
14)	Georgia Grind, The
15)	Salome
16)	High Brown Blues
17)	Junk Man Rag
18)	Back to Baltimore - Medley

Performer Notes

San Francisco-based acoustic guitarist Craig Ventresco makes his way where almost everyone else fears to tread nowadays -- reviving forgotten vaudeville and pop tunes from the early years of the 20th century. That, of course, is a no-no in a 21st century musicological scene that is more than a little embarrassed by the pop music of those days -- often for PC reasons -- yet Ventresco's spirited, intricate arrangements for solo guitar sound anything but anachronistic. In choosing and arranging his material for solo guitar, Ventresco avoids the sand trap of sentimentality that could have easily pinned this music firmly in the past. Drawing upon country, blues, ragtime, and even classical techniques, he enlivens such rarities as "Whoa, You Heifer" (1904), "Tobacco-Rag Waltz" (1909), "Dance of the Nile Maidens" (1906), and even the more familiar snake charmer "Salome," essentially making them more acceptable to modern ears. Occasionally, he pulls a well-known composer from out of his large song bag (Scott Joplin's "Sunflower Slow Drag," "Goodnight Angeline" from the Eubie Blake/Noble Sissle team), and Ventresco's own "Shadow Blues" fits unobtrusively into the mosaic. Indeed, if you put modern titles on many of these tunes as heard here, only a specialist could accurately guess their vintage. While Ventresco is not the smoothest, most polished player in the world on these tracks -- his rhythm isn't particularly steady -- it is easy to look past the technical flaws. This is the first issue of newly recorded music from the recently revived Origin Jazz Library label, which dealt exclusively in reissues for nearly 40 years. ~ Richard S. Ginell