CD Review: Kitten on the Keys

Kitten On the Keys is an album of "Ragtime, Novelty, and Stride Classics" from famed concert pianist Frederick Hodges, previously noted here as part of the Crown Syncopators, whose album Ragtime Dance Party I heartily recommend for both dancers and listeners.  Kitten on the Keys is more of a listening album, with enough musical flourishes that the dance beat on some pieces can be hard to track.  I wouldn't necessarily suggest using many of these pieces for newer dancers, but it's a treat for listeners and more experienced dancers should be able to manage fairly well.  

The brief liner notes explain Hodges' approach: 

The professional pianist, however, correctly understood that sheet music was to be used as a guide or a blueprint for constructing a full and satisfying piano solo...the professional pianist strove to create a unique and special arrangement that gave the piano roll and record buying public a good reason to buy yet another record of the rag hit of the day.  

Employing this historically correct approach, I have taken delight in creating my own arrangements of the rags on this CD.  Only in rare instances do my arrangements reflect the published sheet music, and then only when the published arrangement or sections thereof were so musically satisfying that little embellishment or expansion was required.  Nevertheless, my goal has been to perform these rags in an authentic manner, fully consistent with the performance styles of their composers and of the best professional pianists of the ragtime era.

More information about Hodges' substantial accomplishments may be found on his own website (warning: music autoplays!)

This is a piano-only recording, which is appropriate for the ragtime era.  Most of the music is best suited to one or more of the two-step/one-step/foxtrot family of dances, but the highlight of the album for me is a rare half-and-half track, "Drawing Room Echoes".  The liner notes are brief, but interesting.  

Composers on this album include Edward Elzear "Zez" Confrey, Charles "Charley" Straight, George L. Cobb, W. C. Powell (William Conrad Polla), James P. Johnson, Paul Biese (Percy Hawthorne Sudborough), F. (Frank) Henri Klickmann, Arthur Marshall, May Aufderheide (a rare female ragtime composer of note), William H. Tyers, Charles Hunter, C. Luckyth "Luckey" Roberts, and James Hubert "Eubie" Blake.

As is typical for ragtime pieces, tunes in 2/4 and 4/4 can often be used as a one-step, foxtrot, or two-step, depending on how fast and with what style they're played.  You can two-step to just about anything if you're willing to adjust the size and speed of your steps!  My suggestions are below, with the beats-per-minute tempo for each piece but one certainly need not feel strictly bound by the categories for anything but the 5/4-time half-and-half.  Experienced dancers will simply experiment briefly before settling into an appropriate dance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One-Steps/Castle Walks
"Russian Rag" (1918) - 131 bpm, brisk with some mildly confusing breaks; a famous piece based on Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Prelude in C♯ minor"
"A Tennessee Tantilizer" (1900) - 126 bpm, a good one-step
"Daintiness Rag" (1918) - 125 bpm, very danceable, a rare piece never published in its own era
"Buffalo Means Business: March & Two Step" (1909) - 125 bpm, which is rather brisk for a march and two-step but feels nice for a one-step
"The Chevy Chase: Fox Trot" (1914) - 125 bpm, which is too brisk for a foxtrot even by my standards, but makes a fun one-step
"Kitten on the Keys" (1921) - 124 bpm, sometimes difficult because the underlying beat is disguised by the musical flourishes
"Smiles and Chuckles: Rag One-Step" (1917) - 116 bpm, a gentle one-step
"Palm Beach: Foxtrot" (1914) - 112 bpm, again, much faster than I ever dance foxtrot, but makes a great one-step
"Novelty Rag" (1914) - 108 bpm, a very slow and gentle one-step

Two-Steps/Foxtrots
"Novelty Rag" (1914) - 108 bpm, also a nice two-step
"That Hindu Rag" (1910) - 96 bpm, foxtrot if anything, but the syncopation makes the main beat feel rather inside out for part of it
"Fizz Water: Trot and One Step" (1914) - 95 bpm - nice foxtrot or two-step; compare with the recording of the same piece at a much faster one-step tempo on Magnetic Rags
"The Maurice Walk" (1913) - 91 bpm, not as danceable as some others; while I don't know the details of the "Maurice Walk", I'd dance foxtrot to it if anything
"Cucumber Rag: March & Two Step" (1910) - 91 bpm, a nice foxtrot feel
"The Blue Grass Rag: One Step" (1918) - 88 bpm, with the relaxed feel of foxtrot and a lot of melodic breaks
"You Tell 'em Ivories" (1921) - 87 bpm, foxtrot, with breaks that make it somewhat difficult
"Panama: A Characteristic Novelty" (1911) - 80 bpm, dreamy two-step or foxtrot
"The Pippin: A Ragtime Two-Step" (1908) - 76 bpm, dreamy two-step or foxtrot
"Kinklets: Two Step" (1906) - 75 bpm, dreamy foxtrot or two-step

Half and Half (5/4)
"Drawing Room Echoes: Half and Half" (1914) - 219 bpm, very fast for a half and half, a nice change from the usual tempo 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The entire album may be heard via a YouTube playlist here. 

Weirdly, the order of the music on the liner notes and various sale sites is not the same as that on the CD or the list on Hodges' own site.  This doesn't matter if you've acquired it as mp3 files, but if for some reason you're playing the actual CD for dancing or ripping tracks from the CD, be careful of this!  The file names assigned when the tracks are ripped will not all be correct (though the dates will be) and many of them will need to be renamed.  The track order at Amazon gives the names in correct order.

While I know the availability of the YouTube playlist works against it, I would encourage people to buy individual tracks or the entire album to support Hodges' musical endeavors.  Purchase options include from CDBaby (full album or individual mp3 files), Hodges' own website (links to sales sites for mp3 files and CDs), and Amazon (full album or individual mp3 files and streaming; occasionally a CD becomes available as well) via the link below.