March 20, 2006

Ragtime by Perfessor Bill Edwards. Midi can vary greatly, but most of these are superb, the best I've ever heard. Aside from Midi, The Perfessor's a pianist and composer of considerable attainments; his site also gives lyrics for many old songs, plus showing a number of original and early sheet music covers.

This is not an especially new site, but it is extensive site, with cakewalks, rags, blues, stride piano, and some novelty tunes. Many of these come from original sheet music or are based on old piano rolls, while the interpretations of such later-recorded pianists as Jelly Roll Morton, Eubie Blake, Fats Waller and James P. Johnson are impressive. Fellow enthusiasts may enjoy his informational notes about many of these songs and old-time music publishing, musical trends, and relish the once-popular styles of performance.

posted by beeswacky 18 years ago
  • You know, MIDI just sucks. I have never actually heard a MIDI that sounded any better than a kid playing on the demo keyboard at an electronics store. MIDI in my mind has always been associated with godawful background noise on crappy websites bloated with animated gifs and festooned with ads and popups. Until I listened to stuff from this page, that is. beeswacky, color me surprised that MIDI done right actually sounds pretty good. Still doesn't excuse the billions of Geocity-type pages that abuse it, though.
  • Agree -- too much gunk online. But this man does some mighty fine work!
  • MIDI wasn't designed for online music. It was designed for musicians. This is why when non-musicians implement it, it sounds like crap. Also, it's not meant for the shitty little sound cards that come in computers, but for big hunka-chunka korgs and rolands and shit. So it always sounds like a tinny little music box. The key to good midi is: have a musician play it, and have a clue how to enable the dynamics. This guy is a musician and has a clue.
  • Wow. What a treasure trove. Some of my best childhood emories are of pawing through old boxes of sheet music like this.
  • big hunka-chunka korgs and rolands and shit I see you've stumbled across my wife's nicknames for the Tool Box(tm).
  • Little known fact: The members of the New England Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble, responsible for the wonderful album Red Back Book, all ranged in age from 18 to 20 (which makes sense, considering it's a college). Absolutely amazing, when you hear it, to consider that it's being performed by teenagers.
  • Suspect age isn't the critical factor so much as sheer cussedness. Quite a number of well-known musicical folk started playing and/or composing when very young. At the opposite end of the scale, there's Eubie Blake, who played and composed until his death at 100.
  • Brilliant site and I've never heard MIDIs of such quality. Bookmarked for much future exploration and listening. Thanks, beeswacky!
  • Ah, Bees, very tasteful. Midi-licious!
  • Mark your calendars: "For those who have wanted to be able to attend a "Perfessor" Bill concert but I simply was not in your neighborhood - well, now you can. I'll be doing a live webcast on Tuesday, March 28, at 8:00 PM EST"