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Sample the PRO
The following links lead to samples from the PRO's acclaimed CD, Knockout Drops. Each clip is under a minute long, and smaller than 800 Kb. They are in MPEG- layer 3 (MP3) compressed format. There are several good shareware and freeware players available for this format, if you don't have one. We recommend WinAMP and MacAMP for Windows and Macintosh computers, respectively.
Knockout Drops is a rag, written in Chicago in 1910 by Frank Klickmann. It's a classic example of orchestral ragtime, which in this instance, features the slide trombone.
Kansas City Blues, written in 1915 by Euday L. Bowman (most famous for his earlier "Twelfth Street Rag"), is a superb early blues tune. This performance is of Bowman's original score for dance orchestra.
Scott Joplin's New Rag--Scott Joplin's musical interests were not limited to the piano keyboard. He was also a singer, cornetist, guitarist, and violinist; many of his compositions were played by the theater and dance orchestras of the early 1900s.
The Teddy Bears' Picnic was the 1907 magnum opus of Wilmington, Delaware composer John W. Bratton. It's still an international favorite for children of all ages. Here is how "Teddy Bears' Picnic" sounded (as arranged by the pioneer Broadway orchestrator Frank Saddler) when it was first published a century ago.
Peg O' My Heart--Thought of today as a gentle ballad, Fred Fischer's evergreen hit was the high-stepping ballroom sensation of 1913.
Drumology--This 1914 Harry Alford tune is one of the earliest to feature the drum set, known then as the "contraption." Here, drummer Tim McLafferty puts PRO's 1910 drum set through its paces. A tricky "number," indeed!
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