Featuring the world premiere recording of the original score of
“Lift Every Voice and Sing!”
Includes a deluxe 48 page illustrated booklet
From Rick Benjamin, series curator and conductor:
“This is the third volume of Paragon Ragtime Orchestra recordings documenting the music of important African-American composers from late 19th- and early 20th-century New York City. The inspiration for this effort came about twenty-five years ago, when I read James Weldon Johnson’s “Black Manhattan” (1930), a fascinating chronicle of the city’s black artistic life from the Victorian era to the Harlem Renaissance. I came to Johnson’s volume after finishing Eileen Southern’s “The Music of Black Americans” (1971), a wider-ranging academic work, but a no less revealing one. After reading these books I was excited to listen to the music they had described. But there was a problem: remarkably few recordings existed of historic African-American music, and even fewer to represent New York’s pioneering black composers. This inability to actually experience a considerable span of our musical heritage was a void that needed to be filled. Clearly it was time for a carefully curated, new recordings of first-rate performances played from authentic scores.
Fifteen years and three PRO Black Manhattan volumes later, we have recorded three and a half hours of this previously neglected music: sixty pieces by thirty-two outstanding African-American composers, spanning the seminal years of the 1870s to the early 1920s. It is our hope that these efforts have started to close this gap in America’s cultural memory. Our even greater hope is that these recordings will enable the world to rediscover this magnificent music and the gifted, spirited, and persevering people who gave it to us.”
Produced by multi-Grammy Award winning “Classical Producer of the Year” Judith Sherman, this album is an extraordinary voyage of discovery for everyone interested in American music.
“Pork and Beans Rag” (1913), Luckey Roberts.
“I’m Just Wild About Harry” (one-step from Shuffle Along, 1921), Eubie Blake.
“The Dancing Deacon: Clef Club Fox-Trot” (1915), Frederick M. Bryan.
“Jewel of the Big Blue Nile” (song from the Lafayette Theatre production Baby Blues, 1919), Luckey Roberts / Alex C. Rogers.
“We’ll Raise the Roof To-Night” (cakewalk, 1904), Sidney L. Perrin.
“Chant” from Bandana Sketches (1921), Clarence Cameron White.
“Dear Old Southland” (foxtrot from , 1921), J. Turner Layton.
“Wall Street ‘Rag’” (descriptive, 1909), Scott Joplin.
“Oh Dem Golden Slippers” (minstrel song, 1879), James A. Bland.
– Featuring the Paragon Minstrel Band –
“In the Baggage Coach Ahead” (ballad, 1896), Gussie L. Davis.
“Love Will Find A Way” (song from Shuffle Along, 1921), Sissle & Blake.
Overture to My Friend From Kentucky (from the 1913 Lafayette Theatre production), J. Leubrie Hill.
“Royal Garden Blues” (1919), Spencer Williams & Clarence Williams.
“The Tremelo Trot” (one-step, 1914), Luckey Roberts.
“Just One Word of Consolation” (ballad, 1905), Tom Lemonier.
“After You’ve Gone” (one-step, 1918), J. Turner Layton.
“Delicioso: Tango Aristocratico” (1914), Will H. Dixon.
“The Zoo-Step” (from the Smart Set Co., 1916), Clarence G. Wilson.
“The Slow Drag Blues” (1919), Q. Roscoe Snowden arr. William Grant Still.
“Ianthia March” (1902), Al. Johns.
“I’m Going Home” (Spiritual setting, 1921), Clarence Cameron White.
“Lift Every Voice and Sing!: National Negro Hymn” (original 1900 score),
James Weldon Johnson & J. Rosamond Johnson.
“Bluesy Effervescence” (headline) – The New York Times
“Once again, Rick Benjamin and the PRO offer a carefully curated project… shedding light on lesser known composers and works, and advancing the study of American music.” – Black Grooves
“Rick Benjamin and the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra shine the spotlight once again on a terrific selection of songs by African Americans…. It’s an astonishing collection of material…. a treat from start to finish!” – Bwaytunes.com
“Benjamin’s wish that his ‘efforts have started to close this gap in America’s cultural memory’ and ‘enable the world to rediscover this magnificent music’ is admirably served by this album.” – Whole Note
"Benjamin and his orchestra filled the second half of the evening with lilting, humorous, and even elegant readings of ragtime numbers, a W.C. Handy blues song, and even a Sousa march…Popular music, A.D. 1900, is still going strong." – Pasadena Star News
Kansas City Star
“This group is like a ragtime early music ensemble, striving to protect the integrity of this uniquely American musical genre.” – Kansas City Star
Fanfare 2
“…delightfully infectious. The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra and its dynamic director have found a winning formula for educating the public in the most enjoyable way…” – Fanfare magazine
LaCrosse Tribune
“The magical, musical time machine.” – La Crosse Tribune
Washington Post 2
“Summoning both the subtle interplay and brassy vitality these pieces demand, the PRO does itself proud.” – The Washington Post
Buffalo News
“The results were irresistible. Halfway through the opening Knock-Out Drops Rag, someone enthused audibly, ‘Gee, they’re terrific!’ She was right.” – Buffalo News
American Heritage
“…the twelve-member Paragon Ragtime Orchestra has been touring the country in the ghostly footsteps of the thousands of ‘theater orchestras’ that once played in every hotel, vaudeville hall, and fair-sized restaurant. Few of them can have played with more bite and sparkle than the Paragon.” – American Heritage magazine
Gramophone
“…genteel melodic lines swim like fish through pure water.” – Gramophone magazine
BBC Music magazine
“superbly presented….prize-worthy.” – BBC Music magazine
American Music magazine
“… a deft, crisp, and energetic group…. one of the premiere forces in the reassertion of this repertoire in our musical consciousness.”
– American Music magazine
New York Times
“Best of all, the concert came off not as a dry musicological dig, but as an evening of…abidingly energetic fun.” – The New York Times
Wall Street Journal
“…protecting an important American treasure…not just be a pleasure to hear but for many a true revelation.” – The Wall Street Journal
Washington Post
“Vibrantly revived music.” – The Washington Post
Classics Today
“There’s plenty of variety here to give a representative sampling of some of the era’s finest pop music, and it’s all played with polish, authenticity, and all-out enthusiasm by the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra under Rick Benjamin’s inspired direction.” – Classics Today
Fanfare magazine
“If PRO is not already labeled a national treasure it should be.” – Fanfare magazine
Philadelphia Inquirer
“Four Stars…The music is incomparably sweet and stirring. And Rick Benjamin, who founded and conducts the PRO, is a musician of wit and sensibility.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Denver Post
“To hear the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra play the compositions of Scott Joplin or Irving Berlin… is to hear the promise many Americans felt about the prospects for the U.S. a century ago.”
– Denver Post
The San Francisco Chronicle
"Ragtime and opera joined hands and danced together in the most joyous fashion at Stern Grove on Sunday afternoon, with a vigorous and utterly charming performance of Scott Joplin’s 'Treemonisha'…the score, superbly led by conductor Rick Benjamin, is a resourceful marvel….For this performance Benjamin…unveiled his new arrangement of 'Treemonisha' for the 11-piece Paragon Ragtime Orchestra. That lithe, pungent blend of strings, woodwinds and brass…gave the performance a lively grace that helped fill the sunny meadow to perfection.”
– The San Francisco Chronicle