Rick Benjamin writes:
Greetings Friends:
It
is with great pleasure that I announce the December 8 release of the
Paragon Ragtime Orchestra's fourteenth and latest album, BLACK MANHATTAN Volume 2 on the New World Records label (NWR-80731-2).
This
is the second volume of PRO’s tribute to the great African-American
composers of late 19th- and early 20th-century New York. Again inspired
by James Weldon Johnson’s superb book Black Manhattan, this new PRO recording brings to life more of the amazing sounds that profoundly influenced the course of American music.
The
composers featured here were celebrities in their own time: Willis
Accooe, Frederick M. Bryan, Will H. Dixon, J. Leubrie Hill, Al. Johns,
Wilbur Sweatman, James J. Vaughan, and Bert Williams. For a century
historians have recognized and discussed their importance, but until now
almost none of their music was available on recordings. The remaining
three names – Joplin, Eublie Blake, and W.C. Handy – are still famous,
but surprisingly, even some of their key works had not been recorded. On this CD, Blake’s music for the epoch-making musical Shuffle Along crackles
back to life for the first time since 1923; Handy’s seminal Blues is
heard exactly as he penned it, and Joplin shows surprising flair as a
pop songwriter.
Produced by multi-Grammy Award winning “Classical Producer of the Year” Judith Sherman
(and current "Producer of the Year"), this album is an extraordinary
voyage of discovery for everyone interested in America's music.
Please pass the word!
Sincerely,
Rick Benjamin
Curator & Music Director
PARAGON RAGTIME ORCHESTRA
"Where America's Music Begins" SM
+1 (570) 524-9511
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