FRANK FRENCH: More American Souvenirs

Frank French

More American Souvenirs

© 2000 Frank French

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American and Latin American style piano solos including Ragtime, Jazz, Blues, Terra Verde.

tracks

1 Belle of Louisville
2 Honky Tonk Music
3 Don't Jazz Me
4 The Crave
5 Mississippi Brown Eyes
6 Labirinto
7 Texas Fox Trot
8 Hilarity Rag
9 At Midnight
10 Vem Ca Branquinha
11 Memories of a Missouri Confederate
12 Levee Revels
13 The Alaskan
14 Ouro Sobre Azul
15 Climax Rag

notes

Frank French was born in Oakland, 1952 and grew up in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury district. A survivor of the Psychedelic 1960's, he became part of the city's "outside" music scene in the early 1970's while completing his musical education at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and San Francisco State University.

It was during this time that he became acquainted with Cuban and Porto Rican dance music as pianist with "Papo y su Preferida", noting the immediate connection between Antillean music and piano Ragtime.

Moving to Vienna, Austria in the late 1970's he assumed the lifestyle of a Bohemian, tuning pianos by day and bolstering Vienna's counter-cultural cabaret scene by night. Teaming up with Latin Americans living there, he formed one of the earliest Salsa bands in Central Europe,
introducing the music to Austrians, Swiss and Germans, and paving the way for noted performers like Ray Baretto to make debut performances in that part of the world. During his Austrian residence he also found time to record the entire Well-Tempered Clavier of J.S. Bach, thus
securing a firm footing in the music of both the Old and New Worlds.

Returning to the United States in 1983 he became a noted figure in the world of syncopated piano music, first as a performer and later as composer of such notable and widely- recorded instrumentals as Belle of Louisville and Backdown Buck. Moving to Colorado in 1990, he founded and directed the Rocky Mountain Ragtime Festival and Institute working as a musical activist in schools, community concerts, radio and community television. In 1996 he visited Cuba
with the Pianos to Havana project and subsequently concertized in Cuba and the United States raising funds to send pianos and technical support to music schools in Cuba and to improve relations between people of both nations.

Frank French espouses the Creole Tradition of the melting pot of cultures in the music of the New World, especially that of the United States, the Carribean and Brazil. As a composer, teacher, and performer he continues to emphasize progressive assimilation of musical and cultural
concepts in order to create an aesthetic and societal texture in which the whole is greater than
the sum of the parts. His teaching seminars include both introductory and hands-on sessions for all ages and all levels.

reviews

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  • Excellent Selection of Rags and Tangos
    author: Robert Schwieger

    'More American Souvenirs' is a worthy addition to any personal library of American music. Frank French plays all of the pieces with sensitivity and skill. The selection covers a wide area of styles. Particularly nice are French's renditions of his own 'Belle of Louisville', Guion's 'Texas Fox Trot' and Lamb's extraordinarily beautiful 'Alaskan Rag'. Nazareth's 'Labirinto' is one of my favortie tangos, and French also plays it well. The whole CD is filled with wonderful, relaxing music. Overall, a superb effort.

  • Great in every way
    author: Michele

    Great mix - modern and classic; American and Latin; well known and seldom heard tunes all played with tremendous skill and talent.

  • French is a pursuasive, highly lyrical pianist...
    author: William Schaffer - The Mississippi Rag

    ?This is an elegant, thoughtful compilation Of piano ragtime and ragtime-related music, much with a distinct "Spanish tinge." Thee title word “American” does not mean simply "US.- Brazil is represented by three diverse pieces by Ernesto Nazareth the latest sensation to catch the ears of the ragtime subculture. French is . is a persuasive, highly lyrical pianist a wide net for material, including several- 'Jelly Roll Morton compositions , "The Crave or little-heard "Honky Tonk Music" culled from the 1938 library of Congress sessions), James Scott 'Don't Jazz Me," 'Hilarity Rag.' .'Climax Rag') and a sampling of contemporary ragtime (two by David Thomas Roberts, "Mississippi Brown Eyes" an "Memories of a Missouri Confederate' " Hal Isbitz”s “At Midnight, and Freiich's own "Belle of Louisville . The session is brilliantly recorded and French displays throughout deep emotional strength. He treats James Scott an the essentially sunny, 'ebullient polyphoniist he was with especially energetic and lively versions of "Hilarity Rag" and "Climax Rag," two of Scott’s most effective and characteristic rags He also shapes the Morton works carefully, pinning down their slightly sinister moodiness. He clearly admires the folk-rag angularity of Robert's lyrical works and the stately luster of two earlier regional raffia, David Guion's "Texas Fox Trot of 1915 and William Christopher O”hare's 1898 cakewalk, "Levee Revels." The Nazareth compositions are more difficult to assess. Nazareth (186&1934) was a skilled Brazilian pianist-composer-conductor whose career roughly parallel with James Scotts or Artie Matthews makes an extremely interesting addition to the repertory of American music, Nazareth began publishing piano compositions at 14, collected folk music ideas and forms, studied Joplin and Gottschalk and wrote over 300 piano pieces that largely defined dance forms like the tango, the mixixi, the carrioca.. He worked as a s movie theater musician (Hector Villa Loboa played cello in his orchestra)'and became a protean national figure, halfway between European classical models and the raw folk music of the choros or street bands. This CD is an interesting and carefully chosen anthology of American music, and French succeeds on most takes in making music that stands on its own but also resonates in intriguing ways. Highly recommended!.

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