This is a very historic LP (not yet reissued on CD) that was recorded just in the nick of time. Along with
Scott Joplin and
James Scott,
Joseph Lamb was one of the "big three" of classic ragtime composers.
Joplin and
Scott never recorded, but
Lamb lived into the early 1960s and was tracked down by
Rudi Blesh in the late 1940s in time to be interviewed for his classic
They All Played Ragtime book. In 1959, at the age of 72,
Lamb made his one and only record (although an obscure cassette of him playing from the same year was also recorded), and this is it. In addition to performing ten of his rags (including "Sensation Rag," "Ragtime Nightingale," "American Beauty Rag" and his then-recent "Cottontail Rag") in sometimes hesitant but quite listenable form,
Lamb is heard talking about four different topics, including remembrances of his first meeting with
Scott Joplin and his favorable opinions of the other ragtime composers. Although there should have been so much more of
Joseph Lamb on record, one is grateful that this priceless document exists, forever immortalizing one of the giants of ragtime. ~ Scott Yanow
