Some people claim that ragtime, not Dixieland, was the first form of jazz, but most jazz experts disagree -- and rightly so. If you believe that improvisation is a fundamental part of the genre, you can't call ragtime jazz because it isn't improvisatory. Nonetheless, serious jazz historians should hear authentic ragtime because it influenced early Dixieland (as did the blues, marching bands, classical, Latin, and Caribbean music), and Swedish pianist
Lars Edegran's
New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra (NORO) was among the more authentic ragtime bands of the 1960s and 1970s. This reissue, which contains 18 recordings from 1967-1970, demonstrates that NORO was quite faithful to the spirit of 1900s and 1910s. Several
Scott Joplin classics from that era are performed (including "Elite Syncopations," "Scott Joplin's New Rag," "Pleasant Moments," and "The Chrysanthemum"), along with numbers by such greats as
Joseph Lamb ("Reindeer Rag," "Ethiopia Rag") and James Scott ("Sunburst Rag").
Grace and Beauty is easily recommended to ragtime enthusiasts, and even though it isn't jazz, the CD is also recommended to jazz fans who would like to hear some of the instrumental music that influenced early Dixieland.