专辑简介

THAT DEMON RAG! was produced to celebrate the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra’s selection as an official representative of the United States of America for the 1992 World’s Fair. At that grand exposition, held in Seville, Spain, the PRO performed dozens of concerts at the U.S. Pavilion for hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world. Most of these fairgoers had never heard (or even heard of) of ragtime, and many were enchanted by it. This recording features the most popular musical selections played by the Orchestra at the World’s Fair, and includes delightful early 1900s music by Scott Joplin, Eubie Blake, and Jerome Kern, as well as terrific numbers by lesser-known but worthy composers. This is a wonderful recorded celebration of America’s Original Music, played by – as the late Tony Randall put it – “THE WORLD’S GREATEST BAND!”

“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