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fave it Bebop | Ragtime
17 tracks | 59 minutes
Released Dec 2006
on Tom Brier
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- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:00 Get This lyrics BUY MP3 03:00 Get This lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:00 Get This
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:50 That American Rag lyrics BUY MP3 02:50 That American Rag lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:50 That American Rag
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:12 Fluffy Ruffles lyrics BUY MP3 02:12 Fluffy Ruffles lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:12 Fluffy Ruffles
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:46 Cassandra lyrics BUY MP3 03:46 Cassandra lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:46 Cassandra
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:43 Cradle-Rock lyrics BUY MP3 03:43 Cradle-Rock lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:43 Cradle-Rock
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:56 The Gateway To Michigan lyrics BUY MP3 03:56 The Gateway To Michigan lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:56 The Gateway To Michigan
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:54 That Dahm Rag lyrics BUY MP3 02:54 That Dahm Rag lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:54 That Dahm Rag
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 05:44 Queen of the Roses lyrics BUY MP3 05:44 Queen of the Roses lyrics "GIFT MP3" 05:44 Queen of the Roses
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:54 Jelly Roll Fox-Trot lyrics FREE 02:54 Jelly Roll Fox-Trot lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:54 Jelly Roll Fox-Trot
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:54 Squirrel Food Rag lyrics BUY MP3 02:54 Squirrel Food Rag lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:54 Squirrel Food Rag
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 05:08 Lolita (A Tropical Dance) lyrics BUY MP3 05:08 Lolita (A Tropical Dance) lyrics "GIFT MP3" 05:08 Lolita (A Tropical Dance)
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:31 How Reuben Does the Rag lyrics BUY MP3 03:31 How Reuben Does the Rag lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:31 How Reuben Does the Rag
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:00 Hearts Are Trumps lyrics BUY MP3 03:00 Hearts Are Trumps lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:00 Hearts Are Trumps
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:09 The Alabama Blues lyrics BUY MP3 04:09 The Alabama Blues lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:09 The Alabama Blues
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:25 S. O. S. (Musician's Distress) lyrics BUY MP3 03:25 S. O. S. (Musician's Distress) lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:25 S. O. S. (Musician's Distress)
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:43 The Twirler lyrics BUY MP3 03:43 The Twirler lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:43 The Twirler
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:53 The Midnight Whirl lyrics BUY MP3 02:53 The Midnight Whirl lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:53 The Midnight Whirl
Seventeen piano solos of Ragtime obscurities from the dawn of the 20th Century.
Bio / Background
Born in Oakdale, California in 1971, Tom Brier was exposed to ragtime in his earliest years when his parents purchased a player piano. He was all of four years old at the time.
Soon, he was picking out on the piano keyboard the ragtime tunes he'd heard off the piano rolls. His parents found him a music teacher when he was five, and very shortly, he was composing and notating his own piano pieces. By the age of 11, he had composed and written the scores to some two dozen rags.
His first "serious" ragtime piece was the "Pine Cone Rag" of 1982, when Brier was all of 11 years old. Three years later, he began attending gatherings of the Sacramento Ragtime Society. The 14-year-old prodigy amazed everyone within earshot with his articulate renderings of the ragtime classics, and with his own highly original piano compositions.
↓ more ↓The hallmark of Brier's piano-playing style is an aggressive left hand that attacks the lower half of the piano keyboard in staccato, machine-gun-like octave passages. He alternates these voicings with a variety of other sounds: walking bass ("boogie"), single-note figures, and widely-spaced chords -- often both arpeggiated and unarpeggiated tenths.
Tom Brier performed at his first West Coast Ragtime Festival in 1989. He has been a headliner every year since, astounding onlookers with his machine-like precision, sensitive interpretations of more lyrical pieces, and nearly flawless sight-reading technique.
While pursuing his ragtime "education," Brier has also achieved a college education. He attended the California State University at Turlock, obtaining his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science in 1993.
Over the last few years, Brier has also begun to augment his collection of original pieces of ragtime sheet music, with a collection numbering over 1,000. And, since 1982, he has composed and printed complete, notated scores to over 100 original ragtime compositions. He has also collaborated with ragtime composers Eric Marchese, Neil Blaze, Gil Lieberknecht, and Kathi Backus.
Brier has also headlined at the annual ragtime festivals in Sutter Creek and Fullerton, Calif. He has been a regular performer at the "Ragtime Corner" sponsored by the Sacramento Ragtime Society each Memorial Day weekend at the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee. He has also appeared in Sedalia and Columbia, Missouri; Phoenix, Arizona; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Vienna, Virginia (Washington, D.C. area).
To date, Brier has released five solo albums. The first, "Rising Star", features several Brier originals, several more contemporary ragtime compositions, and many obscure pieces from the vintage ragtime era. The second, "Generic", uses an electronic keyboard to emulate the sound of an entire ragtime band. "Pianola" features piano-roll-style arrangements of 21 vintage and contemporary rags and novelties. "Skeletons" uses an electronic keyboard to emulate the sound of a small ragtime combo of four or five pieces. "Rewind", the latest, resurrects seventeen obscurities from the vintage ragtime era.
Mr. Brier currently resides in Sacramento, where he works as a programmer/analyst for the county of Sacramento. When not tapping the computer keyboard at work, he's at home pounding on the piano keyboard, working up a new rag, transcribing handwritten scores or piano rolls, or busily engaged in a variety of music recording projects.
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