Features and Reviews
CD Review: Raggin' Around
Original compositions by Nyle Frank
By Bill Mitchell
Raggin' Around is the title of Nyle Frank's latest CD. Nyle is a professional pianist who lives in Tennessee but occasionally gets out to Southern California. He has played for us at the Rose Leaf Club two or three times when his visits have coincided with our meeting dates. There is a good possibility that he will be at the meeting January 26.
Nyle is definitely not of the hell-for-leather school of ragtime playing. He plays in a clean, gentle, expressive, manner that is melodic and relaxing. Raggin' Around is subtitled "Nyle Frank, piano rags (with some quiet interludes)." His rag originals are "Tigerwood Rag," "Moonfish Rag," "Weimaraner Rag," "Hubdeer Rag." Certainly unusual titles these, but he explains them in his liner notes. Golfers will get a chuckle out of "Tigerwood Rag," and Nyle's comment: "I cannot reveal who the Tigerwood Rag was named for (but it must be completed in seventy-two strokes or less)."
The quiet interludes comprise a set called "Scenes from the Gilded Age," which includes such evocative titles as "The Roman Spring of Mamie O'Rourke," "The Great Columbian Exposition," "Washington Square," "Brush Park," "The Belle of Amherst," "Love and the Gibson Girl," and "Grover's Corners." These are dreamy and nostalgic pieces. Then there are "Grandma's Favorites: Moonlight Bay, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, and Narcissus." The harder-to-classify numbers are "Washington Post March" (Sousa), "Catalpa Waltz," "Theme for Steel Band," "Salty Cat Blues," "On the Midway," and "Zipping Through Ypsilanti."
Nyle will send you this CD for $15.00 postpaid. Contact him at Centipede Productions, P.O. Box 121832, Nashville, TN 37212 (615) 329-3532.
