Joseph Lamb: A Study in Classic Ragtime

Joseph Lamb (1887–1960) is considered one of the three great composers of ragtime, along with Scott Joplin and James Scott. Between 1908 and 1919, while living in Montclair, New Jersey, and working in a New York City fabric house, Joe Lamb composed some of the most brilliant ragtime tunes published in America. However, he never released a recording until this one, made in his Brooklyn living room on an upright Knabe piano only a year prior to his death.

Lamb, like the other great ragtime composers, considered improvisation to be a trick of “low-class” players. He played the rags on this recording not from memory, but from the written music he had composed years earlier, to be sure of playing every note he had written.

The liner notes describe Lamb’s development as a ragtime composer, as well as a brief biography.

Track Listing

101	Cottontail Rag	Joseph Lamb	03:14
102	Excelsior Rag	Joseph Lamb	03:02
103	Cleopatra Rag	Joseph Lamb	03:18
104	The Meeting with Scott Joplin	Joseph Lamb	03:16
105	Sensation - A Rag	Joseph Lamb	02:43
106	Arthur Marshall, Artie Mathews, James Scott	Joseph Lamb	00:50
107	Topliner Rag	Joseph Lamb	03:19
201	The Alaskan Rag	Joseph Lamb	03:17
202	The Composition of "Nightingale"	Joseph Lamb	01:46
203	The Ragtime Nightingale	Joseph Lamb	03:38
204	American Beauty Rag	Joseph Lamb	03:30
205	The Naming of Contentment	Joseph Lamb	02:26
206	Contentment Rag	Joseph Lamb	02:51
207	Patricia Rag	Joseph Lamb	03:29