Carlos Barbosa – Lima : Plays the Entertainer and selected works by Scott Joplin : CD

JOPLIN: The Entertainer ; Heliotrope Bouquet; Weeping Willow ; Solace ; Maple Leaf Rag ; Sugar Cane;The Chrysanthemum; Pleasant Moments ; The Easy Winners ; The Cascades; Eugenia ; Gladiolus Rag.

Carlos Barbosa – Lima

Concord Concerto CCD 42006

Our guitarist (who died in 2022) is certainly one of the world’s best known and loved players, who always produced wonderful recordings with that fabulous technique of his, and this one from the 90s is certainly no exception.

Joplin was of course a very talented player and composer of the Rag and associated styles on his piano, and however was a somewhat mysterious figure little about whom was actually known except for his wonderful compositions, not all of which were rags of course.

This album is wonderfully recorded and goes a long ways to showing just how well this style fits onto the guitar because if you didn’t know they were arrangements of piano pieces, you would never guess, as they don’t sound in any way unnatural.

The pieces picked are very varied and do cover both his rags and his ballads too and is certainly a wonderful album to listen to.

So if this grabs your attention I think you should have a go at trying to get hold of a copy, as it really is worth it, and unless you are really familiar with Joplin’s music , there are several pieces here you probably won’t know but are just are good as the ones you will!

Chris Dumigan