Death In Vegas - Anita Berber

But ragtime is also good in the more austere sense of the professional critic. I cannot understand how a trained musician can overlook its purely technical elements of interest. It has carried the complexities of the rhythmic subdivision of the measure to a point never before reached in the history of music. It has established subtle conflicting rhythms to a degree never before attempted in any popular or folk music, and rarely enough in art music. It has shown a definite and natural evolution always a proof of vitality in a musical idea. It has gone far beyond most other popular music in the freedom of inner voices, yes, I mean polyphony, and of course harmonic modulation. And it has proved its adaptability to the expression of many distinct moods. Only the trained musician can appreciate the significance of a style which can be turned to many distinct uses. There is the sentimental manner, and the emotional manner and so on, but the style includes all the manners, and there have not been so many styles in musical history that they couldn't be counted on a few people's fingers.

It may be that I am deceived as to the extent of ragtime's adaptability... And I know that we are dealing here with a set of musical materials which have no more than commenced their job of expressing a generation.

We must admit that current ragtime is deficient on the melodic side. Some of the tunes are strong, but many of the best ragtime pieces have little beyond their rhythmic energy and ingenuity to distinguish them. If we had a folk song tradition in America our popular melodies, doubtless, would not be so permeated with vulgarity. The words, also, too often have the chief vice of vulgarity sluggish conventionality without its chief virtue, the generous warmth of everydayness. And this latter quality, when it exists, resides not so much in the words themselves, as in the flavor of the songs, the uninspired but tireless high spirits of the American people.
Source: Evolution of Ragtime & Blues To Jazz by Dr. Karl Koenig

Death In Vegas - Anita Berber

• Written and produced by: Richard Fearless and Tim Holmes
• Release Date: 2004
• Genres: Alternative rock, Trip Hop

"Death In Vegas was formed in 1994 by Richard Fearless and Steve Helier and signed to Concrete Records under the name of Dead Elvis. Due to objections from the Elvis Presley estate, they were forced to change the name, and instead Dead Elvis became the name of their debut album."

See previous Song of the Day