Search - Craig Ventresco :: The Past Is Yet To Come

Craig Ventresco
The Past Is Yet To Come
Genres: Blues, Folk, Jazz, Pop

Track Listings (18) - Disc #1
1. Shuffle Rag
2. An Operatic "Rag"
3. Goodnight Angeline - medley
4. Whoa, You Heifer - a cowboy intermezzo
5. Tobasco
6. Ragtime Oriole
7. Oysters and Clams - medley
8. Dance of the Nile Maidens
9. A Black Smoke
10. Sunflower Slow Drag
11. Shadow Blues
12. Handsome Harry
13. Lingering Love - medley
14. The Georgia Grind
15. Salome
16. High Brown Blues
17. Junk Man Rag
18. Back To Baltimore - medley

CD Details

All Artists: Craig Ventresco
Title: The Past Is Yet To Come
Members Wishing: 1
Total Copies: 0
Label: Origin Jazz Library
Original Release Date: 2/1/2001
Re-Release Date: 3/1/2001
Genres: Blues, Folk, Jazz, Pop
Styles: Traditional Blues, Acoustic Blues, Traditional Jazz & Ragtime
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 784554200023

Synopsis

Album Description

Acoustic guitarist Craig Ventresco's style is a unique combination of Ragtime, rural Blues, early Jazz guitar and traditional String Band influences. His playing is at once fiery, melodic and inventive. Ventresco's tastes are unfettered by music in the modern era; he has instead concentrated on early 20th century vaudeville, ragtime, and popular songs as recorded on obscure 78s and cylinders from the dawn of the recorded music era. The CD includes music written by Eubie Blake, Scott Joplin, Big Bill Broonzy, James Scott, Lucky Roberts, and a Ventresco original as well. Ventresco's style brings forth images of Blind Blake, Lemon Jefferson, and other street performers of the '20s and '30s. He learns most of his repertoire by ear, and his raucous yet sensitive playing style (developed by playing on the streets of San Francisco) is a welcome alternative to the scholarly, delicate approach that usually characterizes ragtime guitar recordings. His playing was featured on the soundtrack album for the film "Crumb."

CD Reviews

Remarkable anachronism!

B. P. Price | Portland, OR USA | 06/20/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Craig Ventresco manages to do what few "recreators" of old music ever achieve - he avoids the preciousness, delicacy and stiffness that often comes with the territory. Rather than viewing these pieces as sacrosanct, Ventresco infuses them with a very modern sense of urgency and immediacy. The results are stunning: 80 year old piano rags are played the way I can imagine audiences heard them when new. Ventresco attacks the music and his instrument with ferocious intensity - nothing sounds the least bit overwrought or hesitant.To me, that flaw has always been the difference between the originals and the many respectful imitators. Compare Blind Blake to Stefan Grossman and you hear the "real deal" versus a very well intentioned and technically capable student. Ventresco surpasses because he lifts the veil of time and culture; when compared with Blake (Blind and Eubie), Jefferson, Joplin, Waller, etc., he does not sound at all like an imitator but rather a contemporary. He does not honor or pay homage; Ventresco just DOES IT right from his core. Highly recommended!"

Ragtime with a twist

S. L. Boyce | 03/16/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I consider myself a respectable music critic, and although I am not a resident in the land of ragtime, this cd is breathtaking. Craig is a phenomenal guitarist, able to blend common rag techniques with an unforgiving intensity and somewhat chromatic flair that can keep you comfortably enjoying his music while breathing heavily in anticipation of his next tangential masterpiece. Anyone interested in in rag or blues should give this a chance, as true talent can never be avoided."

Heaven Sent

S. L. Boyce | Little Rhody | 08/31/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This man is a God who brings out music from his guitar that makes me feel so warm, content and taken care of. Sounds nutty, I know, but it's true. I love this sound and I have never heard it anywhere else but from Craig Ventresco! You want this recording."