Play of blind leaps - Marcus Sukiennik interprets ragtime by Scott Joplin

Back to the roots of jazz: Pianist Marcus Sukiennik returns with a double release in February, performing rags by Scott Joplin and his new composition Shout Out Blues.

He is considered the "King of Ragtime" – the African-American composer Scott Joplin. Marcus Sukiennik recorded four of his most famous compositions for his EP Ragtime - Marcus Sukiennik plays Scott Joplin: The Entertainer, Maple Leaf Rag, The Easy Winners and The Great Crush Collision March.

As popular music for dancing, ragtime celebrated its peak at the turn of the 20th century and experienced a notable revival in the 1970s, particularly thanks to the successful box-office hit The Sting, whose soundtrack thrives on Joplin's compositions.
They are refined earworms, captivating listeners with their catchiness whitout compromising on originality. Temporal shifts between melody and accompaniment are among the striking characteristics of ragtime piano – as well as large leaps in the left hand. Sukiennik plays the lively tunes at a moderate tempo, just as their creator used to, for whom it was clear that
"it's never right to play ragtime fast".

This tempo is greatly increased in Sukiennik's new original composition: Shout out Blues is a modern, fast blues, whose extraordinary intro harmonically swings over into the traditional minor form of the modern jazz precursor.

The EP Ragtime - Marcus Sukiennik plays Scott Joplin will be released on 05.02.21, the single track Shout Out Blues follows on February 19. Listen to both releases in High Definition Audio on all common streaming platforms.

Marcus Sukiennik
Langemaß 20
51063 Koeln
Germany

Trained in classical and jazz music, pianist Marcus Sukiennik composes mainly for piano solo and writes arrangements of classical melodies in Cologne. As a bar pianist, he has also been playing contemporary background music for more than 25 years at a wide variety of venues, including his position as artistic director of the Piano Bar of the Excelsior Hotel Ernst in Cologne.

This release was published on openPR.