Elite Syncopations: Marco Fumo Plays Scott Joplin

Italian pianist Marco Fumo always brings joy and unique insight to his Odradek recordings, and this album of the music of Scott Joplin is particularly special, reflecting his specialist knowledge of ragtime, and representing his last release. Joplin was hailed the ‘King of Ragtime’ for his mastery of the genre, and Fumo’s performances, which brim with joie de vivre, reveal his love of this repertoire.

Marco Fumo is considered to be one of the best recent interpreters and champions of African American piano repertoire. After an early career in classical music, he studied early ragtime, analysing the origins of and influences on early ragtime piano. This specialism makes him the ideal performer of Joplin’s spirited, rhythmically exciting music.

This album represents Marco Fumo’s final album and is a remastering of earlier recordings. Fumo’s contribution to music, in breaking down barriers between genres, and in pioneering the works of composers such as his friends Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone, cannot be overstated.

“For solo piano on this album to sometimes eclipse the definitive orchestral arrangements of these pieces is a musical miracle from the heart of a masterful interpretive pianist and a loving man. Marco is the only man on earth who could play the secret inner form of these soulful scores.” Billy’s Music Without Border on Marco Fumo’s Odradek release Il Mio Morricone: A Tribute to a Friend.

“A wise path of reciprocal reflections, combinations that you don’t expect between eras, styles, authors. There is Scarlatti’s baroque coupled with Brazilian tango, choro, from Nazareth, and then the blues of Aaron Copland. There is the king of ragtime, Scott Joplin, juxtaposed with the immortal tango of Anibal Troilo and the piano stride of James Johnson… Echoes now closer, now more distant, opposites and expressive similarities, stimuli, provocations.” Il Centro on Marco Fumo’s Odradek release Reflections.