专辑简介

World Beat Ragtime was recorded in 1994 and was the first full-length recording by tap dancer/saxophonist Michael Conley, known by his artist name Shoehorn. It was an ambitious attempt at crossing over to the international popular music scene, featuring his talents as a songwriter, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and producer in addition to the simultaneous tap dancing and sax playing he is most well-known for. In many ways this work anticipated trends in rhythm tap dance and its application as a percussion instrument in various flavors of World Music and other popular styles. Shoehorn brings great variety and energy to the music with his feet, at a prime physical point of his life. After some successful appearances at major tap and jazz festivals in the early 1990s, Shoehorn had much more to say, and he weighed in with humor and prescient perception on topics such as climate change ( Post Ozone Solar Cockroaches ), relationships and PC language ( Can't Forget (the Love Song)), and coffee pretension (Triple De-Caf Soymilk Latté). He also displayed his affinity for world rhythms and languages ( Como Mongo- paying tribute to Cuban percussion great Mongo Santamaría ) and used an early version of his Tappercussion™ MIDI tap dance instrument aka e-tap™ on Kopavi. There is the smooth soprano sax ballad, Cerulean, as well as a track where he cut loose on simultaneous harmonica and tap with his friends Artis the Spoonman and Teranaka Meijin ( Unplugged and Rewired). He brings on the funk with RAPTAP! and dabbles in beatnik poetry with a tap-and-voice-only reading of his RapTapsody in Blue, later reprised on the 2008 album Cafe Cirque. The CD closed with a bonus track from a live gig- just Shoehorn and his also sax and tap shoes. This record sold out of its initial run but was never widely distributed and has been out of print for nearly two decades. It is a sort of time capsule, documenting the awareness and abilities of this performer in an earlier stage of his career. Shoehorn and his fans believe it is worthy of a retrospective listen in appreciation of the roots of, and contrasts with, his more recent work, such as the CD "Wingin' It" and DVD "Dances With Instruments" both recorded in 2015. We all hope you enjoy World Beat Ragtime, especially if you missed its initial orbit!.