Tom Brier performs his original composition, "Peril in Pantomime" at the 2016 Durango Ragtime and Early Jazz Piano Festival. Danny Coots accompanies him on the drums.
I never imagined that drums would have made it better, but the drums are extremely well done and fit with the spastic theme of the piece which I think is the reason it works so well. Fantastic performance.
Just remember that Tom was by this phase modeling some of his playing after top 1920s pianists and roll artists like Max Kortlander, Roy Bargy, Charley Straight and doubtless many others. If you look at the voicings in the transcriptions of their rolls, you'll readily see the influence. Some of these folks were documented as having massive hands (like Roy Bargy who could stretch a 13th, ans plays 11ths straight on in some of his audio recordings and rolls), while others had much smaller hands but were still virtuosi (like Willie Eckstein and Donald Lambert). The more you listen to the original artists, the more you may hear the influences.
