From Rick Benjamin, album curator and conductor:

“‘Cake-Walk In The Sky’ is the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra’s twentieth album and another selection of favorites from among the many pieces that we have performed in concert over the last twenty years. The music here covers a wider time period than any of our previous albums – from the early 1860s to the late 1920s. This extraordinary sixty year span gave rise to the largest number of new musical styles in American history: from our theaters came distinctive musical traditions for minstrelsy, melodrama, variety, vaudeville, operetta, musical comedy, and revue; the ballroom brought us dozens of novel dance musics, and springing from everywhere came popular song, ragtime, the Blues, and jazz. This album, perhaps more than any of our previous, reflects all of this sonic feast. There is also a wide range of musical intent here, from the silly (“Slidus Trombonus” for example) to the serious (“Ballade Moderne”). But what is continually striking is the amazing artistic energy of the “Eleven & Pno.” small orchestra itself: The number of different sounds, effects, and moods that it can successfully express has always been a source of admiration and inspiration.”