Exciting, sophisticated, and danceable ragtime, stride, novelty, and jazz piano played with style, elegance, virtuosity, and humor.

19 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Ragtime, CLASSICAL: Piano solo

Show all album songs: Kitten On The Keys Songs


Details:
The scintillating and danceable rhythms of Frederick Hodges are perfect for those who enjoy something new, refreshing, and sparkling in the field of piano music. His dazzling interpretations of classic American songs, played in an authentic 1930s manner, are well known to piano music aficionados across the country.

California native Frederick Hodges specializes in the piano music and popular songs of the ragtime era, the 1920s, and the 1930s. Classically trained and groomed for a career as a concert pianist, he was happily lured away from this path after he found a stack of turn-of-the-century sheet music in his grandmotherâs piano bench. Repeated exposure to the rollicking rhythms of player pianos and 78 RPM phonograph records sealed his fate, and he set out to master the sophisticated piano playing styles that had captivated him.

While still an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, he was hired by Don Neely to be the pianist with the famed Royal Society Jazz Orchestra. Soon, Frederick was playing solo piano for society parties and holding down steady gigs at legendary Nob Hill establishments such as LâÉtoile, Masons, and the Ritz Carlton Hotel. For more than twenty years now, Frederick Hodges has performed solo, with jazz ensembles, with the Peter Mintun Orchestra, and with the Royal Society Jazz Orchestra on stage, television, and radio. He has entertained royalty, stars of stage and screen, captains of industry, and even Tin Pan Alley composers. Frederick is also a noted silent film accompanist and is regularly featured at silent film festivals around the country and also serves as one of the house pianists for the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum. Frederick is a favorite at jazz and ragtime festivals around the world.