Beginners is a ragtime influenced piano score from Mike Mills’s film starring Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer. This deeply personal film entwines comedy, romance and drama to tell a story about a man who, like Mills, only learns his father is gay upon the death of his mother. Mills’s aim was to embed the music into the emotional texture of the film, so he called upon his earliest musical memories - the music his parents enjoyed in their family home...

Giving a nod to jazz rags, the original score is composed by Roger Neill (King of the Hill, Chicago Hope), Brian Reitzell (Red Riding Hood, 30 Days Of Night) and Dave Palmer. The soundtrack combines classical music, piano rags and a collated collection of ragtime and early jazz. These include the piano stylings of Jelly Roll Morton and the seminal Stardust by Hoagy Carmichael.

This is a soundtrack that you're going to love or hate. While the original score by Brian Reitzell, Dave Palmer and Roger Neill will appeal to general soundtrack buffs it only represents 13 min, 47 sec of this 40 minute album. The remaining 26 min, 13 sec of music is a variety of ragtime songs. So you'll have to be a fan of ragtime to really enjoy this album. While, personally, I'm no big ragtime fan, I can appreciate it as a genre and, as a whole I found this to be an interesting collection of tracks.

Track listing:

01 - 'Stardust' - Hoagy Carmichael
02 - 'Everything’s Made For Love' - Gene Austin
03 - 'Bach Suite' - Tina Guo, Joseph Meyer, Daniel Rosenboom
04 - '1955' - Brian Reitzell, Dave Palmer & Roger Neill
05 - 'Sweet Jazz Music' - Jelly Roll Morton
06 - 'That Da Da Strain' - Mamie Smith
07 - 'Mamanita' - Jelly Roll Morton
08 - 'Moon Waltz' - Brian Reitzell, Dave Palmer & Roger Neill
09 - 'Veronica’s Blues' - Brian Reitzell, Dave Palmer & Roger Neill
10 - 'Breezin’ Along With The Breeze' - Josephine Baker
11 - 'Beginner’s Theme Suite' - Brian Reitzell, Dave Palmer & Roger Neill
12 - 'Buddy Bertrand’s Blues' - Jelly Roll Morton

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Darren Rea