Travel with me, friends, to a time before Fats and Fess, before Jelly Roll and Satchmo, to the primordial bog before jazz and rhythm and blues. Turn-of-the-century America and New Orleans teeming with brass bands, opera, string bands and ragtime. It is this era that infatuates pianist Scott Kirby, one that fires his imagination as a performer and composer.

Kirby, a native of Urbana, Ohio, who moved to New Orleans in 1988, is without a doubt one of the best ragtime players alive. He was rec...