Pianist Charles Thompson should not be confused with the later jazz keyboard artist of the same name whose billing often received a regal touch, Sir Charles Thompson. The earlier Thompson was likewise a prolific composer as well as performer, predating his knighted namesake stylistically as well as historically. The composer of pieces such as the fragrant Lily Rag, Thompson was the ragtime champion of Missouri during the last decades of the 19th century. Much of Thompson's body of work was not actually published until as late as 1914, by which time the composer had put in many years presenting these ragtime works while in his competitive stance as a concert performer. Recording sessions made for the Euphonic label as well as some fascinating actual house-party tapings are among the documentation of this superb pianist; critical comparisons have been made to the better-known Eubie Blake. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi