Robin Frost, pianist and composer of novelty-stride-ragtime pieces,
died March 25th, 2020, in Santa Barbara, California.  He was 89.

His piano compositions are inventive and entertaining and seem to
be unplayable by human hands!  Ragtime scholar/historian Ed Berlin
described Robin's music in this review of Matthew Davidson's CD
"Space Shuffle and Other Futuristic Rags":

  "The highlights of this 52-minute CD are the finger-breaking
pieces of Robin Frost, an inventive and witty composer on the
fringes of today's ragtime world.  Frost's selections are not
truly rags, being closer to a full-handed stride and the 1920s-30s
novelty piano styles of Zez Confrey and Rube Bloom (the latter
represented on this recording with the whole-tone spiced "That
Futuristic Rag").

  "But while recalling past styles, the Frost selections are not
simply nostalgic recreations in bygone languages.  His music takes
us down what might at first seem like familiar paths, but then
sidesteps the expected with delightfully unanticipated twists.

  "Space Shuffle," "Windmill Rag," "Fingers on Holiday," "Occident
Express," and "Zymurgy Rag" are a treat of foot-tapping polyrhythms,
surprise modulations, ear-tickling melodic patterns, and harmonies
that appear suddenly from left field, satisfying as much as they
startle.

  "This is fun music.  And though technically demanding, it is
eminently pianistic, developed from keyboard patterns that fall
naturally to the hands."

John Roache created MIDI file sequences of Robin's tunes, I punched
a handful of piano rolls of them, John Farrell created many, many
more rolls, and Tim Baxter (Meliora Music Rolls) took up the torch
and created even more Robin Frost piano rolls.

So that's why I believe Robin Frost is appropriately called a "piano
roll composer."

A short obituary is at
https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/newspress/obituary.aspx?n=robin-frost&pid=195866726 

A nice memorial by his brother, Frank Frost, is at
https://www.independent.com/2020/04/02/robert-tuttle-morris-frost-1930-2020/ 

A biography by ragtimer John Roache is at
https://www.johnroachemusic.com/frost.html 

A memorial by jazz writer Joe Bebco is at
https://syncopatedtimes.com/ragtime-composer-robin-frost-has-died/ 

Several performances of Robin Frost piano rolls are on YouTube at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Lj4rItU8Fo&list=PL878E4D305635DF15 

Robbie Rhodes
Etiwanda, California
rrhodes@LinkLine.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]