EuroClubdeJazz - "Hot Piano!" Review - December 2003

There is no doubt that Mark Birnbaum can play brilliantly. However, it is a matter opinion, I suppose, if these 24 - mainly ragtime numbers - will have any lasting effect on the listener.

Many seem to be a cross between Winifred Atwell – if you can remember her – and Thelonious Monk with a sprinkling of classical composers’ work. Well, he is a classically trained pianist.

He has seriously tried to get away from simply playing good old rags, Ellington etc., with some blinding fingerwork, seemingly trying to place as many notes as possible in each bar.