--Russell Woessner, Philadelphia Weekly

"'East Side, West Side.....' - ITG Editor Phil Stewart alerted me to a nifty new imported CD by jazz pianist Uri Caine and features clarinetist Don Byron. The Sidewalks of New York (Winter & Winter 910038) is a 78 minute aural musical tour of New York and Tin Pan Alley. More ragtime than jazz and featuring more than adequate versions of comic songs of the period ('Cohen Owes Me Ninety-Seven Dollars', 'Nobody'), it's a most unusual trip. You want unusual? How about 'Take Me Out To The Ball Game' sung in Yiddish? Philadelphia jazz vocalist Barbara Walker belts out Sophie Tucker's classic 'Some Of These Days' in both a rehearsal and finished version - and after the 10 minute length you'll definitely know the lyrics. Instrumentals include W.C. Handy's 'Memphis Blues' and Eubie Blake's 'Charleston Rag' played by a band composed of Caine's friends.

"The sound engineer deserves special mention. This is a CD best enjoyed with headphones. Many of the songs are performed with a crowd gathered round and you can hear the voices and dialects throughout each piece. This can be both atmospheric and annoying. I found myself looking outside the room or down the street to see where the street noise was coming from, only to realize it is in the recording. And listening to 'Waitin' For The Robert E. Lee' is enhanced by the train which approaches from your right ear (or is it the left?). But a few times I wanted to tell the crowd to be quiet!

"The packaging is first class. The CD is enclosed in a small hardbound book with 14 pages of nifty period photos of New York scenes from the turn of the century. There are no liner notes. Though produced in Germany, the CD has been imported by Allegro Imports and is available at most major record stores. A brief survey found that most stores file it in the 'Jazz' section under the artist 'Uri Caine'. A fun disc and well worth searching out." - Steve Ramm, Anything Phonographic, In The Groove Magazine