Ghost Train Orchestra is a Brooklyn-based jazz and chamber ensemble led by Boston-based musician Brian Carpenter.

For the commission, Carpenter transcribed and arranged a set of overlooked music from late 1920s Chicago and Harlem and formed a side project from his regular band Beat Circus to perform it.

[1][2][3] The album featured Carpenter's rearrangements and often avant-garde treatments of early jazz from the 1920s and 1930s, drawn from recordings by such artists as Tiny Parham, Charlie Johnson, Fess Williams, and McKinney's Cotton Pickers.

GTO's 2013 album, Book of Rhapsodies, featured chamber-jazz works from the 1930s and '40s culled from found 78s and rediscoveries by music historians and collectors such as Mitchell Kaba and Irwin Chusid.

[6][7] In April 2024, GTO performed the album's repertoire with Kronos Quartet live at New York's Town Hall, with guest vocals by David Byrne, Karen Mantler, and others.