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MMD > Archives > January 2008 > 2008.01.29 > 02Prev  Next


Recordings of Mechanical Music
By Andrew Barrett

Hi Brian and group,  Chris Carlisle offers all those recordings and
more:

http://www.bandorganmusic.com/
http://www.bandorganmusic.com/preservation1.htm

He has also been adding new ones, and recently he added a digital
downloads page whereby the recordings are (and will be -- it's a work
in progress) available via CD Baby and also iTunes.  So those of you
with iPods out there can find it easier than ever before to listen
to band organ and orchestrion music!

http://www.bandorganmusic.com/digital_downloads.htm

There is even a separate section for the Hathaworld CDs, though they
are also listed in the general CD page ("preservation1" above).

Now, if you mean new recordings, other than Mr. Carlisle and Mr. Bill
Black (Carrousel Music), I don't know who else is still releasing this
stuff.  Some older releases are still available, such as the nice
recordings of the Seabreeze Park Wurlitzer organ on Dynamic Recordings.

http://music.carouselstores.com/
http://www.dynamicmusic.com/carousel.html

I think the Klavier Records stuff is still available.  Their so-called
"Karrussels of Europe" CD, actually all European orchestrions recorded
from the Nethercutt collection, is still available to my knowledge.

There are two orchestrion tracks on a Lyn Larsen theatre organ CD put
out by Musical Contrasts, entitled "San Sylmar: The Music Tour"
(available from Organ Historical Society, #MCI-209).  So, San Sylmar
is not completely averse to recording things; I think it is just time
versus demand.

http://www.klavier-records.com/circus.htm
http://www.ohscatalog.com/noname2.html

They are always busy restoring things, moving things around, and giving
tours, leaving a little less time for recording than you might think.
Also, I don't think them, or anyone commercially-minded would want to
produce a recording if they didn't think it would sell very well.  The
only reason "Karussels..." might have even been released is because
they made the carousel connection (incorrect as it may be); this may
have been a wise marketing move, because I wonder how many CDs they
would have sold were it called "Orchestrions of Europe" and the liner
notes talked about the instruments rather than European carousels.

I would love to make some recordings of instruments, however besides
the money factor (it could be a labor of love), some collectors have
been "burned" and are thus not interested in that sort of thing.
I was talking to a prominent Southern California collector a few months
ago, whose house I had visited during an AMICA meeting, about recording
(specifically, video taping).  Now, this collector has many rare and
exquisitely restored items, which look and sound great.  He told me
that as long as it was for personal use only (and it is; I am not
making copies for anyone, nor posting it on the Internet), I could take
_visual only_ video of his collection.  So I did, and thanked him a
great deal for the opportunity.

After this, he told me the reason why.  Apparently, someone who may or
may not have been a member of one of the clubs (I can't remember) had
visited his place a couple years back and took home videos of the man's
collection, with his consent (since the video person had said it was
for personal use).  Imagine his surprise when later someone told him
of a commercially released DVD that was being sold that, among others,
featured one of the orchestrions in his collection!  This collector
apparently never received any royalties or even credit for his
generosity, nor did the man with the video camera tell him the truth
about what he intended to do with that video.  So I totally understand.
It is a shame that dishonest and greedy people like the cameraman have
to go and spoil it for the rest of us.

As to Mr. Sanfilippo's fine collection, I am not sure why there aren't
CD recordings available yet, but he is only too happy to show off the
collection itself at MBSI and AMICA chapter meetings and conventions.
He also does special open houses for other like-minded groups such as
phonograph collectors.  To my knowledge, any and all proceeds from his
open houses go to charity, so it is not necessarily about ego.  I'm
sure if and when they produce a CD, at least part of the sales would
go to charity, too, since that's the kind of people they are.

Collectors, by necessity, have to lock their stuff up because (and
especially the small items like music boxes) if they don't, people
will "walk" away with it!  Also, it should be taken into account that
even large and spectacular collections like that are part of private
residences, and as generous as the homeowners are, they really don't
want people walking through at all hours of the night all year looking
at it.  It also causes excessive wear and tear on the instruments
themselves.

In fact, the Sanders family, of Deansboro, New York, found their house
so overcrowded with instruments, and with so many interested people
wanting to walk through and look at inconvenient times, that they built
some more buildings and created a museum.  Of course that museum is just
a memory now, but the theory is the same.  As Mr. Tony Marsico pointed
out in a previous MMD, when Charles B. Brown III passed away, he wanted
his home and collection turned into a museum.  Perhaps that's what some
others here might want to do.

http://www.bayernhofmuseum.com/

Just for the record, although I have not yet visited his fine collection,
if anyone here is helping Mr. Sanfilippo put together a recording of
some of his instruments, and wants to know what people want to hear,
may I suggest a few I always wanted to hear:  The Peerless Arcadian
or DeLuxe Orchestrions, the 67-key Limonaire organ, the large North
Tonawanda band organ, the Hupfeld Super Pan, a Violano-Virtuoso, and
the large Pierre Eich Solophone, for starters.  Excepting the Violano,
I would guess that no recordings of the above models of instruments
have been commercially released.  I would love to hear from anyone who
can prove me wrong.  You have no idea how long I have been looking for
a recording of a Peerless orchestrion, no matter how old or out-of-print.
A Berry-Wood orchestrion recording would be nice, too, but you know how
rare _those_ are!

Andrew Barrett


(Message sent Tue 29 Jan 2008, 10:07:13 GMT, from time zone GMT-0800.)

Key Words in Subject:  Mechanical, Music, Recordings

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