Hello All,  I was saddened to hear of the death of John Farrell.
John created a huge body of work in transcribing and reproducing some
of the great jazz, blues, ragtime and boogie woogie stylists of the
last century.  Hand-punching piano rolls and, later, arranging MIDI
files (which he provided to worldwide fans for free), John almost
single-handedly kept alive a tradition along the lines of J. Lawrence
Cook.  In a way, I consider John the J. L. Cook of the 1980s and beyond.

John was always helpful with answers to questions about arranging and
editing.  He provided useful comments about my own arranging efforts.
He had a killer ear for transcribing old recordings and produced some
wonderful sheet music transcriptions as well.  His web site contained
over 140 MIDI files of his arrangements and transcriptions.  Later,
when John became angered that some unscrupulous people were downloading
his MIDI arrangements and selling them without his permission or payment,
he started truncating those MIDI files on his web site.  I contacted
him about this and he happily sent me a dozen or more complete files.
He also introduced me to other traditional jazz piano fans around the
globe, including a friend of his in Sydney, Australia.

After hearing of his illness and sending him an email, I had recently
completed a MIDI composition in the hopes of cheering him up.  I recorded 
it on my Disklavier and purposely did not edit the brushed notes and
clinkers in the hopes that he'd feel motivated to get back to his
arranging and clean up the file.  Alas, I put off sending it to him and
now he won't get a chance to hear or edit my "Get Well Boogie."

Marc J. Sachnoff