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MMD > Archives > September 2014 > 2014.09.11 > 02Prev  Next


Introduction & B.A.B. Band Organs
By Will Eley

I have finally gotten around to a writing proper introduction.
As a 17-year-old, I am one of the younger readers of the MMD.

My interest in the B.A.B. scales has a bit of a story behind it.
Growing up in Hampton, Virginia, in the late 1990s-2000s, I visited
the nearby carousel PTC#50 quite often.  Even as a little 3-year-old,
my favorite part was always the music.  I remember being amused
watching the drum beaters move by themselves, and I even had one
favorite song I knew by heart, "Mexicali Rose".

Time went on and as I got older, I stopped riding.  Nearly 12 years
later, I decided to visit the carousel I had loved as a young child
one more time.  As I walked in, something felt different.  I heard
music, but it was definitely not the beautiful and loud music that
I remembered.  It was a CD, playing recorded carousel music from a
different organ.

The real band organ, which played 66-key B.A.B. rolls, sat silent
and dusty.  All the staff who ran the carousel refused to play the
organ, claiming it is too loud.  So, for the next three years I tried
to spread the word via friends and social media to pressure the
museum into using the real band organ.

The organ is currently having MIDI added as well as having all its
B.A.B. rolls scanned up in Connecticut.  The band organ should be
playing again by March, and by then it will be one of the few band
organs that still play B.A.B. arrangements.

Will Eley


(Message sent Thu 11 Sep 2014, 01:40:53 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.)

Key Words in Subject:  B.A.B, Band, Introduction, Organs

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