In Mechanical Music Digest of Dec. 21, 1997, Dave Saul wrote about the
connections between Aeolian, Mel-o-Dee and Gulbransen. I would like to
add a strange little incident that happened between two of those
parties: A friend had come across a Mel-o-Dee roll played by George
Gershwin and mailed it to me. It was "Whip-Poor-Will" by Jerome Kern.

I was familiar with the roll because I have the Duo-Art version. I
pulled down the leader of the Mel-O-Dee roll, and recognized the notes
until I saw something new. Octave tremolo in the tenor section was
added to this version that was not in the Duo-Art version.

I also have the Duo-Art and Mel-O-Dee versions of another Gershwin
performance "Left All Alone Again Blues" ; again by Kern. This roll
does not appear to have been changed.

Up to this time I had assumed that a Duo-Art roll would not be changed
for an 88-note release. Does anybody know of other examples?

Incidentally, the email address given for Dave Saul did not work when
I tried it.