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Art Tatum Performances on Piano Rolls
By Jeffrey R. Wood

As far as I know, Art Tatum, who died in 1956, never made any piano
rolls.  However, J. Lawrence Cook transcribed a number of Tatum's
unique arrangements to piano rolls with a fair degree of success.
Unfortunately, they are not always labeled as such.  In my years of
collecting I have stumbled across these seven rolls:

QRS Rolls:
  4973 Get Happy
  7960 Sweet Lorraine
  9530 Stompin' at the Savoy
  9735 Flying Home

Aeolian Music Rolls:
  1050 Tiger Rag
  1745 Deep Purple
  3141 Flying Home

I imagine there are others, as well.  Some of these rolls require
use of the Tempo lever during play in order to "sound right", due to
limitations inherent in the 2:1 mastering system used to produce them.

Jeffrey R. Wood


(Message sent Wed 2 Dec 2009, 01:18:49 GMT, from time zone GMT-0800.)

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