•Thanks to Robbie Rhodes for providing a link to YouTube to hear Eubie Blake play "Strut Miss Lizzie". Although not credited to a piano roll, this is indeed Mel-O-Dee 4241. Personally, this is not my favorite piano roll version of "Strut Miss Lizzie". Rather, it is QRS 1364 played by Pete Wending wi...

•Does anyone know where I can get a list of the Duo-Art roll numbering systems, for production dates, etc? Thanks, Marc Goodman Cleveland, Ohio [ Aeolian roll numbering systems overlap somewhat. These Aeolian Co. [ labels (brands) probably should be included: [ [ Aeolian [ Aeriol Piano [ Artist Song...

•Robbie Rhodes has listed the 1919 Artrio-Angelus rolls recorded by Eubie Blake. There is at least one more known Artrio performance by Eubie Blake. It is Song Roll 2035, "Strut Miss Lizzie". It was transcribed from Mel-O-Dee roll 4241. (All early Artrio song rolls use Mel-O-Dee (Aeolian) masters.) ...

•Thanks to Jim Miller for providing the Jim Elfers AMICA Bulletin article from December of 1969, which described Ed Hayden's Artrio piano in San Francisco [170610 MMDigest]. I would like to expand on two areas of the article. First, there is this discussion: "At one time Ed thought he could easily a...

•The following text was condensed from LP liner notes, written by collector and historian Mike Montgomery, and reproduced at https://archive.org/stream/RecordResearch159_60/RR159_60_djvu.txt - - - Sometime, probably during 1919, Eubie took a train from Boston to New York. A man on the train recogniz...

•Hello MMD readers, As the year ends I'm knee-deep in burrs and tags on master roll perforations (now called "chad" ever since the November voting machine scandals). I'm in the process of removing these irregularities on a 1988 arrangement of Lamb's "Cleopatra Rag", a 4-hand transcription by Hersh &...

•Hello all, I apologize for my long absence in posts in this forum. I have tried to stick to my rule of not posting something unless I think it matters or will help somebody, etc. etc. I'm sure some of you may remember Mr. Randolph Herr's posting in February 24, 2009, MMDigest about Mr. Lemuel Fowle...

•Hello, Does anyone have a Duo-Art or Mel-O-Dee roll of "Blue Shadows" played by Henri Bergman? I would like to buy it. I have the Mel-O-Dee version but it's really warped and buckling in places. Thanks, Ben Roth

•Hello everybody. I have a Mel-O-Dee roll of "Don't Tell Her What's Happened To Me" (Alter) played by Henri Bergman. However, the same, exact arrangement exists on Duo-Art 104725 and it says played by Frank Milne. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi9w8Lpdqjg Did Frank Milne have a "nom de rolle" ...

•I am writing an article on player piano/phonograph combinations for the Antique Phonograph Society. In my research, I found that Melville Clark and Aeolian both had expectations that the piano could be played in concert with the phonograph. Both companies had designs and patents to allow some form ...

•I was going to include this comment in my article on the Keystone Music Roll company but I thought it might get twisted by adding another thread, so now I address the topic of printing words on music rolls. I really miss the words printed on the roll -- it takes half the fun away! Sure, a few thoug...

•'The Martin Method' is usually seen on one of the 4-roll editions published by the Gulbransen Piano Co., and perforated by Aeolian's Mel-O-Dee/Universal plant. However, there is also an earlier set of rolls which numbers 6, and this was cut by QRS Music Co. for the Gulbransen enterprise. The QRS se...

•Hello MMD readers, While reading the daily articles on the topic of mechanical musical instruments losing their public appeal or "costing too much" for future collectors, two things come to mind. First, pianos, organs and other roll playing instruments were never inexpensive, the first time around...

•I remember buying a few Aeolian rolls new back in the early '70s. Andy's comment about the angled box top (along the long axis) is what tripped my memory. I haven't had my piano playing in a long time (it's being worked on right now), but I recall these Aeolian rolls as having lesser quality than t...

•I recently purchased a batch of MelODee player piano rolls, each one has four tunes. There is no Tempo marked on the rolls; am I just supposed to use trial and error to set my piano to the proper tempo? Is there a [standard] set tempo for all rolls, and the same for each of the four tunes? Fredric ...

•I have some Music Roll History questions I've been puzzling over. Perhaps someone can help me. Can anyone provide me with a list of roll brands issued by Standard Music Roll Co. of New Jersey? Were they related to The Supreme Music Co., also of NJ? Also, can anyone tell me what manufacturers were b...

•Larry, I keep list of "hot" rolls that have been reissued, and extracted the Milton Ager titles in hopes this may be of some use to you. As you mentioned, he wrote 100's of fine tunes, but these are the only ones I know of which have been reissued on rolls. I attached my finds as tab-separated text...

•Hi to all, I have a hand-picked collection of 3200 piano rolls for sale. All rolls play, all rolls have proper labels. One-quarter are computer generated labels. 173 rolls are recent QRS with about 80 being CU series, special decorated paper Christmas rolls from 1986 'til 2004. 328 rolls are Supert...

•Hello MMD readers, Saw the posting about this topic and believe I have appeared more frequently over the last 40-plus years, in this capacity, than most collectors in the field. This includes daily performances at the Musical Wonder House museum http://www.wiscasset.net/artcraft/mwh.htm both on the...

Hi Robbie, you wrote: > Dear Douglas, please tell me more about Gershwin and Armbruster. > > 1. Did Gershwin play the Duo-Art recording piano for the 2-roll > Duo-Art issue of the Rhapsody? He probably played the source material for that 'Primo' roll I wrote about, going at Tempo 100, using the 'Sec...