Pianophilia

Dear Frank,
thank you so much for your generosity!
You have transcribed some of the greatest ragtime and jazz piano rolls ever! It was so nice of you to share your great work with us!
I personally feel I must try to repay the kindness and I'll do my best to contribute to the forums about syncopated piano on Pianophilia. I think many others here feel the same way.
Very best RAGards
Luigi

I'm attaching a very raggy piano roll performance of a nice song written by Egbert Van Alstyne (a fine ragtime pianist himself).
The song is "You're In Style When You're Wearing A Smile", as performed on piano roll by Charley Straight.
Enjoy the music!
A couple of notes about the transcription: all the tenth chords played in the bass are performed as broken tenths; I sometimes notated them in that way, but then got tired and preferred to save time...
Also, the performance includes an intro, a verse and then the chorus played for two times: that's what you find in my transcription. The paino roll then starts again with the intro, etc... as it often happens with songs on piano rolls, they repeated the same performance after the end to have a longer roll.
Anyway what you find here notated is the thing, and I hope you'll like it.
Soon I'll post other transcriptions of mine.
Best RAGards
Luigi

Dear Friends,

Thank you all for your extremely kind words regarding my transcriptions. It is an honor for me to know that the work was well received. There is an old quotation that I can't give exactly, but it goes something like "What You Share With Others You Keep Forever. That Kept To Oneself Is Ultimately Lost."

And to Dear Luigi, Your Charley Straight transcription is marvelous. I like the way you scored the tenths, not breaking them up between measures. It's a lot of fun to play!! I strongly encourage you to continue to share your work here at PianoPhilia, because the best and most appreciative people are right here.

All best,

Frank

Dear Frank,
thank you so much for the very kind words and your encouragement !!
I'm very happy and honored that you liked the transcription and I'll post some more very soon!
Today I'd like to post something I've been sent some time ago. It has to do with the Maurice "Roy" Wetzel of "Fireworks Rag" (that was a fantastic transcription!!!).
In the attachment you'll find a curious instruction book that he wrote to let the music student learn to play in piano roll style, entitled "Play Like Roll Artists".
The riffs, the breaks and the pattern explained in the book are those commonly used by professional ragtime performers of the time.
The book also offers suggestions on how to arrange a song on the basis of performance practices, although I think (but I'm just a weak amateur pianist) that the final exercise is a bit too difficult to be played exactly in that way....
I personally think there are some slight exaggerations in this book, but it's certainly a very instructive tool for the rhythm pianist.
The music examples featured, including the last exercise, are taken from Max Kortlander's piano rolls.
I'm also attaching the piano roll (a midi scan made by Terry Smythe) of Roy Wetzel's "Interference - Ragtime Specialty", as played by Hi Babit.
Enjoy the music
Luigi

Dear Luigi,
Thanks for your most interesting comments and for posting the Wetzel composition and "How To" book! The latter is an item of considerable historical value.
In fact, looking at the last few pages it looks just like some of our transcriptions!
First on the "Interference" solo. I have this roll and have been aware of the piece for many years now. The artist's true name is Herman Babich I believe. The
mystery is where he got the score of this tune. As far as I know it wasn't copyrighted, so he must have obtained it from Wetzel himself. I've always really
liked this tune and think it's one of the best of the "modern" ragtime compositions. Another good candidate for transcription!
Second on the "How To Play Like Piano Roll Artists" book - I'm pretty sure I have this filed somewhere in the "stacks," anyhow it is familiar to me but I am
glad you posted it because it can be very valuable for the PianoPhilia members. There isn't anything quite like this book, except perhaps the
Wendling/Kortlander folio which (sort of) tries to show how to play in piano roll style.
Let's keep the good stuff "rolling" along - I think everything you've been posting is absolutely terrific.
All best,
Frank

fhimpsl wrote:First on the "Interference" solo. I have this roll and have been aware of the piece for many years now. The artist's true name is Herman Babich I believe. The
mystery is where he got the score of this tune. As far as I know it wasn't copyrighted, so he must have obtained it from Wetzel himself. I've always really
liked this tune and think it's one of the best of the "modern" ragtime compositions. Another good candidate for transcription!

Dear Frank,
thanks so much for the info: I didn't know about Babit's real name. "Interference" is very nice and I put it in the list of piano rolls to transcribe
Thanks so much for the compliments! I'm glad the things I'm posting are appreciated!
About the pianola style, I would also like to remember a great ragtime piano solo composed by David Silverman and Arthur Ward and published in 1914 under the title of "That Hand-Played Rag" and later under the title of "The Missouri Rag" (but the music is exactly the same). Silverman also recorded it on piano roll.
That's the only example I remember of a published rag that demonstrated the pianola style that some pianists used in the 1910s. Among the main sources of information about the Tin Pan Alley ragtime scene of New York for the "They All Played Ragtime" book, there were Jean Schwartz, Max Kortlander, Pete Wendling, Jimmy Durante and Fred Burton. The latter was billed as the "human pianola" or "human pianoler" and Blesh and Janis wrote great things about his ragtime piano playing.
His pianola style actually consists in adding as many fill-in's as he could, plus a lot of slurs, but I really love his playing and he's one of my favorite pianists of the ragtime era! Saldy I don't know anything about him
Here I'm posting a zip file with three recordings of Fred Burton, "Margie", "Toot-Toot Tootsie" and the "Yes, We Have No Bananas Medley" (including "Yes, We Have No Bananas", "If You Knew Susie" and "Beer Barrel Polka"). I think it's always fascinating to hear an original pianist of the period play!
I'm also attaching a more sophisticated example of the "pianola style", as demonstrated by jazz pianist Fred Elizalde: that's a snippet from a 1932 recording in which he shows the evolution of rhythmic piano. I think that the Elizalde brief sample, "Out Of The East" played in a very sparkling pianola style, is quite close to what Roy Wetzel taught with his instruction book.
Then there's a snippet of Willie "The Lion" Smith remembering the old styles: I post here the part where he imitates silent movie music (music for Pola Negri) and piano rolls.
Then I'm also including a recording of a modern pianist, Bob Wright, playing Clarence Woods' "Black Satin" and trying to emulate some of the difficult passages heard in the arranged piano roll: Wright apparently has no troubles in playing a riff and a tremolo together or two melodies together, always with one hand. I think he was an exceptional pianist (I must also add that he played the Eubie Blake and Charley Thompson rags even better than Blake and Thompson themselves!).
I hope you enjoy the recordings. If you don't want to download them all, get at least the zip file of Fred Burton, since it seems he was an original ragtimer of the period.
Best
Luigi

Dear Luigi,
A fascinating wealth of information, thank you! I was unaware of Burton (except for the write up in TAPR) and never heard these recordings. Were these put out by Blesh and Janis on the Circle label perhaps? I know they were trying to get as many original ragtimers to record as possible back in the 1940s. I would theorize (tentatively) that Burton is a pseudonym for a very great pianist whose name isn't usually heard but it should be...Ray Turner. He is the only one I know of who could play that way. Like Dick Hyman today (and Bob Wright years ago) he had the nature of a musical chameleon and could exactly emulate any style, no matter how difficult. I was lucky enough to meet Lou Busch (Joe "Fingers" Carr) who was a great friend with Ray, and Lou said he was the best pianist of all of them. Had he only recorded more! There is a 1920s era piano duet on "Kitten On The Keys" that he did in England on the HMV label with another great unknown pianist, Harry Perrella. This record gives some idea as to what these pianists were capable of. Ray made some private recordings that wound up on transcription disks, which I have, but after our 2000+ mile move back in October the 78rpm material is still unfortunately inaccessible. In any event I welcome information on the discographical info of these Burton recordings. I think every piano roll or ragtime buff should certainly hear them.
The little Willie "The Lion" Smith cut is precious and just the kind of thing he would do when talking about the old days. The Fred Elizalde "Out Of The East" is a snippet from a 12" English Columbia (or Parlophone?) which is titled something like "From Ragtime To Swingtime." The "Out Of The East" cut is Elizalde playing in his hottest style, and is jaw-dropping good. Too bad real piano rolls don't sound as good as this take does!!!
Finally on Bob Wright, well he is another old friend of mine who could play anything, and another "musical chameleon" so to speak. Bob hasn't been able to play for years now owing to a neuromuscular condition. "Black Satin" was privately recorded by Terry Waldo in the late 1960's. I can't for the life of me play that tremelo and keep the accompaniment going at the same time, but for Bob it was a piece of cake.
Hope all the information helps...let keep the good stuff coming!
All Best,
Frank

Hi Frank,
Thanks so much for the correction about Bob Wright and the interesting information about him. I’m re-reading Terry Waldo’s liner notes of his cassette issued by Stomp Off Records (I didn’t do that when I had posted the recording) and found this interesting passage:”Many of the others such as Sky Rockets by E. Phillip Severin and Black Satin Rag by Clarence Woods existed only on very rare sheets.”
I have Sky Rockets as a published sheet music and I’m wondering what was the very rare sheet of Black Satin…a manuscript by Woods, or rather a published version…?
Do you know more about that?
I’m very sorry about Wright’s problem with his arm. Yes, also those liner notes briefly mentioned it.
I’m very glad you enjoyed the recordings I posted!
Yes, the Elizalde snippet comes from the recording you remembered. That was issued by Decca and the narrator, Christopher Stone, is very imprecise in describing the styles and the periods…he even makes confusion between “Ghost Of The Piano” and “Coaxing The Piano” that Elizalde actually plays.
The snippet by The Lion is part of a session called “Reminiscing The Piano Greats”. If there’s enough interest, I will post the complete session.
I’m very very glad you enjoyed Fred Burton!
The possibility that he was Ray Turner in disguise is interesting, but I’m very sure that Burton was a real person and not a pseudonym.
That’s what “They All Play Ragtime” says about Burton:
"White ragtime in the East and the checkered story of Tin Pan Alley came from talks with Jimmy (The Schnozzle) Durante, Pete Wendling, Jean Schwartz, Max Kortlander and FRED BURTON (The Human Pianola). Percy Wenrich (The Joplin Kid) furnished wide information not only on Tin Pan Alley, but on Chicago ragtime and the folk ragtime of Missouri".
That was written among the acknowledgements, and then:
"In Albany, New York, Sammy Davis is not hard to find; in San Francisco the white ragtimer Paul Lingle holds forth; and at Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn one can see and hear the entertaining antics of FRED BURTON, "The Human Pianola." In Movieland the visitor is apt to run into Eddie (Sheet Iron) Barnes, quondam ragtime champion who defeated the British contender Phil Stebbins many years ago in an international contest. In Long Beach, the Ragtime Kid, Brun Campbell, will play Maple Leaf at the drop of a hat; and in Kansas City, Arthur Marshall will do likewise".
I assume that Blesh and Janis may have know about stars pianist Ray Turner in 1950 and they write about Burton as a real person, acknowledging him as “Fred Burton” for the information about Tin Pan Alley and locating him at Sheepshead Bay in Brooklin.
I’ve never seen the famous stenographed notes to TAPR written by Harriet Janis, although I’ve been told about some very interesting parts in them, and I wonder if there are more information about this guy.
On internet I found a small article included in a 1952 issue of “Billboard” mentioning the recordings of Burton for Parade Records (the recording you heard comes from one of their 45s).
Here I post the very brief article from Billboard.
Best
Luigi

Hi Luigi,
Thank you for the information on Fred Burton...for some reason his name just escapes me and I'm glad to be reminded of the write-up on him in TAPR. Further correction: It is Bob Wright playing "Black Satin" on the recording done in the 1960s; Terry Waldo just held the tape recorder. Only Bob could play like that. On "Black Satin" neither sheet music nor lead sheet score has ever turned up. It was not copyrighted (there is no card on file) so the piece is truly only a piano roll issue.
I have Rudy's original notes from TAPR (a photocopy) but it is buried right now amongst unfiled music...another consequence of our cross-country move a few months back. When I locate these notes I will check on Burton and let you know exactly what Blesh & Janis wrote down about him. When Dick Hyman started out in the music business he recorded ragtime piano under a couple of pseudonyms; "Knuckles O'Toole" and "Willie (The Rock) Knox." Another one, Al "Spider" Dugan was not Dick Hyman, but another fine pianist Lincoln Mayorga. That's why I thought Burton might have been another pseudonym. Do you know what record label the Burton recordings were issued under? That would be a nice one to look for.
As always, all the best,
Frank

Dear Frank,
Fred Burton recorded for Parade Records. I have most of his recordings (almost 30 tracks, I must check them) and I'll be more than happy to share them with you and anybody else in this forum.
Please just give me some time to prepare the "Big" file
The Janis notes must be very interesting I believe! Among the things in there, I'm sure there are comments by Brun Campbell (BTW Campbell is my very favorite ragtime pianist) about "A Ragtime Nightmare". Campbell said that Turpin didn't actually compose the piece, an that rag was actually Chauvin's.
Then there should also be information about Arthur Marshall's recording session at Circle Records. He must have played several numbers there, including "Swipesy", "Missouri Romp" and the "Charleston" by James P. Johnson.
I'm not actually sure if that is true.
Certainly I wonder what happened to those recordings by Marshall! He still was in good health then.
I have the Marshall recordings AFTER the stroke, when he was hosted by Bob Darch in 1959 and played a snippet of the then unknown "Little Jack's Rag" and also another great rag entitled "The Pea Pickler Rag". I love those recordings, but he certainly had lost strenght and sounded a bit tired. The real sensation of that session was the other ragtime pioneer, Claude "Chauf" Williams, playing his "Williams' Rag".
I think those musicians where fascinating, like their music!
I'm particularly fond of folk ragtime.
Best RAGards
Luigi