I’ve grouped together three Pierian releases because they each
reflect something of the pep and vivacity of the 1920s and
1930s, the years in which these piano rolls were recorded by
some of the leading practitioners in the field. I’ve reviewed
a lot of roll recordings and some by Pierian so it’s not necessary
for me to reprise the many caveats necessary when discussing
the function and reproduction of rolls, and their very ambiguous
position as cultural artefacts.
One of these discs was performed exclusively by a single player,
Ferde Grofé and that album is called The Roaring 20s.
He recorded the twenty-three pieces between 1924 and 1927,
at a time therefore when he was arranging for Paul Whiteman’s
orchestra and orchestrating Rhapsody in Blue, which
he did in the year he set down his first roll in this set.
In total he set down 64 rolls for Ampico between these four
years so we have a third or so of them here, and they are representative.
Whatever reservations one has about the system, and they are
sometimes overwhelming, one can generally rely on it for relative
tempo decisions. This is usually more important in classical
works, though it can sometimes crop up in popular songs of
the day as well, especially in B sections. Nothing quite so
drastically revealing happens here. He takes Hard Hearted
Hanna at a jaunty lick, the Vamp from Savannah, GA, sounding
more than usually brisk and businesslike. By contrast he – or
the roll system, or both – turns Somebody Loves Me into
rather a heavy booted affair. It’s instructive though, I think,
to hear his very vampy approach to Coward’s Poor Little
Rich Girl and his pleasing awareness of the Viennese kitsch
that underlies In The Middle Of The Night. His own group,
the Virginians, made a disc recording of It's A Million
To One You're In Love and this roll recording has verve
and plenty of unabashed brio, whereas something like Sonya exudes
exotic hues.
It’s Delovely! celebrates the music of Cole Porter and
is played by an array of pianists. It may well be more the
inherently lumpy and rhythmically unreliable nature of the
roll system that I Get a Kick Out of You sounds so lumpy,
with a lagging left hand: I doubt Adam Carroll is entirely
to blame. The selection from Nymph Errant was not commercially
released so it’s good to have it. It’s played by Frank Milne,
an incredibly prolific Scottish roll player, who moonlighted
under a number of aliases – Sherry Brothers, N Sherry, R Farquhar
and Bob Edgeworth among them. Examples of the Dundee-born pianist’s
roll recordings litter this series. There are two versions
of I'm in Love Again from Greenwich Village Follies
of 1924. The first is by Grofé – it’s also on his single
volume mentioned above – and the second is by the little-known
H Sommer. Both come from 1927.
The final volume, Let's Face the Music and Dance, is
a compilation of things from the 1920s and 30s – the disc title
is awry in claiming that these are only from – or of – the
1930s as a number of the rolls were made in the late twenties;
one actually dates from 1922. ‘Sherry Brothers’ is here again,
a veteran of the Ampico system, and we meet the two piano team
of Carroll and Fairchild for a Kern song. Once again Coward
is vamped – this time Dance, Little Lady, which is played
by Howard Lutter (a recording executive, and big cheese in
the popular music divisions of Welte) in 1929. It’s intriguing
to hear Dancing Fool which has a Billy Mayerl title
ring to it, but which espouses some amusing Boogie and railroad
rhythms. There are two performances of Dancing in the Dark.
That by Adam Carroll is rougher than the suaver effort by Frank
Milne. Carroll is one of the heroes of the series, a springy,
rhythmically engaging fellow, who is not inferior to Milne.
The latter in his alias as Sherry Brothers proves droll in
an up-tempo Two Sleepy People. Forget and banish thoughts
of Al Bowlly when it comes to Goodnight, Sweetheart.
The Ray Noble tune is taken at a fair old lick, for quick dancing
purposes.
There is ambient noise in the sound, but there generally is
in this series of Pierian discs and I’ve noted it before. The
notes include capsule biographies of the performers, where
known. If you are looking for some period sounds, then this
enjoyable trawl could be a good starting place.
Jonathan Woolf
Track listing
It's Delovely!
It's de-Lovely (Red, Hot and Blue) [2:28]
I Get a Kick Out of You (Anything Goes) [3:35]
You Do Something to Me (Red, Hot and Blue) [2:47]
What Is This Thing Called Love (Wake up and Dream) [3:10]
Night & Day (The Gay Divorce) [2:58]
From Now On/Get Out of Town (Leave It to Me) [3:25]
You've Got Something (Red, Hot and Blue) [3:10]
Rosalie/Who Knows (Rosalie) [3:20]
When Love Comes Your Way/Me and Marie (Jubilee) [6:07]
Swingin' the Jinx Away (Born to Dance) [1:33]
Easy to Love/I've Got You Under My Skin (Born to Dance) [5:45]
You're the Top (Anything Goes) [3:02]
Do I Love You/When Love Beckons (DuBarry Was a Lady) [3:18]
Four Selections From "Panama Hattie" 1. Fresh as a Daisy 2. Let's Be
Buddies 3. My Mother Would Love You 4 .I’ve Still Got My Health. [5:55].
Four Selections From "Nymph Errant" 1. How Could We Be Wrong? 2. The
Physician 3. Experiment 4.Solomon [3:09]
I'm in Love Again (Greenwich Village Follies of 1924) [2:07]
I'm in Love Again (Greenwich Village Follies of 1924) [3:05]
Let's Do It (Paris) [3:05]
Old-Fashioned Garden, An (Hitchy Koo) [3:01]
Yale Medley (2) 1. Bull Dog 2. Bingo Eli Yale [1:26]
Let's Face the Music and Dance
Let's Face the Music and Dance [2:52]
Never Gonna Dance [2:34]
I Won't Dance [3:17]
Dance, Little Lady [3:28]
Tip-Toe Thru the Tulips With Me [3:34]
The Music Goes Round and Round [2:49]
Dancing on the Ceiling [2:52]
Dancing Fool [3:39]
Dancing in the Dark [2:48]
You and the Night and the Music [3:33]
Dancing in the Dark [3:03]
It's Three O'Clock in the Morning [2:42]
Two Cigarettes in the Dark [2:42]
The Way You Look Tonight [3:10]
I Only Have Eyes For You [3:12]
My Heart Stood Still [2:58]
You Were Meant For Me [2:30]
Two Sleepy People [2:10]
Time on My Hands [2:53]
There's a Small Hotel [3:40]
Embraceable You [3:16]
I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm [3:33]
Goodnight, Sweetheart [3:35]
I'm Singing in the Rain! [3:19]
The Roaring 20s
Limehouse Blues [3:14]
Hard Hearted Hanna [3:18]
5 Foot 2 [2:57]
Somebody Loves Me [3:12]
Novelty Fox Trot Medley [4:08]
It Had To Be You [3:09]
Ukelele Lady [3:01]
Charlie, My Boy [3:03]
Poor Little Rich Girl [3:08]
Crazy Words, Crazy Tune [2:59]
I'm In Love Again [3:22]
On A Night Like This [2:54]
The More We Are Together [2:41]
Musical Comedy Favorites [3:41]
In The Middle Of The Night [2:56]
Lo Nah[3:04]
Please [2:53]
It's A Million To One You're In Love [3:04]
Show Me The Way [2:56]
Somebody Else Took You Out Of My Arms [2:52]
Am I Wasting My Time On You? [2:57]
Thinking Of You [2:57]
Sonya [2:51]
Sherry
Brothers: Adam Carroll; Harry Shipman: Arden and Carroll: Frank Milne: Victor
Lane; Edgeworth; R Farquhar; N Sherry; Ferde Grofé; Robert Joyce; Marshall Bartholomew
(piano rolls) 
