Another Mayerl roll turns up

Another Mayerl roll turns up
(This was originally sent as a Private Message to Adam, but got stuck in the outbox.) For some time I've been wanting to add a Billy Mayerl 'Echo' roll to my collection, just as an example. The time came for me recently when I won one on Ebay. It's #D1379 (no 'V' after it - did that denote 'Vocal' roll, do you think?). The tune is 'Annabelle'. It's very similar to most of the others on the PPG website - a very faithful reproduction of handplaying - however, there's just something about it that makes me suspect it was one of the rolls they made by playing at half-speed then reducing the length. Not sure why I feel that way.. just something about the sound. Anyway, Adam, would you like to add it to the PPG's Mayerl page? I've already scanned it so it's just a matter of emailing you the MIDI file. I also won 'Minnetonka' played by Cuthbert Clarke and M. Purvey, but it's rather dire and sounds like one of the pirated rolls played on the pushup.

Hi there Robert, Many thanks for this and, yes, please do send me the midi and I'll put it on the PPG page with an accreditation to you! I did see this title and thought about it myself ...only as Annabelle is my middle-daighter's name! I have a few Mayerl rolls myself. One I haven't got scanned on yet is the Paul Whiteman waltz hit "Wonderful One" played by Mayerl. There is someone here in the UK on the Billy Mayerl Society who, I understand, has collected all 37 known titles. Rather strangely, I am informed, the Mayerl Society don't care for them at all as they regard them as rough. I suppose compared to his later compositions of the late 20s and early 30s and the electrical recordings he did during those years they are a perhaps very rough. Personally, I think they're a superb example of hot British piano playing styles of the early 20s. Their roughness has a certain vibrancy of its own and (even though some are recorded in odd enhanced circumstances) as a pianist I think they're simply great...but then I can't stand a lot of the later frilly silly Mayerl stuff. I'm sure I've said it before elsewhere outside the forum but I'll say it again : the later Mayerl stuff makes me think Mayerl was some kind of a love child from a hot night where Zez Confrey slept with Chaminade. hahahahahaha! Oh dear , all those Billy Mayerl fanatics will pile in the hatred now! LOL! regards Adam PS strangely I think I too have the Echo "Minnetonka" somewhere!

I like them too - I'm far more interested in the jerky, unedited rolls than the highly polished QRS et al productions. One of the rarities in my collection is a group of four rolls that seem to be directly punched from a recording piano - complete with absolute clunkers that haven't been corrected and the perforations seem to be almost ripping into the paper. They all have simple labels identifying them as 'ArtistPlaYD' (sic) rolls played by Harry Auracher, who later became Harry Archer the Broadway composer and date from 1912-3ish - great handplayed ragtime and a couple of songs he wrote himself. I speculate Harry himself tried his hand at setting up a small rollmaking enterprise. It obviously didn't last very long, since noone's ever heard of Artisplayd, and these 4 rolls are the only ones I've ever seen. Anyone who's interested can use the MIDI search engine on my website, www.pianola.co.nz, to search artist 'Auracher' to listen to them. Anyway, after that digression...! Adam, I emailed the Echo MIDI to your ragtimefingers address.

Hello everyone, For those who do not know me, I have been a member of the Player Piano Group for twenty years, and am also a founder member of the Billy Mayerl Society. Thus I am pleased to see this thread as I have a particular interest in the recorded output of Billy Mayerl on both roll and record. Adam’s most recent post about the Echo rolls was informative but some clarification is required. So here is a response from that “someone here in the UK.” Of the Echo rolls Adam writes: ”Rather strangely, I am informed, the Mayerl Society don't care for them at all as they regard them as rough.” In fact this is the personal opinion of Mike Lorenzini, Chairman of the BMS, and not that of the Society in general. There is no official Society view on this subject and members have differing opinions on this and many other aspects of Mayerl’s output. I have had several discussions with Mike Lorenzini about the merits of Echo rolls. He accepts they have historic value but laments their poor production values (as I do) and what he feels is a lack of musical sophistication, especially when compared to how Mayerl played later. I see what he means, but appreciate the rolls for what they are. It is unfortunate that there are very few opportunities to compare a Mayerl roll with a contemporary 78 rpm record by him of the same song to -*test*-('") the accuracy of Echo’s recording and manufacturing process. I have been researching all Echo rolls for a number of years, not just those by Mayerl. (Well, someone had to do it.) While I do not have all his rolls I do have more than the number stated. I know of 40 rolls with Mayerl’s name on, although a handful are suspect and need further investigation. Since much of Echo’s output is still undocumented and unknown I believe there could be more by Mayerl yet to be discovered. For this reason I have been hesitant about publishing the information learned from of my research. After many years of searching I now have 38 of his Echo rolls in my collection and heard the two I do not have via the first midi e-Concert on the PPG website. For this I am most grateful to all concerned. Adam says he considers Mayerl’s Echo rolls “a superb example of hot British piano playing styles of the early 20s.” My response is more measured and I try not to let my enthusiasm for the subject cloud objectivity. Generally I find his hand-played Echo rolls enjoyable and interesting for several reasons and of course some rolls are more satisfying than others. I would say that, with qualifications, a few rolls are very good indeed, though perhaps could only be classed “superb” when compared to others by made by the same company. They certainly provide valuable and uncommon evidence of the evolving rhythmic playing styles of the period in post-WWI Britain - after ragtime but before the more sophisticated piano styles of the 1930s - and deserve study and preservation. Best wishes, John Watson

Hi there John, Many thanks for the contribution here! Send me alist of all 40 known rolls if you can and I'll add the list to the PPG page and the ones with midis will be clickable / highlighted. Hopefully we can add in others there and let people around the world listen in to these (as they're unlikely to otherwise hear any of them!) If you can lend for scanning any of your other 38 that we haven't got there I'm sure there'd be a great many appreciative people out there thankful of the opportunity to listen - and also it brings a bit of Mayerl closer to a new audience. I will also add my own ones from my own website over to the PPG Mayerl page. Robert, can you email me that midi again as I don't appear to have got it yet...maybe the mail filter lost it on the way or something... cheers Adam

John - Welcome, and thanks for adding to the topic! Would love to hear some more of your knowledge about the Echo company. Adam - I sent the MIDI a few hours ago to 'ragtimefingers' at hotmail. Let me know if it doesn't get through again and supply an alternate address I can try.

Many thanks Robert, I've uploaded the midi to the PPG website e-concert Mayerl page and given you a credit and weblink there also. http://www.pianolasociety.com/econcert.html I've checked up about your query on the "V" letter in Echo rolls. Rolls with a "V" are 88-note and "X" are 65-note. There is one "X" roll in the e-concert and it's definately a 65-note print and all 65-note Echo rolls I have here are all "X" designated also. I think there are Echo examples without V or X and these are all 88s. regards Adam

For anyone who'd like to add a Mayerl roll to their collection, this lot of 15 rolls has his Echo recording of 'Blue'. Start bid 99p! http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Box-of-bits-Various-pianola-rolls-x10_W0QQitemZ120225310047QQihZ002QQcategoryZ2383QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

One problem - "Blue" isn't a Mayerl roll! It was put in my batch of Mayerl rolls by mistake and should have been removed from the PPG site the next day, but it's still there! Luckily my name's not on the PPG page so nobody knows ... Incidentally, I have a roll marked "machine master" for this piece, which is cut using square punches. There are a few such Echo rolls, either labelled "MM" or "Machine Master", and I assume they were used for precisely that purpose. Clearly they were eventually sold, being ordinary 88-note rolls otherwise. They give some hint about the (somewhat rough) production process used by Siggitson & Perkins (who made both S&P and Echo rolls, on Lots Road in Chelsea). Julian

Oops - it's NOT on the PPG page, just lingering out there in Cyberspace somewhere. Your mistakes are with you for ever! Now wait for it to appear as a "fact" in Wikipedia. Julian

Well, there we go! Another reminder to me to be extremely careful when embedding data in the MIDI files for my website - no doubt people will be relying on my data in decades to come. (This is why we have 1970s era-recuts floating around labelled as 'played by CHarles L. Johnson' or 'Joseph F. Lamb' et al. Incidentally, who IS playing 'Blue'? When I played it it didn't strike me as being hugely different from the other Mayerl rolls. A lot of the Reliance master rolls I own are regular 88 note rolls labelled 'Electric Master', although I also have some 3:1 cardboard stock ones. Reliance used the Leabarjan #8D machine which worked from a standard roll and made 16 copies, using some form of vibrating punch that you waved back and forth - I'm not clear on the technical details because the perforator is in bits in storage and will never perforate again! No two rolls are exactly the same, and there's no punch matrix.

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