Re: Roll Sources List
By Rob DeLand
Larry,
Your list of roll sources is very impressive. I think I can help you with a few details, and if you're willing to go one step further with it I could help you with a 1-liner for each saying what their specialty is. For instance, Don Rand specializes in A and G nickelodeon rolls, and is currently making an impressive subsription list recutting of Link RX rolls. And who knows what he'll do next...
I am familiar with the Piano Roll Center people past & present and can tell you the following: Mike Schwimmer sold his business to Paul Johnson. Paul moved from Folsom to Washington, and had to move to a second address in Washington. The correct address is Suquamish, and you can delete any reference to either of the previous addresses. Mike is doing business under the name The Collector's Center (I think) and is now more interested in cigar paraphernalia (I hope that doesn't sound strange or judgemental on my part, because Mike is a close friend and one of my favorite people in the world; he has always loved cigars and is as much of an expert there as he is in piano rolls!). Mike retained the right to do more recuts in the future, but my take on it is that he is not likely to do so. Whatever he does, it will be a first-class job!
I'll pass on the PlayRite/Playtime issue, we have smart people on this list who will figure it out. My hunch is that Playtime is simply a reseller of rolls, apparently made by PlayRite. I would be very surprised if there were any more to it than that, ie. anyone selling to anyone else.
Rag Daddy's Music is an auction list only, isn't it?
Upright & Grand is Eric Bernhoft's label for new 88-note, Ampico, and Duo-Art rolls. Eric is an excellent arranger (mostly of rags, including an original that debuted at the St. Louis AMICA convention as reported by Terry Smythe). Eric has also made some neat new rolls of live performances by Peter Minton. He deserves an entire article just on him so I'll leave it at that for now.
Ed Sprankle is another close friend. His business name is Echoes (EchoeS as it appears in the logo; the name refers to his initials, and to the reflecting-back nature of recutting old rolls). Ed's main interest is great blues on A rolls, but he also collects 88-note and Wurlitzer APP rolls. He has an outstanding collection and used to recut 8-n rolls on his Echoes label (but only does so privately now). Just yesterday I received a post from Ed advertising 3 outstanding new blues A rolls (1 Automatic: all Jelly Roll Morton/JLC arrangements; 1 Columbia, and 1 Capitol: mostly Jimmy Blythe & Clarence Johnson performances-hot stuff! Whew!!!). If ANYONE is interested in this great music, I would strongly suggest calling Ed NOW (I really mean NOW!!!!) to reserve a copy ($33 ea. post-paid). These will be gone quickly. Ed has exquisite taste at selecting rolls to recut. These A rolls were made by PlayRite, so they have the "big holes" if that matters to you.
Pedals, Pumpers & Rolls is west of Chicago. Sadly, Carol passed away last year so "Roger Dayton" is more correct for your list.
Artists' Choice Music Rolls are of course the work of our friend Robin Pratt. He focuses on Ampico pop rolls, and has recently been working on a list of Welte rolls and some themodist and Apollo-X expression rolls. Robin has done a good 50 or so rolls already, and will probably issue another 50 or so later this year. Then he'll rejoin the AMI list and everybody will be happy again. ;-)
Well, that's a start, and I imagine others can also elaborate. Thanks for sharing your list and inspiring me to get off my duff and contribute something to the AMI list! I hope you find this discourse useful. I would call you 'cause I'd like to chat, but I'm swamped at moment ("fishing" around for that Beau Dahnker piano, perhaps?)!
And remember, call Sprankle immediately if you have any hope of picking up 1 or 2 or 3 outstanding, RARE blues A rolls.
Cheers, Rob DeLand (deland_robert@macmail1.csg.mot.com)
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(Message sent Fri 12 Jul 1996, 20:02:42 GMT, from time zone GMT-0800.) |
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