Dear MMDers,  Regarding the Taj Mahal Organ by Mortier, it has been
referred to as a band organ.  It is actually a "dance organ" not a band
organ.  The difference may seem small as they are mechanically nearly
alike but the sound is quite different.

A dance organ, particularly the Belgian variety which includes most
Mortiers, was voiced more quietly for indoor use and included many
unique ranks of pipes such as the jazz flutes and vibra flutes which
were never found on a fair or band organ.  In addition, there were many
other ranks such as saxophone and accordion along with a plethora of
traps.  These included tom-toms, wood blocks, temple blocks (tuned
hollow wood blocks) and several types of cymbals and drums.

These organs played music for cafes and dance halls for, guess what,
dancing.  The arrangements tried to emulate the big dance band sounds
of the 20s and 30s and usually emphasized a heavy bass beat to aid in
the dancing.  Some of these organs, made by Bursens, DeCap and Mortier
(pronounced More-tee-ay) were as large as 121 keys, with many of the
keys used either for solo instruments like the accordion and for the
many registration stops found in this type of organ.

The Taj Mahal was only 101-key organ, which puts it near the middle
to low end of the range for this type of organ.  However, the facade
is very elaborate with columns, turrets, domes and other architectural
accouterments along with two life-size and larger-than-life-size carved
figures.  It also has many exposed imitation pipes on the front like
a big church organ front.

In contrast, a band organ or fair organ, except for a few Gaviolis,
were rarely bigger than 96 keys (they had to be portable, you know) and
had fewer registers.  The registers they did have usually were of a
variety that supported the marching band type of sound.

Larger instruments were often sold as concert instruments and had a
distinctly orchestral sound.  Once you have heard a dance organ and a
fair organ, you will never mistake the sound of either.  Interestingly,
though, many Dutch street organs were made from both cut-down dance
organs and cut-down fair organs.  You can usually tell the difference
on listening.

In answer to Robbie's question, yes, there was at least one recording
released of the Taj Mahal on an LP record.  It is called "The Taj Mahal
In Concert" and was released by American International Galleries in
1978.  Since they are out of business, I don't know where one would go
to find a new copy but used ones turn up at MBSI Marts fairly
regularly.

The tunes are all dance and novelty tunes like "The Tennessee Waltz",
"Puppet on a String" and "Beer Barrel Polka".  Possibly Dave Bowers had
some new music arranged for it as it includes such tunes as "Que Sera"
and "The Yellow Rose of Texas".  All the tunes are bouncy and short, no
concert tunes.

As I recall, there was also a "Baby Taj Mahal" built by Mortier as
well.  It was a similar style but much smaller.  It is still around
also but I have lost track of where it is now.

Hope this is of interest.

Bob Conant