> "Was there a standard tempo used to produce "A" rolls?

When I wrote the 10-tune A-roll, "New Chicago", I was informed that 60 was
the target tempo.  Since then, I've come to think that the actual playing
tempo was whatever suited the bar-owner's taste.  The actual playing tempo
of "New Chicago" has turned out to be roughly 70.

At any rate, what I've noticed is that pop rolls are almost uniformly
arranged assuming a rate of 240 rows per foot.  If an arrangement is done
assuming 12 rows per beat, then the actual tempo works out to be the number
of feet per minute times 20 (6/ft is roll speed 60 is 120 bpm etc.)  The
later perforating equipment was such that the step advance could be
changed during the run of the complete 10-tune roll to compensate for
acceleration.  Before that, compensation was achieved by varying the rows/
beat of the arrangement, 10/beat at the beginning, and 12/beat toward the
end.  Since I didn't have access to the latter equipment, I used that
second method for "New Chicago".  That roll uses a variety of steps/beat:
6, 8, 10, 12 and 16, 6 for "Chicago Rhythm" and 16 for "Rollin' in the
Hay".

At any rate, from what I gather, the arrangements were done as row/beat
arrangements, and the final playing tempo was left up to the customer.
I have, for instance, two Capitol rolls: 514 ("Blues from the South"),
which plays best at roughly 65, and 905 (starts with "Vagabond Lover")
which I like played at around 80.

George Bogatko
http://www.inluxeditions.com/