Hi Robbie,  The old saying about the world being a small place rings
true once again.  Jill Miller's report of another copy of the rare
Armand Muth roll, "Keen Kut-Ups", turning up in Australia certainly
reinforces this sentiment!   But a mystery which I'll never understand
is how two copies of this roll, from the modest Billings Roll Co. of
Milwaukee WI, managed their way to the other side of the globe: Jill's
to Australia, and John Phillips' previously-reported copy to Tasmania.

As John Farrell noted a few days ago, I first encountered the Muth
novelty piece years ago in a friend's collection.  He doggedly refused
to loan the roll for recutting, and since the piece had never been
published in sheet music form, I was concerned that if something were
to happen to the original roll the music would be lost.  So I trans-
cribed the roll into a playable music score, note-for-note, and learned
to play the piece.

Later on, during one of John's visits to the US, I recited this tale
to him, after which he became infuriated.  He took the "Keen Kut-Ups"
music score home with him, and one day later had cut the entire piece
back onto roll -- a feat which of course only John is capable of doing!
Certainly this is the "hard way" to get an original piano roll copied,
but it worked quite well!

About two years ago I'd written a short memo about Armand Muth for
the MMD, mentioning some of his tunes and including "Keen Kut-Ups."
Much to my surprise, the next day I received an email from MMDer John
Phillips, who is a professor of physics at the University of Tasmania.
John owned the original roll, and very generously sent it along to Rob
DeLand, who had it recut for us all to enjoy.  (As Mark Labancz noted
yesterday, anyone who might like a copy of this rare roll can probably
obtain one from Rob at <RDeland@WWA.Com>).

Jill Miller's report of another copy of "Keen Kut-Ups" in Australia
left me speechless.  Who knows, maybe that's where the missing Jelly
Roll Morton rolls will eventually turn up as well!   I sure hope so.

All best,

Frank Himpsl

 [ The new email address for Rob DeLand is <rdeland@bluesrolls.com>.
 [ Readers should not rely upon email addresses appearing in MMD
 [ because they change so often.  To find the current email address
 [ for MMD authors see the Author index page at the MMD Archives,
 [    http://mmd.foxtail.com/Archives/Authors/index.html
 [ Shown near the top of the page with the author's article is the
 [ email address to which correspondence should be sent.  -- Robbie