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Unknown Artist on Mel-O-Dee 4545 "Cry-Baby Blues"
By Bob Pinsker

A very kind collector loaned me a roll for scanning.  Unfortunately,
it's missing its box, and if there was a copy of the label on the roll
leader, it's missing (the tip of the leader is missing, actually) so we
don't know who is the credited artist.

The roll is Mel-O-Dee 4545, which must be from 1921 since the song,
"Cry Baby Blues" (music by George Meyer, words by Joe Young and
Sam M. Lewis, Irving Berlin, Inc.), was published in that year.
James P. Johnson made a nice roll of the tune for QRS (QRS 1623,
released October 1921), so this is probably from around then, too.

Does anybody have the box for this roll and/or can tell us who the
artist is?  Is there a published rollography for Aeolian rolls
(Universal, Mel-O-Dee, etc.)?

I've sent along an MP3 of the scanned roll (0.68 MB) for your
edification, as 'realized' with Audio Compositor and a General MIDI
piano soundfont.

Very best regards,
Bob Pinsker
San Diego, CA

 [ Hear the MP3 file at http://mmd.foxtail.com/Sounds/  -- Robbie


(Message sent Mon 4 Mar 2002, 06:56:58 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.)

Key Words in Subject:  4545, Artist, Blues, Cry-Baby, Mel-O-Dee, Unknown

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