Hello MMD readers,  While my Independence Day player piano concert
at Searsport Shores was well-attended, it was at the expense of the
fireworks displays (and free ice cream sundaes) which are a tradition
at this picturesque resort for July 4th.

Both Searsport Shores and the Town of Searsport synchronize their
aerial pyrotechnics, but heavy rains made the two adjacent locations
on Penobscot Bay instead reschedule their festivities for July 5th.
I was asked to switch the 'patriotic' Pianola program to the next day
also, but declined, since we had tickets for the William Bolcom and
Joan Morris concert at the historic Rockport Opera House, their first
concert in this region.  I agreed to do a second Independence Day
performance on Saturday, the 6th, and this was expanded to an hour's
program, just like the 6 scheduled performances which run through
September 1st.  A Bolcom and Morris evening, especially if one has been
a long-time fan of their musical performances, is not something to be
missed, if one is lucky enough to be in the area.

There's a close connection to my roll arranging activities and the
creative progress of Bill Bolcom, who used to appear frequently with
his singing wife, Joan, at Bowdoin College in Brunswick ME, a number
of years ago.  Back then, the pianist-composer introduced Maine to the
music of Ernesto Nazareth, and after the stage performance, I presented
the couple with an audio cassette of "Odeon" on Artcraft Rolls, the
number he had just performed at Kresge Auditorium!  On another
occasion, he was autographing his "hand-played" QRS rolls and told
a friend of mine, "Oh, do people still play with those little levers
and buttons, today?"  That was the same evening when Bolcom performed
"Graceful Ghost," one of his most famous contemporary ragtime
compositions, and it was just like my recently-discontinued Duo-Art
roll!

Earlier, when cutting "Graceful Ghost," I relied upon the well-annotated
score as well as a Nonesuch LP by another pianist who played the entire
"Ghost Rag Trilogy", of which this composition represented the first
portion.  The roll was released in an early Artcraft catalogue (Has 20
years flown by that rapidly?) and received mixed results.  Half of the
customers loved the Duo-Art arrangement, while the other half told me
that "it doesn't sound like William Bolcom playing".

I purchased Bolcom's popular cassette, "Heliotrope Bouquet," and
discovered that the composer's audio version had somewhat of a 'swing'
rhythm, which made it a light and airy number, when compared to the
published score, the Nonesuch album and my roll, all steeped in the
duple meter tradition of Joplin ragtime compositions.

Thus, when hearing the composer tell the Bowdoin audience that "Graceful
Ghost" was dedicated to the memory of his late father, I was amazed to
hear a performance that mirrored the long-playing record of another
pianist, plus my own perforated arrangement!  "That's your discontinued
roll!" was what several collectors whispered, during the Bowdoin
rendition.  "He's playing it the way you cut the music," and that was
true!

Imagine my pleasure, years later, on July 5, 2002, to hear him perform
both "Odeon" and "Graceful Ghost," the only piano solos of the evening,
two titles which have been in the Artcraft catalogues for many years.
The Nazareth composition was played "just like" my roll, given the
major differences between a keyboard rendition and a pneumatic player
action.  "Graceful Ghost" -- which the composer said was played by
conductor James Levine for a memorial to the September 11, 2001 New
York City attacks -- was (guess what?) "just like" the out-of-print
Duo-Art roll and his Bowdoin College performance of years gone by.

There's evidently no single way to perform "Graceful Ghost", and there
were minor differences between the various non-'swing' versions, but
it's safe to conclude that the "Heliotrope Bouquet" recording might
have been an interpretive aberration of sorts.  To date, only that
particular cassette features the dance approach, which, of course,
departs from the memorial nature of the music, as written.

Bolcom and Morris did not disappoint as the first half of their show
moved along.  Community singing was encouraged for "On Moonlight Bay,"
and the Rockport audience give it a resounding delivery.  Their July
concert opened with "I Love a Piano," and it was the piano which got
a lot of my focus for the entire evening.  Lois Konvalinka and I had
seats on the right, which gave us a great view and perfect delivery of
Morris' singing, while the 9-foot concert grand was opened slightly for
the vocal accompaniment, save the two compositions described above.

How could Miss Morris be heard over such a powerful instrument?  The
answer was Mr. Bolcom's constant graduation of the action shift pedal
(viz. the soft pedal).  By finding "the right felts" in the hammers,
he was able to insert two or three notes, with thundering clarity, in
between his wife's crystal clear lyrics.  Thus, when she sang, the
hammers were moved to several different positions, allowing him to
release the keyboard for a couple of quick notes, in between the words.
When you read these lines, remember that the couple was performing
without any microphones, in an old auditorium, relying on their musical
projections and the acoustics of the architecture.

(There was a microphone and speaker for Bolcom to use when announcing
the pieces, but that was only resorted to when the piano and vocalist
were silent, so this was, for all purposes, an evening of music which
reached the listeners without electronics gear which often influences
the balance, dynamics or direction of the sounds.)

Some of the numbers on the Bolcom-Morris program were "More Than You
Know", "Jeepers Creepers", "Lazy" (By Irving Berlin), "Flying Down To
Rio", and some lesser-known songs written for performers like Charlotte
Greenwood (known for her high kicks, on the stage).  The second encore
was "Lime Jello, Marshmallow, Cottage Cheese Surprise!", written to
immortalize the ladies (often in Helen Hokinson's cartoons) whose
clubby activities involved some of the most awful sounding food
concoctions.  A woman in the audience, behind us, shouted "Lime
Jello!", just before the composer told the story of his inspiration,
dating back to an Oregon restaurant in 1972, where (quote) "... all
those ladies were still there!"

The second half of the Bolcom-Morris program marked a change of pace,
from their performances and recordings of the past.  These were called
"cabaret" numbers, and dealt with despair, aging, unhappiness and, in
the case of one song, murder.  The show ended with the bouncier
traditions of old Broadway, however, and any concert which concludes
with "Lime Jello" returns the listeners to the buoyancy of their
celebrated recordings, featuring music by Rodgers and Hart, Cole
Porter, George Gershwin and now two CDs of the Vincent Youmans song
catalogue.

It's a tradition at the Rockport Opera House, to have a reception,
giving all audience members a chance to meet the artists while enjoying
free refreshments.  This is held in an art gallery, a few buildings up
the hill, from the concert hall.  There I had the opportunity to meet
the Bolcoms again and mention of the Nazareth tape refreshed his memory
of that Bowdoin evening.

I had prepared some printouts from the Internet, texts and illustrations,
taken from the Artcraft web site: these included the entire 'road sign'
page, http://www.wiscasset.net/artcraft/pianolas.htm (updated for the
Independence Day concert) and an excerpt showing the drawings of the
Duo-Art music roll projector attached to a Steinway AR grand piano at
http://www.wiscasset.net/artcraft/a-series.htm  Also given to the
talented couple, was a copy of my Searsport Shores brochure, for the
2002 series of Pianola concerts.

During the reception, several people who recalled my performing with
the Arcady Music Festivals asked why I was no longer appearing with
them.  The reason, I told them, was that there were cutbacks, and the
powers that be, behind conductor-pianist Masanobu Ikemiya, wanted the
player piano to be demoted from a stage performance to a background
music machine, something to rattle keys at a low volume while people
talked, ate and milled about.  "Under no circumstances, would I drag
a piano to remote places, like Millinocket, ME, for one night stands,
just to be some novelty in the background."

The three or four concert-goers from the Arcady Festivals agreed with
my decision, while I gave them some Searsport Shores flyers in the
process.  Who knows?  They might someday be here in the audience at
this scenic camping resort which is closer to Bar Harbor and Bangor
than is Rockport, and our performances are free, too!

My rescheduled (second) Independence Day performance had a small but
highly enthusiastic audience.  (Even a pet schnauzer came back, with
her owners, for the augmented "July 4th" player roll concert, and a
long-haired dachshund made several appearances, with his human family.)

Lois Konvalinka gave out a number of copies of my "Pianola Information"
sheet explaining how players work, and musicians stayed around after
the show to ask questions about pianos, rolls and the interpretation
of them.  Several performing pianists buttonholed me, on the grounds,
saying "You are being paid for these performances, aren't you?" and
then launched into ad hoc discussions of how I achieved certain effects
on my rolls.  I replied that these are free performances, just as the
Moxie Festivals and Boston's 'First Night' were, the latter featuring
a piano shared with keyboard pianist Mark Lutton.

It's necessary, in this age of a graying audience and so little "music
making" in the home, to reacquaint the general public with the artistic
possibilities of the pneumatic player piano.  Good rolls and interaction
with them -- personal involvement, as it were -- elevate the player
from its roots of being a droning, repetitive novelty.  Since the
broadcast media ignores this medium, the best way to spread the word
about the quality inherent in a player piano with select music rolls,
and an interpreter, is to "get out there" and bring the instrument to
the public at large.  This, I have done, on and off, for many decades,
and it pays dividends for the misunderstood instrument, in the long
run.

Pianist-composer Glenn Jenks came down from the balcony, at the
Rockport Opera House, just before the elaborate trompe-d'oiel floral
curtain rose.  (That's some distance, if you saw the dimensions of this
particular auditorium!)  He, Lois and I had a conversation about the
acoustic piano suddenly returning to general interest, after all these
years.  We discussed some of the rolls I've been playing, featuring his
music, including arrangements by Eric Bernhoft, as well as my own.

Glenn, by the way, is the uncredited second voice in short advertising
skits for the Opera House on WBACH Radio, our classical FM network in
this area.  The other person, in these often funny dialogues, is Tom
Wolfe, the artistic director of the music festivals, in Rockport.
Mr. Wolfe was scurrying about, handling many activities, but was as
accessible as Bolcom and Morris, after the show, making concerts in
this area of Maine, a decidedly different experience from other places
we've been in the past.

Live performances, player rolls, concerts in Rockport and Searsport
Shores (plus memories of others in Bangor and elsewhere, with Arcady)
all intertwined to make for a "Glorious Fourth" for us, which extended
over the span of three days, partly due to the whim of Mother Nature.

I can't see how one can approach any mechanical music instrument,
especially the pedal player and the 'reproducing' piano (which always
requires monitoring, if not occasional involvement, via the hand
controls), being seen as something apart from live performances -- or
audio recordings -- in the minds of some collectors.  This is probably
why so many dull arrangements, from the past, continue to be played,
by these people, who are isolated from the sounds which the instruments
were supposed to deliver to the listener but rarely did in the old days.
When I perform "Cinderella Soot", an 1899 Cakewalk, in Searsport, who
wants to waste their time with some sheet music transfer of an
original roll in this genre?  When the player can render a sparkling
Gershwin composition like "The Back Bay Polka" or "By Strauss", who
wants some cocktail lounge medley of "Porgy And Bess", a graph paper
special by Aeolian-American?

To the reader, we can't stress, enough, the importance of attending
stellar concerts, whenever they occur, and then applying one's
impressions to the player instrument, in their homes.  Nothing beats
a musical experience for fine-tuning a performance, arranged for the
perforated roll medium of the Player-Piano!

Regards from Penobscot Bay (and transmitting by cellular telephone,
with my laptop, seated on the porch of our seaside trailer) -

Douglas Henderson - Artcraft Music Rolls
Wiscasset, ME 04578 USA
http://www.wiscasset.net/artcraft/