Dear MMDers,  It occurred to me that the piano-roll fraternity lacks
something. There are many key piano roll performances presumed "lost".
We lack a central resource to cross check these. For cinematography
there are many projects listing "lost" silent and early sound movies
(e.g. "The Vitaphone Project").  These enable collectors to check what
they have and perhaps if they are lucky, realize that the copy they
hold is actually the only one known. There are key piano roll
performances that equate to this. There are a Jelly Roll Morton rolls
still waiting to be found and at least one Fats Waller and a Joplin
roll still missing. Would you know if you had one of these? Could you
have spotted "The Pearls" at a cursory glance like Karl Ellison? If you
glanced over an old box of 65-note roll labels could you spot the
missing Joplin title? If you were looking for rags you'd miss it as
it's actually a waltz.

We all have our own interests and collections and our in-depth
knowledge rarely extends beyond these. For all I know I could have
overlooked all the missing titles in the past decade without knowing
it. On this basis, I am trying to raise the general awareness of these
lost performances. Unless we have a vague idea at the back of our minds
when we do our roll-hunting we could easily miss the finds of a
lifetime.

To start, I am putting together a permanent page to deal with these
missing rolls. If you know the details of rolls considered as "lost"
send me an email with the details and I'll add it to the page. I will
put the page online in the next few days and email the URL to the MMD
so you can visit the work in progress and check back.

We need to find the stuff that really matters. When Karl Ellison found
"The Pearls" (and most importantly of all shared this find ) the jazz
world had an opportunity to hear something wonderful. Such finds raise
awareness of our mechanical music interests more than any unearthed
classical reproducing roll will ever manage.

I do not want classical titles. The ground of classical reproducing
roll performances has been well-trodden before and I do not propose to
revisit extensive listings of obscure European brands and the like. If
the project develops well then a classical "lost" listing will be added
in the near future. Don't get the wrong idea - I regard classical
reproducing performances extremely highly -I am simply picking a single
starting point which will capture the imagination.

If you know titles worth listing and presumed lost just email me and
I'll put them up on the page. Whether they're worth listing is your
decision - I do not intend being editorial about the list, at least not
at this stage.  If you see a roll listed that you know exists, again,
just email me and I'll mark it as "copy known to exist". I will respect
your privacy 100%. So if you have one of the rarest of the missing
rolls but do not wish to make it available generally for scanning or
whatever you may email me so it is marked off "copy known to exist" and
that will be that. If you've sat on it for 40 years I couldn't care
less - you have your reasons, you don't have to explain or justify
anything; it's your roll, your find and that's fair enough. Just let it
be listed as "copy known to exist" that's all. Of course, I'd encourage
anyone in such a position to share their find by doing the "Ellison"
thing and making copies available. If you want full credit that's OK,
if you want 100% confidentiality that's OK also.

Anyway, have a think about it and drop me an email, whoever you are who
is reading this. Let me know what decent missing rolls you think need
to be found and perhaps together we will track them down. I am not
after tracking down Chase & Baker accompaniment rolls of "Bird of Love
Divine" nor Beethoven's umpteenth sonata part 19 played by no-one
special. I'm after listing the key performance presumed missing such as
those by Morton, Joplin, Blythe, Johnson, etc., etc. I and other MMD
readers may well be sat on piles of 'em but unless we have a list we
may never know what we have.

Yours sincerely

Adam Ramet
email: agr@lineone.net