Hi, all! My friend Mike Meddings informed me of a program (I guess
he'd say 'programme') on BBC Radio 4 at 1330 today, entitled "Look, No
Hands", which was a 30-minute show on the history of the player piano.
There's a certain amount of stuff about reproducing pianos in there
which will no doubt raise the hackles of a few MMDers, but there's
also a very nice segment about James P. Johnson and Fats Waller,
in which excerpts were played from the 1921 "Carolina Shout" roll (JPJ)
and the 1927 duet roll of Waller and Johnson on "If I Could Be With
You." In another segment, they have an excerpt with an interview with
MMDer Julian Dyer.
You can hear it, at least for a while, at this URL (RealAudio):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/rams/tue1330.ram
Ver-r-y interesting, as Arte Johnson used to say on "Laugh-In".
Bob Pinsker
San Diego, Calif.
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