Another late Ampico roll has been recut -- Ampico 71561, "La Playera"
& "La Colosa" by Granados, played by Frederick Longas in 1937.  This
fall I took my copy of the roll to Larry Doe for scanning and Richard
Groman of Keystone Music Roll Co. just sent me a recut made from that
scan.  I assume it will be available from Keystone in their next
catalog.  My original is on very brittle paper with many torn bridges
so I am happy to have a good playable copy.

"La Playera" is Spanish Dance No. 5, also called Andaluza, and it was
also recorded by Navas and by Tovar for Ampico, but La Colosa does not
seem to have been recorded in any roll format.  Longas adds a few chords
as introduction to La Playera and (I believe) a short bridge between
the two pieces.  Although the roll number indicates a small roll, in
fact it is a large roll.  The original roll is in a large Ampico box
but the label pasted to the end is small.  The tempo is 100 and perhaps
Ampico originally intended it as a small roll played at a slower tempo.

Richard Groman included a note saying that his recut is an exact
reproduction of the roll from his new "Histographic" process.  I believe
the process allows the recutting of scanned rolls with as much accuracy
as the original 3-to-1 masters produced.  I laid the first 15 feet or
so of the recut over the original and I can testify that the recut
seems perfect.  There is no stretching or shrinkage and all the note
and expression holes line up exactly.  I hope we will see more recuts
of rare rolls from this new process.

David Sharpe
Western Massachusetts

 [ When he performed in America he was known as Frederick Longas, but
 [ as a composer he was Federico Longas or Federico Longás Torres.
 [ -- Robbie