Friends of piano roll collector and historian Mike Montgomery, of
Southfield, Michigan, learned today that he passed away last night,
Tuesday, 21 June 2011.  I believe he was 77 years old.

Montgomery was recognized as one of the premiere historians of the
music and culture associated with piano rolls of "blues, stomps and
ragtime."  His articles were published in the record collectors'
journals and he presented lectures at Smithsonian Institute.  He
compiled and published the rollography of Columbia and Capitol piano
rolls (including Supertone issues) and then gave it to Mechanical
Music Digest to be published on the Internet for the world.  Visit
http://www.mmdigest.com/Gallery/MMMedia/CoCap/cocap.html  and
http://www.mmdigest.com/Gallery/MMMedia/CoCap/supertone.html 

I met Mike in the company of Ed Sprankle and Mike Schwimmer in the
early 1980s at the annual St. Louis Ragtime Festival.  He brought
with him the piano roll of "Silver Swan" by Scott Joplin, discovered
ten years earlier by Albert Huerta.  See Bryan Cather's article at
http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/201010/2010.10.10.03.html 
Rumors were that Montgomery had purchased the roll from a sheet music
dealer for $500 or equivalent in trade.

Early one afternoon a crowd of piano roll enthusiasts gathered at
Trebor Tichenor's home in St. Louis to swap stories and ogle Trebor's
extensive collection of ragtime piano rolls and sheet music.  Pianists
and pianolists were happily playing rolls and ragtime when I realized
Montgomery and Tichenor had disappeared.

Ed Sprankle explained, "They're down in the basement engaged in hard
bargaining.  Everyone in the ragtime community said that "Silver Swan"
must someday go to Trebor.  Now Mike is going to trade the unique
Joplin roll for several of Trebor's treasures!"

A nice interview with Mike Montgomery at his home was published in the
Detroit (Michigan) Metro Times of 22 March, 2006, available on-line at
http://www2.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=9018  A short bio and
photo is at http://www.doctorjazz.co.uk/page14.html#mikem

Robbie Rhodes, MMD