[ Ref. Kip Williams in 200103 MMDigest:

> Michael Tilson Thomas conducted the Columbia Jazz Band in "Rhapsody
> in Blue" along with Gershwin's roll recording.

There's likely others out there with more background on this but I'll
give it a go.  I know that, in part of that project, they taped up or
removed the holes that related to the orchestral parts.  These were the
parts that George Gershwin had overdubbed on the piano roll.  So they
brought it down to just the solo piano part.

As a side note, I believe this is referred to as one of the earliest
forms of overdubbing.  Meaning when the roll was originally recorded,
they had George record one pass to get the solo piano part and then
another pass (or more?) to record the orchestral parts.  It would be
interesting to hear how they did that.

Another note on this performance is the speed, which I know took me
aback when I first heard it.  I liked the tempo but it was really
hauling.

What was interesting was at the Cornell "Ghosts In The Machine"
conference, a guy who was involved with that recording was there.
I think he had been the recording engineer.  He talked about the making
of that recording and how Tilson-Thomas was kind of a madman trying to
keep it all together given the fast tempo.  Perhaps they used the tempo
marking on the roll?  If you have Tilson-Thomas' later recording of the
work with him playing piano, you'll notice the tempo is taken down a few
notches.

Perhaps Peter Phillips or someone else who was at the Cornell conference
can add further detail, but I just thought it was an interesting
discussion.

Paul Johnson

 [ GHOSTS in the MACHINE - Player Piano Conference in Ithaca, New York
 [ Technology, History, and Aesthetics of the Player-Piano
 [ Cornell's Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies
 [ Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, May 4-6, 2017
 [ Ref.  https://westfield.org/conferences/pianola 
 [ -- Robbie