Eubie Blake -Boll Weevil Blues

[Pianosyncrazy]

Great tune, nice piano too.

[KPO6859]

Eubie Blake was an absolute delight to watch on television - and I could not wait to get sheet music for "Charleston Rag" after hearing him play it on Johnny Carson. Anyone who could reach an octave and a fifth certainly was given a gift which we enjoy pretty regularly thanks to his willingness to share his talents. Get the record "The 86 Years of Eubie Blake": he was almost at the top of his game. A friend met him and said he was a wonderful man.

[HerbUtsmelz]

Love it. I always enjoyed Eubie on the Carson show.

[AAErikCO]

Very nice roll and piano! Is looks like a Gulbransen? I think they had that forward tilting stack for tuning, such a good feature!

Thanks for posting this!

Erik

[geo8rge]

Thank you for posting this.

[toddspango]

Why is it, even though recorded music is such a fact of life, that a player piano can evoke ghosts? This was really cool to hear & watch.

[bisem433]

LOL! I know someone that won't go near my piano because he is afraid of it!

[imkitsoularas]

@bisem433 xaxaxa. i would like to have one 'automatic' piano like yours and know how to fix it . im not makin joke to you. i just respect such feelings of music. as for your friend . tell him/her that it doesn't bite :)

[JamesPriceJohnson]

do bluestones write the words on the side of the re cut rolls

[KawhackitaRag]

No, but they include a sheet of paper with the lyrics on it so you can sing along if you can figure out which words go with which melody notes. (not too hard to do, if you also have a recording of the same song being sung).

There are only a handful of roll companies today who can actually print lyrics on the rolls like the old days (one of them, QRS, actually IS from the old days!).

Most roll makers today don't do it because it is too expensive, & they just barely break even making rolls.

[bisem433]

Sorry to take so long to get back to you. They do not reprint words on the roll but do include a word sheet inside the box. Check out their website.

[KawhackitaRag]

I should mention that my friend Spencer Chase of "spencer's e-rolls" came up with a method of printing the lyrics directly on rolls being punched with a computer perforator. He can do it, but you have to email him the MIDI of the roll first (unless of course he already has it), and of course pay for the finished roll. I think it is a small production, just one or two copies at a time, rather than large-scale like QRS.

[Wallerfan]

I remember when this appeared on a long-play record, the liner notes reported that when Eubie Blake heard this, after sixty-something years, he smiled, nodded his head, and acknowledged that this was a pretty good roll, isn't it?

[KawhackitaRag]

In case you're wondering, the reason for editors adding extra notes to a hand-played performance was mainly to emphasize the melody line by whatever means necessary (usually either a sustained single-note line or octave tremolo in the tenor region of the piano).

This was because the new rolls were released just a couple weeks after the tune was published, and the folks at home still didn't know it well enough to sing the melody confidently through all the jazz filigree.

[KawhackitaRag]

This is one of my favorite Eubie Blake rolls. Although most experts agree this particular roll was edited up rather heavily at the factory (notice the melody of the chorus being played in THREE OCTAVES at once in addition to the regular left-hand; physically impossible for one person!), it is still a great roll.

I actually turned pages for Robbie Rhodes and Bob Pinsker, who did a four-hand transcription of this roll at their annual Old Town Music Hall appearance a few years ago. Very fun!

[AAErikCO]

@KawhackitaRag

It's one of my favorite too! I really like Fare Thee Honey Blues, but have yet to find someone who's recut it. I'm guessing Piano Roll Center (Schwimmer) may have recut it at some point. I sure wish they'd go back into business! Just recently was fortunate enough to win the late Ed Sprankle's original of this which surprised the heck out of me. Might decide to post it showing the lyrics, but since this piano and roll are so nice together, not sure how much good I'd do.

[vincedana]

Go Eubie Go!