Eubie Blake -Boll Weevil Blues

I remember when Eubie Blake was in his mid 90's playing on the Tonight Show and then sitting, smoking a cigarette and cutting up jokes with Johnny Carson. What an amazing life he had. If you aren't familiar with his work I strongly suggest a Google search with his name.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Eubie
• Blake
• player
• piano
• blues
• ragtime
• gulbransen
• music

[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!

[JamesPriceJohnson]

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

[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 :)

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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

[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.