Piano rolls--perforated paper rolls that recorded a pianist's performance for playback on a mechanical "player piano"--represent one of the more fascinating windows on the music of the early 20th century. Though player pianos included considerable mechanical noise, they represented the closest thing you could get to "live" sound even into the late 1920s, and they often functioned as acoustic jukeboxes. This CD provides piano rolls from early American music's important pianists, demonstrating the gradual shift in style that took place between ragtime and jazz. Part of the fascination of these rolls is that they represent the way musicians like Jelly Roll Morton and Fats Waller were often heard in their own era. The tracks by Scott Joplin include his most famous work, "Maple Leaf Rag," and in their subtle shifts and overall architecture, they demonstrate Joplin's affinity with European classical forms. Eubie Blake's ragtime pieces are more animated, including by far the earliest roll here, "Charleston Rag," recorded in 1899, when Blake was just 16. There's even more startling contrast between Joplin's careful formalism and the virtuosic exuberance of James P. Johnson, heard here in a joyous performance of "Steeplechase Rag" and a "Twilight Rag" that makes striking use of dissonance. Waller, Johnson's greatest pupil, plays with such larger-than-life vitality and rhythmic ease that his rolls of "New Kind of Man," "Nobody But My Baby," and "Got to Cool My Doggies Now" seem to cross the line into direct recordings of his performances. Alone among these artists, New Orleans jazz pioneer Morton exploits the extended playing time of the piano roll to press his "Shreveport Stomp" toward the five-minute mark. The final tracks come from Jimmy Blythe, a brilliant if obscure Chicago pianist who worked in both blues and jazz. "Mr. Freddie Blues" is pure, heartfelt blues playing, with little suggestion of ragtime, while "Regal Stomp," a duet by Blythe and Charles Clark, is an inspired demonstration of how much data a piano roll could manage. --Stuart Broomer
