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Artist/Band
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Song/Piece
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From Album
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Engage!
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Nickelodeon |
Your Time Now |
We Brought Back The Good Old Days |
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It was fun to hear the Flute Piano you have on your website. I am a mechanical music enthusiast and believe the piano is a Cremona G (model), or Coinola.
Sharon Marie,
I just saw your post on http://avconvert.com/time/10/10001.htm I don’t know what date you posted it.
Yes, the file “Your Time Now” was indeed recorded using a Cremona G Orchestrion.
You say you are a mechanical music enthusiast. Where are you located, and are you a member of either Music Box Society International (MBSI), http://www.mbsi.org or the Automatic Musical Instrument Collectors’Association (AMICA), http://www.amica.org ? Check out their websites if you haven’t already done so. Read articles in the Archives, especially Art Reblitz’ articles on Svoboda’s Nickelodeon Tavern in East Chicago Heights, IL< now gone. (First article attached – for the second attachment jpg, click + magnify at bottom to make print easier to read)
Do you know about, or are you a member of http://www.mmdigest.com
Where enthusiasts share information about machines available for sale, and restoration/parts information.
Do you have any machines?
I would enjoy corresponding with you. I have lots more information to share.
I was surfing the ‘net today and discovered your interesting site. Although I have heard OF the album “We Brought Back the Good Old Days”, I do not have it, so cannot tell you exactly what the piano is that is playing it. I agree that it is a coin piano with flute pipes, probably playing the style “A” roll.
[the Cremona G and Seeburg F have a large rank of 32 flute pipes covering two and a half octaves, whereas others such as the Seeburg E, Coinola CF, etc have a smaller 2-octave rank of about 24 or 25 pipes]
HOWEVER, I listened to the mp3 and I can tell you right away what tune you are listening to. The tune is indeed called “Your Time Now (‘Twill Be Mine After a While)”, and was composed by well-known African-American songwriter Spencer Williams.
This “A” coin piano roll arrangement, as with many American coin piano and orchestrion roll arrangements, was adapted from an 88-note home player piano roll arrangement, in this case, QRS roll #2245, originally released in May, 1923.
This roll was hand-played by the famous pianist Thomas “Fats” Waller and was the third roll out of about 25 rolls known to have been actually played by Waller himself. (plus there are two duet rolls with James P. Johnson). See here:
http://www.mmdigest.com/Gallery/MMMedia/fatswaller1.html
An interesting feature of this roll, “Your Time Now”, is that after taking several different choruses of the tune in a regular medium tempo, Fats unexpectedly swings into a hot minor-key stride theme in a fast tempo, right before the tasty coda that ends up the tune. This theme, although exciting, is totally unrelated to the rest of the tune, and it is theorized that Fats just made it up and decided to tack it on at the spur of the moment while he was at the recording piano.
My friend Bob Pinsker has transcribed this coda (not the whole roll) into sheet music, and includes it in the appendix to his excellent folio, “Piano Roll Sampler”, which also contains transcriptions of ten entire player piano rolls, recorded by various pianists in the ‘teens and ‘twenties. If you or a friend play piano (advanced piano skills; this stuff is not for the faint of heart!) and are interested in getting a copy of the folio, I can put you in touch with him.
In addition, anyone with a regular 88-note home player piano can get an exact duplicate “recut” copy of this roll for themselves, since it is available from BluesTone Music Rolls in Illinois.
http://www.bluesrolls.com/Blues.Waller.html
I am not sure if the “A” roll version heard on the recording has ever been recut, but I wouldn’t be surprised. I checked the websites of four different modern-day suppliers of new “A” rolls and they are not currently offering any rolls with this tune.
I hope you find this information useful.