This is a National coin piano made in Grand Rapids, Michigan. For anyone who wants to buy one of these fascinating instruments, there will be about ten of them (plus dozens of normal foot-pumped home player pianos) for sale at the Player Piano Company auction in Wichita, Kansas on June 5th through 7th, 2009. Please google "player piano parts auction" for more details.
The full Automatic Musical Instrument Co. / Grand Rapids / National story can be read here on the Mechanical Music Registry website. It includes a complete description of how the National piano works and selects and changes a roll, with lots of pictures, as well as a rollography. Anyone with additional National rolls, pianos, or info on same is encouraged to contribute to the database: www.mechanicalmusicpress.com/registry/nat_auto/nat_auto.htm
Such an awesome machine! However, it would be nice to hear it playing some good National blues or fox trot rolls like it originally played. I've got a few of these on recut, and the music they released was fantastic! It would certainly sound better in my opinion than this "formula" J.L. Cook roll. Definitely the early jukebox. Remarkable technology. I believe this is the machine at Musee Mechanique in San Francisco.
Aw man I wish I could play this "formula J. L. Cook roll" by hand on the piano. In fact, I'm not at all sure this is Mr. Cook. Do you have the QRS 88-note version to compare? I believe most, if not all, of the musical arrangements heard on National roll changing pianos were derived from the "Staffnote" and "Play-Rite" 88-note home player piano rolls made by the Billings Roll Co. of Milwaukee, (roll business later sold to the Roesler-Hunholz organ co.). Their artists included Phil Duval, Armand Muth, Roy Roemer, Charley Sizer, and others. I really like their arrangements and although original National changer rolls are extremely rare today due to hard commercial usage (and lower sales than home rolls), the same arrangements (I think) for most or all of these can be found on eBay in the 88-note original PlayRite and Staffnote rolls from the 20s, although some of THOSE are very rare too (such as "Mr. Freddie Blues" played by James Blythe on Staffnote... one known copy!).
And it turns out I'm wrong! Most of the National arrangements were apparently done in-house, although a few may have been licensed from other companies like Staffnote. The head arranger was Mr. Paul Estabrook, who also made a handful of very rare piano solo records for Brunswick around 1930, and was known in the arranging dept. as either "16-fingered Paul" or "20-fingered Paul" (due to the extra notes he'd add on the roll master). Other arrangers include Mr. Walter A. Goble, an 'old time band man' who arranged many march rolls, and Mr. James "Rags" Allen, who was interviewed by the late Mr. Mike Montgomery in 1980 and was the source of this info. None of these arrangers made the National blues rolls; it was believed they were the work of either guest artists, or licensing roll masters from other companies.
That's "Walking my baby back home" there. The sound could be better, but I know the Musee Mechanique is noisy (assume that's where you are). Anyone know the original pianist?
We believe it was either Paul Estabrook or James S. Allen, who apparently arranged almost all of the pop song and fox trot rolls for National, at least by the 1920s.
Here's a nice audio recording of Paul Estabrook playing "To My Mammy" composed by Irving Berlin, in 1930. This is him really playing on this record!: archive.org/details/78_to-my-mammy_paul-estabrook-berlin_gbia0059183a/_78_to-my-mammy_paul-estabrook-berlin_gbia0059183a_01_3.8_CT_EQ.flac
No known commercial 78 recordings of James "Rags" Allen, the other main National arranger, unfortunately. However he was interviewed by my late friend Mike Montgomery in the 1980s, I think. I *hope* there are some home recordings of him playing out there!!!
Precisely! In fact, the Automatic Musical Instrument Co. of Grand Rapids, Michigan, who built this piano in the 1920s, was the predecessor of today's AMI jukebox company, who went on to make jukeboxes in the 30s and 40s and still make computer jukeboxes today (with wifi, I think). This piano is literally the direct ancestor of those.
This is a National coin piano made in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
For anyone who wants to buy one of these fascinating instruments, there will be about ten of them (plus dozens of normal foot-pumped home player pianos) for sale at the Player Piano Company auction in Wichita, Kansas on June 5th through 7th, 2009.
Please google "player piano parts auction" for more details.
The full Automatic Musical Instrument Co. / Grand Rapids / National story can be read here on the Mechanical Music Registry website. It includes a complete description of how the National piano works and selects and changes a roll, with lots of pictures, as well as a rollography. Anyone with additional National rolls, pianos, or info on same is encouraged to contribute to the database: www.mechanicalmusicpress.com/registry/nat_auto/nat_auto.htm
Such an awesome machine! However, it would be nice to hear it playing some good National blues or fox trot rolls like it originally played. I've got a few of these on recut, and the music they released was fantastic! It would certainly sound better in my opinion than this "formula" J.L. Cook roll.
Definitely the early jukebox. Remarkable technology. I believe this is the machine at Musee Mechanique in San Francisco.
Aw man I wish I could play this "formula J. L. Cook roll" by hand on the piano. In fact, I'm not at all sure this is Mr. Cook. Do you have the QRS 88-note version to compare? I believe most, if not all, of the musical arrangements heard on National roll changing pianos were derived from the "Staffnote" and "Play-Rite" 88-note home player piano rolls made by the Billings Roll Co. of Milwaukee, (roll business later sold to the Roesler-Hunholz organ co.). Their artists included Phil Duval, Armand Muth, Roy Roemer, Charley Sizer, and others. I really like their arrangements and although original National changer rolls are extremely rare today due to hard commercial usage (and lower sales than home rolls), the same arrangements (I think) for most or all of these can be found on eBay in the 88-note original PlayRite and Staffnote rolls from the 20s, although some of THOSE are very rare too (such as "Mr. Freddie Blues" played by James Blythe on Staffnote... one known copy!).
And it turns out I'm wrong! Most of the National arrangements were apparently done in-house, although a few may have been licensed from other companies like Staffnote. The head arranger was Mr. Paul Estabrook, who also made a handful of very rare piano solo records for Brunswick around 1930, and was known in the arranging dept. as either "16-fingered Paul" or "20-fingered Paul" (due to the extra notes he'd add on the roll master). Other arrangers include Mr. Walter A. Goble, an 'old time band man' who arranged many march rolls, and Mr. James "Rags" Allen, who was interviewed by the late Mr. Mike Montgomery in 1980 and was the source of this info. None of these arrangers made the National blues rolls; it was believed they were the work of either guest artists, or licensing roll masters from other companies.
That's "Walking my baby back home" there. The sound could be better, but I know the Musee Mechanique is noisy (assume that's where you are). Anyone know the original pianist?
We believe it was either Paul Estabrook or James S. Allen, who apparently arranged almost all of the pop song and fox trot rolls for National, at least by the 1920s.
Here's a nice audio recording of Paul Estabrook playing "To My Mammy" composed by Irving Berlin, in 1930. This is him really playing on this record!: archive.org/details/78_to-my-mammy_paul-estabrook-berlin_gbia0059183a/_78_to-my-mammy_paul-estabrook-berlin_gbia0059183a_01_3.8_CT_EQ.flac
And here's a recording of Paul playing "Puttin' on the Ritz": archive.org/details/78_puttin-on-the-ritz_paul-estabrook-berlin_gbia0059183b
No known commercial 78 recordings of James "Rags" Allen, the other main National arranger, unfortunately. However he was interviewed by my late friend Mike Montgomery in the 1980s, I think. I *hope* there are some home recordings of him playing out there!!!
Almost like an early version of a juke box lol.
Precisely! In fact, the Automatic Musical Instrument Co. of Grand Rapids, Michigan, who built this piano in the 1920s, was the predecessor of today's AMI jukebox company, who went on to make jukeboxes in the 30s and 40s and still make computer jukeboxes today (with wifi, I think). This piano is literally the direct ancestor of those.