Where Were You, Where Was I? (Exactly Where We Are) -- Piano Roll version

Описание

This a piano-roll version of George M. Cohan's "Where Were You, Where Was I?" from his 1928 musical "Billie." This was the song that Cohan thought would be the hit of the show... but it wasn't, for some reason. The title song turned out to be the better-known tune, to the extent that even that song became well-known. The fact is that Cohan's songs were considered old-fashioned by 1928 when Porter, Rodgers & Hart, the Gershwins, and DeSylva/Brown/Henderson were writing jazzier tunes. Happily, though, now ALL the songs from the '20s are considered old-fashioned -- even the songs by those other fine tunesmiths -- so we can appreciate Cohan's later work without the bias that caused them to be dismissed originally.

This particular piano roll is played by none other than Victor Arden, half of the famous duo-piano team of (Phil) Ohman & Arden of the '20s and '30s. See here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arden-Ohman_Orchestra

Now, you would not be enjoying this wonderful recording without the unflagging efforts of an immensely knowledgeable person, Jim Blanco of South Carolina, who is an expert in piano rolls. I sent the roll to him in 2017 for digital scanning and he quickly determined that it was faulty. It had "timing" issues, meaning that this particular roll had not gone through the typical refining process that corrected the pianist's mistakes before the roll was put on the market. He called in another expert, Robbie Rhodes (editor of the Mechanical Musical Digest) who is very much in demand when it comes to fixing problematic piano rolls. Completely voluntarily, Robbie generously brought his rare skills to bear on the piece, and he and Jim turned out this re-discovered "gem" of tune. As Jim pointed out to me, there was so little customer demand for the tune at the time, nobody had ever bothered to fix this roll -- 'til now. So, an immense THANK YOU to Jim and Robbie for bringing one of Cohan's final compositions back to us for enjoyment!

For the record, this is an AMPICO (American Piano Company) Roll #210961-E
Released Dec. 28, 1928 (two weeks before the end of the show's brief 112 performance run, from Oct. 1, 1928 - Jan. 5, 1929).

BILLIE was the final Cohan musical to play Broadway. He completed one last musical, THE MUSICAL COMEDY MAN (1941) -- a comeback vehicle for himself -- but, sadly, he died before it could be produced.

CREDITS:
Composed by George M. Cohan
Performed by Victor Arden
Re-timed by Robbie Rhodes
Scan & File by James E. Blanco