Tiger Rag - J. Lawrence Cook

Shellwood Productions have produced a brand new 74-minute J. Lawrence Cook CD: Tiger Rag (cover art on the right - click to see full-size). Released on 1st June, this is a must-have for all piano roll fans, and indeed all lovers of good piano music!

The disc features performances of no less than 31 J. Lawrence Cook piano rolls. All of the rolls have been newly recorded, at Shellwood, by pianolists of the calibre of Julian Dyer, Dan Wilson, Philip Legg and Mike Lorenzini.

The rolls are recorded being played on a 208cm (that's roughly seven foot) Seiler Grand Piano by an 88-note Aeolian "push-up" Pianola. The sound (engineered by Philip Legg) is superb and the music sublime!

The tracks on the CD are:

		Pianolist	QRS Roll #
1.	Stumbling (Confrey)	Philip Legg	9135
2.	South Rampart Street Parade (Baldrick/Haggart)	Mike Lorenzini	9032
3.	The Very Thought of You (Noble)	Philip Legg	9443
4.	Sugar Foot Stomp (Oliver/Armstrong)	Dan Wilson	8102
5.	When my Sugar Walks Down the Street (Austin/McHugh/Mills)	Philip Legg	9514
6.	Maple Leaf Rag (Joplin)	Philip Legg	7308
7.	Tiger Rag (Rocca/da Silva)	Mike Lorenzini	5353
8.	Claire de la Lune (Debussy)	Julian Dyer	8021
9.	When All the Saints Come Marchin' In (McCravey)	Mike Lorenzini	3554
10.	Bill Bailey (won't you please come home) (Cannon)	Philip Legg	9553
11.	Anchors Aweigh (Zimmerman)	Julian Dyer	4961
12.	Sweet Lorraine (Burwell)	Dan Wilson	XP276
13.	My Honey's Lovin' Arms (Rube/Myer)	Julian Dyer	1944
14.	Shadow Waltz (Warren)	Dan Wilson	XP199
15.	High Octane (Erroll Garner)	Dan Wilson	XP290
16.	Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue (Henderson)	Philip Legg	3298
17.	Mr. Sandman (Ballard)	Mike Lorenzini	9097
18.	Get Happy (Kohler/Arlen)	Philip Legg	4973
19.	It's the Talk of the Town (Symes)	Julian Dyer	9218
20.	St. Louis Blues Boogie (Handy)	Julian Dyer	7971
21.	I've Got You Under My Skin (Porter)	Julian Dyer	9156
22.	Holiday for Strings (Rose)	Julian Dyer	7908
23.	Laura (Raksin)	Julian Dyer	8028
24.	Stompin' at the Savoy (Goodman/Webb/Samson)	Philip Legg	9530
25.	You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby (Mercer/Warren)	Julian Dyer	9679
26.	California Here I Come (Jolson/Meyer)	Philip Legg	8452
27.	Gotta be This or That (Skylar)	Dan Wilson	XP225
28.	The World is Waiting for the Sunrise (Selts/Lockhart)	Mike Lorenzini	8777
29.	Royal Garden Blues (S. & C. Williams)	Philip Legg	9320
30.	Limehouse Blues (Braham)	Mike Lorenzini	2666
31.	Copenhagen (Melrose/Davis)	Philip Legg	9682

The generous booklet that comes with the CD features a thoughtful essay from Julian Dyer and some extracts from a talk J. Lawrence Cook gave in Los Angeles at the 1972 annual convention of the Automatic Musical Instrument Collectors' Association. There are numerous familiar photographs in the booklet, including the cover of the Cadence 10" LP that Lisa & I own.