John W. "Blind" Boone (1864 - 1927) is a fascinating artist from the early ragtime era. His rolls show the influences of 19th century American popular music, with popular "raggy" material as well as transcriptions and variations along the lines of more serious popular salon piano solos of the era. Both are represented in the rolls below and all are very interesting to hear and play.
137361 Camp Meeting Medley No. 1 (traditional) $13 This roll is currently out of stock
transcribed & played by Blind Boone (originally issued
on QRS 400034, ca. November 1912)
137362 Dixie (Daniel Emmett) $13
transcribed & played by Blind Boone (originally issued
on QRS 400038, ca. November 1912)
137363 Nearer My God To Thee (traditional) $13
transcribed & played by Blind Boone (originally issued
on QRS 400048, ca. November 1912)
Boone is one of the most interesting early Black musicians to record piano rolls. His Camp Meeting No. 1, Dixie and Nearer My God To Thee are not exactly "raggy", but are played in a style described in Rags and Ragtime as "loose timing and idiosyncratic rhythm techniques (giving) the impression of "ragged time" ". These rolls are among the very few documents we have of how Boone played. The playing in these rolls is very interesting and genuine; in my opinion the editing done by QRS does not involve trickery along the lines of adding notes or counter-melodies that Boone could not have played by hand. Every note sounds legitimate and I believe these rolls are as true to Boone's musicianship as they could be. This is a point I feel is not made properly in Jack Batterson's otherwise excellent book on Boone; he seems to suggest that because embellishments were possible, then all rolls contain them. All 7 of Boone's hand-played QRS rolls are now available on BluesTone.
137004 When You and I Were Young Maggie (Butterfield)
$16 This roll is currently out of
stock
played by Blind Boone (originally issued on QRS 400044,
ca. November 1912)
QRS issued seven rolls recorded by Boone, and this one hasn't been recut before now. It is a theme-and-variations roll, loaded with arpeggios and other "Boone-isms" which make it very interesting. The roll is quite long, and gives time for Boone to stretch out and play many variations with different effects. The style is reminiscent of Chopin and Gottschalk, and this is probably the most ornamented of all the Boone rolls. This roll is an important record of Boone's playing and the nineteenth-century piano style which predominated while ragtime was in its infancy.
137032 Gavotte Chromatic and Woodland Murmurs (Boone)
$16
played by the Composer Blind Boone (originally issued on
QRS 80254 and QRS 80268, November 1912)
I've picked a superior Blind Boone roll that has been recut just once before (Gavotte Chromatic) and combined it with another Boone rarity which has never been recut (Woodland Murmurs). Both are early composer-played rolls from the QRS Autograph roll classical series (80,000's). They are "salon" or semi-classical pieces which are perhaps not very exciting from a "hot piano" standpoint, but are never the less fine Blind Boone performances, and will certainly be of interest to collectors of Boone's music.
137253 Rag Medley No. 2 (Boone) $13
played by the Composer Blind Boone (originally issued on
QRS 200142 / October 1912)
Blind Boone has a special place in our hearts as one of the most important pre-ragtime pianists, and one of the most important of the early hand-played roll artists. In fact, Boone's rolls are the only "recordings" we have to actually hear his style. This medley, subtitled "Strains from Flat Branch", was published in Columbia, MO (where Flat Branch runs) and reprinted in Trebor's Ragtime Rarities folio. This is a beautiful, folky composition that gets played quite a bit these days in the ragtime circuit. Enjoy!