Mandy’s Broadway Stroll
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George Gershwin used to work as a song plugger, which was an early form of artist promotions I guess you could say. He’d try to get people excited about songs so they’d buy the sheet music. He’d play four-handed versions onto piano rolls (two hands at a time) and play those for the customers. There are books out there of these 4-handed Gershwin arrangements from someone that transcribed those old piano rolls.
There’s a long tradition of pianists dubbing over themselves on recordings. Bill Evans also dabbled in dubbing on his 1963 album, Conversations With Myself.
This recording is my own 4-hand piano-roll arrangment of a song written in 1989 by Thomas E. Broady. Broady was a contemporary of Scott Joplin and lived in Nashville, Tennessee. Does it make you want to buy the sheet music?
it makes me want to buy a player piano.