ARTCRAFT ROLLS: cutting up the music

 

    L. Douglas Henderson ("Doug" for short) was born in Sacramento CA in 1938, and showed an early interest in musical things, beginning with the family's 78 rpm phonograph (a Victor Jr. attached to a shortwave RCA Radio) and the many musical movies of the period, which his school teacher parents attended on a regular basis.
    Moving to the San Francisco Bay Area (Kensington-Berkeley CA) in the mid-'Forties, he was highly influenced by the abundance of "still working" player pianos and also met Wally Rose, the famous Ragtime pianist, associated with the Lu Watters' Yerba Buena Jazz Band, the group which began recording Scott Joplin music in 1939, continuing through the mid-'Fifties. Wally provided many decades of advice and music scores - this being before the era of facsimile machines - and so, by his 'teens, Mr. Henderson was not only collecting old cylinder and disc records, but bought a 1912 Harmony Player-Piano and soon after that began cutting rolls for the instrument. (This was due to his extreme disappointment with the commercial fare, which never challenged the player action and rarely featured 'human sounding' staccato passages.)
    After graduating from UC in Berkeley, he flew to New York City, where Max Kortlander (an arranger for decades) operated a surviving music roll plant in the Bronx. Several QRS Master rolls were made for the aging factory, and then he joined forces with Mr. and Mrs. Danilo Konvalinka, moving to Maine and establishing a music museum, which - in Wiscasset - is now celebrating its 38th Season: The Musical Wonder House.
     In 1986, having made rolls for all these years, he and Lois Konvalinka left the operation of the museum, founding ARTCRAFT Music Rolls in a Federal style house, around the corner.
    ARTCRAFT Rolls went on - aided immeasurably by the Web in the 'Nineties - to be performed around the world, often in places not associated with the perforated roll medium. The Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay, Swedish TV-Radio and even a Franco-Russian movie used his ARTCRAFT arrangements on a soundtrack, the latter about Robert Flaherty making "Nanook of the North" (with former Russia faking the Yukon of the 'Twenties!).
     In the late 'Eighties, he acquired a 1929 Story & Clark 'Reprotone' player and had it fitted for performances outside of the Wiscasset Studio, where 2 Steinway player grand pianos assist in the making of music roll Masters. This upright was fitted with a custom-built tray with rubber wheels (and brakes!) and used in connection with a trailer, equipped with a remote control winch and an elevating ramp, allowing the instrument to be rolled on to the stage with relative ease. Composer Galen Wilkes - who had Mr. Henderson's Pianola performances for 2 Ragtime Festivals in Niantic, Conn. wrote, "He's the only musician who arrives with his own piano" - which is true, since a good player instrument is mandatory for public performances.
     The 'Reprotone' has been featured on many concert tours, most notably with the Arcady Music Festival, based in Bar Harbor, Maine - with Masanobu Ikemiya as pianist and music director. One night stands from Millinocket to Dover-Foxcroft were part of their 'Ragtime Revue' programs, including Mr. Henderson's own rolls and the 'Reprotone' upight.
    Today, again due to the Internet, ARTCRAFT Rolls are shipped to New Caledonia, Australia, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and elsewhere - enjoying a world-wide popularity among the musically inclined.
    Lois Konvalinka and Mr. Henderson discovered Searsport Shores a number of years ago, when traveling in a Volkswagen Camper (with a tent room addition). This was augmented with a folding trailer by Aliner, and even a Master Roll was perforated at Site 9 - a few years ago, and debuted on the Saturday evening concerts in 2001. Since then, Henderson & Konvalinka have become 'seasonals', purchasing a large trailer which is now at Site 52, and the hexagonal tent, used for perforating rolls during the Summer months, has been moved to that location. [Incidentally, the sea mist affected the width of the Master roll paper, so the present site is definitely a friendlier place to create music for Player-Pianos!]
    Now 63 - and cutting rolls for a 1/2 Century (when 2002 arrives) - Mr. Henderson remains an advocate of the neglected and ignored medium of perforated music. Stereotypes of 'honky- tonk' players remain, but his public appearances, whenever they take place, "educate" the audiences about the potential of these amazing instruments, which are still being made, today, as a craft industry ... and restored - if old - around the world.
    In 2001, Searsport Shores sponsored a "milestone" in artistic music roll performances, a series of 9 Saturday Player-Piano concerts, running through July and August. The player instrument is a unique part of our planned entertainment, this year, and continues to amaze the listeners, who never expected that a music roll could accomplish so much.

Piano Rolls