Original Gershwin 1919 Swanee piano roll pumped by Artis Wodehouse

Artis Wodehouse foot-pumps (aka, pianolizes) George Gershwin's 1919 piano roll rendition of his iconic tune, Swanee that launched him to international fame. Wodehouse plays through Gershwin's Swanee roll on a 1912 player piano built by Bush & Lane in Chicago. It was fully restored by Paul Manganaro in 2018. The instrument's roll playback mechanism allows for the addition of a full variety of dynamic inflections that were suggested by an expression line inscribed in blue on the roll (shown clearly in the video's thumbnail). In this setup, the pianolist could add dynamics by following the blue line printed on the roll (right, louder, left, softer) crafting their pumping and manipulating the levers and buttons below the keys to create in effect, an expressive live performance. Gershwin recorded Swanee for the Aeolian Company. His single rendition was released in two formats, Melodee (3707) and Duo Art. Wodehouse plays the Melodee formatted performance. Melodee rolls required active foot-pumping to activate roll playback and dynamic inflections such as is seen executed by Wodehouse. Gershwin's Swanee was also released on Aeolian's Duo Art label, an expensive format intended for the technologically complex high-end Duo Art reproducing piano. Driven by specially coded Duo Art rolls, a Duo Art reproducing piano could render the dynamics automatically, eliminating the need for human intervention to facilitate expressive playback.