There are a lot of
Cole Porter collections on the market. Pierian's 2008 release
It's De-Lovely! The Music of Cole Porter is a somewhat unusual addition to the pack in that it consists of remastered and newly realized player piano roll arrangements of
Cole Porter compositions. The original rolls, dating from the years 1920-1940, are credited to 11 different performers. Foremost among these, quantitatively at least, are
Adam Carroll and
Frank Milne, with
Paul Whiteman's arranger and composer-in-his-own-right
Ferde Grofe spooling one of this collection's two versions of "I'm in Love Again";
Marshall Bartholomew knocking up a medley of
Porter's early Yale ditties and
Robert Joyce receiving the "oldest roll" award with his 1920 interpretation of "An Old-Fashioned Garden" from the stage show Hitchy-Koo. Since there are no vocalists, listeners are free to obtain sheet music and howl along with these charming old parlor piano rolls.
–
arwulf arwulf, Rovi