AMG Review of Music of Cole Porter [Biograph]

William Ruhlmann
All Music Guide

This is an album of transcriptions of piano rolls of songs written by Cole Porter. J. Lawrence Cook is responsible for half of them, with Douglas Henderson, Max Kortlander, Walter Redding, Dick Watson, Ted Baxter, and Harold Scott having created the rest. All were employees of the Q-R-S Piano Roll Company, which, starting in 1900, turned out numerous rolls. (According to the liner notes, Cook alone, between 1921 and 1976, created 20,000.) The players ornament and elaborate upon Porter's familiar melodies without veering off into actual improvisation. They present distinctive versions of the songs while keeping things always recognizable, since piano rolls were intended to be played in the home as accompaniment to amateur singing. That notion is carried over onto this LP, which features the lyrics to the songs on the inner sleeve.