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The Amazing J. Lawrence Cook Of Tennessee, Alan H. Wallace

Alan H. Wallace

From the SEMLA report of the conference: Alan Wallace of the University of Tennessee gave a presentation on "The Amazing J. Lawrence Cook of Tennessee" that encouraged attendees to broaden their thoughts on the nature of artistic creation and recorded music. J. Lawrence Cook was a composer and arranger who throughout the course of his life created between 15,000 to 20,000 piano rolls for player pianos. Wallace discussed how the piano roll was the most common medium for recording and replaying music in an era before the widespread use of the phonograph and argued that the jazz music Cook cut …