Well, don't say I didn't try.

Have a look at this site BluesTone Blues Rolls (Pianists, K - Z) and I might be able to interest you in listening to the midi files at Terry Smythe's page.

The blicky points to a supplier of blues and ragtime piano rolls, **played by the composer** on many of them. Not played by other people who can afford a midi keyboard and with variable degrees of playing and music interpreting ability, who who can copy transcribed sheet music into midi format, but played by the composer as he/she wanted it to be played.

If you could hear the original composer play a tune as if their ghost is playing it for you, not through tinny little speakers but right there in front of you in real "surround sound" on your own piano, wouldn't that just be like being in heaven.

So, for example, on Terry Smythe's pages you can download the zip files for batches 7, 8, 11, & 12 and hear Jelly Roll Morton play:

Grandpa's Spells (1926)
London Blues (1924)
Mr. Jelly Lord (1924)
Perfect Rag - Frog-i-More Rag

OR you could download batch 16 and hear Scott Joplin play:

Magnetic Rag
Ole Miss Rag
Something Doin'
Weeping Willow
Weeping Willow Rag

or batches 1, 7, 8, 10, & 11 to hear Joplin play:

Euphonic Sounds (1909)
Magnetic Rag (1914)
Maple Leaf Rag
Ole Miss Rag (1916)
Something Doin' (1903)
Weeping Willow Rag (1911)
Magnetic Rag
Something Doin

Or there is Fats Waller, or George Gershwin, or even Rachmaninoff.

Admittedly it's not going to be as exciting as hearing it on your own piano in surround sound, but it's as near as you can get on your computer.

Helen