Ben Harney and Fred. Hylands, the two "Inventors of Ragtime"

Benjamin Robertson Harney in 1911

often called the "Inventor of Ragtime"

Frederick E. Hylands in 1912

early Ragtimer and earliest recorded ragtime pianist on records, starting in 1897

Ben Harney was called the "Inventor of ragtime" when Ragtime was at its height of popularity, as he was one of the first to introduce this new type of music to the stage in 1895. But when Harney became involved with Tony Pastor's famous vaudeville circuit in 1896, another face came his way, Mike Bernard:

 Bernard reportedly learned how to play these syncopated melodies from Harney. But it wasn't just Bernard that Harney encountered. Fred Hylands took control of the pit in 1897 when Bernard was not present. The small stringy Bernard must have been surprised at the imposing figure Hylands was, same thing for Ben Harney. 

Harney must have taken quite a curiosity for Hylands, as Harney was a very small, slim and fit Ragtime dancer, singer, and pianist(as you can see from the picture of him above), and Hylands was a rather tall(not really 6 feet tall though), weighed about 250 pounds, and had unusually dainty hands for his body type(again, revert to the picture of Hylands above to see my point).Harney must have thought of Hylands' presence on the new Ragtime scene as a challenge, as Hylands was a hardcore Indiana Ragtimer who certainly knew his way around a "Rag", even when he was drunk! 

Hylands could still play a Rag very hearty when he was drunk, or exhausted, but that's only because when he was drunk, he became heavingly anxious to play Ragtime and just piano in general, even if his playing wasn't the best, he wouldn't notice it. But everyone else would!

Harney's place was taken for the time being at Tony Pastor's theatre, until Columbia dragged Hylands into their studio the next year, 1897. Hylands still sustained this position at the theatre while he was Columbia's "Complaining Pianist"(i.e. the snippet from The Phonoscope below):

Some of Columbia's staff probably called him their "Complaining pianist" from this little thing. This also says that they really worked the shit out of him, as this wasn't the only thing hinting at this in The Phonoscope.

Ben Harney's popularity did not seem to fade after 1900, as many of those beloved singers we know recorded many of Harney's famous songs, trying to imitate the supposed early "crooner's" singing style. 

In my opinion, whether I get arguments or not, Rag-Time really began in 1896, and it started with Ben Harney, Fred Hylands and many early Ragtimers I cannot seem to list at the moment. 

Harney and Hylands were the kings of early Ragtime. 

I hope you all enjoyed this! 

Banta and Hylands,the natural pianists of Edison and Columbia

Frank P. Banta(1870-1903)

"Freddy" Hylands(1872-1913)

Many Ragtimers of to-day know Frank P. Banta as the father of the younger Frank E. Banta who was a famous pianist with Fred Van Eps and a pianist in the jazz age. The elder Frank Banta was a Ragtimer in the late 1890's and early 1900's whose piano accompaniments can be heard on many Edison Brown wax and early gold moulded cylinders. Banta's style on the piano was much more typical of the time period than his rival in recording Frederick(his friends called him "Freddy") Hylands who had a style very unusual and unique for the early Ragtime era. 

Banta was very classically oriented, even though he had a reasonable  Ragtime output by 1903. He was a natural pianist, but had a typical view on Ragtime of the time period, he did not possess the true feel of a cakewalk or a St. Louis rag. His style of classical orientation can be heard in the very rare piano solo below:

(beware, it's a very messy cylinder, but it's Banta himself!)

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/6000/6475/cusb-cyl6475d.mp3

I hope you listened as closely as you could! It's a bear to try to decipher! 

unfortunately for Banta, he did not have the best Genes to live very long, so at the height of his recording career, he died very suddenly, and all the Edison staff mourned him, and Albert Benzler was then Edison's pianist. 

For "Shits and Giggles" I want to show the remake of the same cylinder from 1905 that Benzler tried his best to replicate Banta's mastery. 

He was SO close, but no cigar! 

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/2000/2949/cusb-cyl2949d.mp3

I can just hear those differences! 

Unfortunately, Columbia did not seem to record any solos by Hylands(even though I strongly agree on the theory that they probably did at some point prior to 1900). Hylands' style was very progressive, in the sense that he added quick walking bass-lines all over the place(that's one good way to identify his accompaniment, but it's not the most efficient), and he added heavy syncopation before that became very popular. What I mean by that is that he was playing melodies like "Maple Leaf Rag" before its publication in 1899. Hylands was playing this sort of thing as early as 1896 or 1897! In being slightly older than Ben R. Harney(the "Inventor of Ragtime"), it is likely that as soon as he reached the east coast in 1896 that Harney recognized this new Rag-Timer and found his presence on the new music scene a challenge to his popularity in this new type of music. 

Hylands must have influenced Harney just a little, as this is ever so slightly relevant in his compositions after 1897. And after Hylands got his first true place in the east coast theatre, he was rotating places with Mike Bernard in the same orchestra pit, so it's very likely that when Bernard first heard the older Hylands, he lifted several of the things that he played and used it in his performances and in his compositions. Some Hylands-esque things can be heard in the links below of Mike Bernard's piano solos recorded between 1911 and 1913:

Bernard performing Wallie Herzer's "Everybody Two-Step":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6t4u_71aQg&list=PLTMwHLAObMju7SKHrLBFkO3q9Bi1HzQHj&index=41

Bernard playing F. M. Fagan's "That Peculiar Rag 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APVJDcZQv8s&list=PLTMwHLAObMju7SKHrLBFkO3q9Bi1HzQHj&index=42

Hmm. Kinda suspicious, I hear some "Freddy" Hylands in him(aside for the very Ben Harney like things here and there) ...

compare that to this(I know that I have used this link before) :

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/9000/9322/cusb-cyl9322d.mp3

It's just a perfect example of Hylands' ragtime style, and an early one too! 

Hylands' birthday is sometime this month, so in this post I wish my birthday respects to him! 

the genius of Russell Hunting

if you ask an early record collector who they think was the most influential of the early recording artists, Russell Hunting will most likely not come up. As he is a rather hard one to find on early records, but his records are highly valued among record collectors. 

"With care, I can live to speak to your grand-children, when they are as old as you are"

-Russell Hunting, Pathe demonstration record, 1916

NOBODY  had thought of these records lasting over 100 years after their creation, he was the FIRST to imagine this. He was the wisest of the early recording artists, as his legal trouble in the 1890's was only an experiment to see how far he could get, I'm sure that he probably thought he would get into legal trouble for recording these naughty records. He must have known he wouldn't be in trouble for very long.

Hunting must have been formulating this idea of the records living 100 years starting in the late 1890's, when he made these "saucy" records, he knew that these brown cylinders were fragile, but they can last for centuries if taken care of. So he must have had some speculation that at least a handful of his saucy records would survive to this date, even after most of them were destroyed. 

"There is always Walter Miller."

Was what Hunting must have said when the detectives told him that ALL the saucy records would be destroyed. He either gave a few to Miller to lock up, or he stole some from a coin phonograph. 

(FYI: Walter Miller was the long-time manager of Edison's phonograph company)

Hunting wanted to make Pathe the best possible record company, which he did for a short time. 

Pathe's records are very unique in the way that they aren't played with a needle, they are slightly oversized(so they can be hard to store...) One thing that is always interesting about Pathe's is that they have reverb! That was something that record studios tried so hard to get in the 20's! So whatever Hunting did to get that, is was ahead of its time! 

Hunting was also the first to promote "Jass" on records, starting in 1916 with Fred Van Eps adding a saxophone to his group, so that experiment lead to full on jazz early the next year. 

Remember that Hunting was also the first to record Jim Europe's band after they returned from the trenches in 1918. 

Hunting was the best manager Pathe ever had, no doubt! 

Now do all of you see why Hunting was the most influential and progressive ming of recordings first three decades?

H hope you enjoyed this!

happy birthday Harry Spencer!

Henry Caleb Spencer Jr.(1875-1946)

on this date, 140 years ago, the great eccentric and progressive Harry C. Spencer was born. He must have been one of those "weirdos" when he was a youth, constantly studying Mathematics and mechanical Science, and taking gadgets apart to see how they worked. He joined his brother Len in the recording business in 1896, but he saw the more technical and Scientific side of the recording business, he saw the lesser part of this young business. 

He has also been said to have been a performer with his older brother Len in the early and mid 1890's as well as being his back-up when Len wasn't present. He was just as good a salesman as his more well-known brother, and just as good a businessman. 

Harry had a very rather haunting voice, slightly deeper than Len's, more theatrical, darker, and more frantic. Harry had the unfortunate streak of mental illness that must have struck him not long after Len died in 1914. As he couldn't run the immense business that Len and his many friends left to him. He held everything that was left of the Spencer's together After Len died, but he could for only a few months. 

he had a mind almost too quick for his speech to come out clearly, almost in a stutter. This odd demeanor proved his very high intellect however. he may have been even more quick-witted and independent than his brother, he must have been more of the rebel, in the sense that he was a wild man, as his brother was. He did not really make any significant recordings, but what he really did was set an example of a true record salesman, how to fix phonographs, and how to promote the film business! 

he cannot be a forgotten character of the great Spencer clan! 

I hope you enjoyed this, sorry i haven't posted in a while...

studio stories no.2, the piano and the pocketwatch

 a brief illustration of the first yarn dedicated in this post. 

This studio stories post is one of my favourites, this first one always makes me laugh! here is a comical description below:

from the May, 1897 issue of The Phonoscope

This story always not only gets a good laugh out of me, it surprises me every time.

THAT MUST HAVE HURT! 

Damn! You wouldn't usually think of moving an elevated piano in the first place, but think about it falling from four feet and knocking you flat on the floor! 

So the next yarn I want to share here is something that doesn't surprise me at all...

typical Len Spencer:

(from the August, 1898 issue of you know what)

makes sense.

This is typical Len Spencer for ya. Constantly having his mind in another place. This seemingly tiny little thing reveals a heap more about Spencer than you might think. I mean, really, read though it a few times and really piece it together.

 "...to see a lady friend..." hmm. kinda suspicious. 

But like I just mentioned, do that and you'll know what I mean. 

He was the most well-educated of any of the recording artists he knew, so what is said at the beginning is completely true, and I'm sure that things like this were a common spot for him, as his mind was all over the place, constantly flowing with ideas and music. I'm sure that his friends found these mistakes with him very amusing, as he did little foolish things like this often. 

I hope you enjoyed this! 

studio stories no.1, the studio door and the cable car bout

Above is shown a rugged and queer-looking picture of Len Spencer. Most of you probably wonder why I made him look so rough and why one of him eyes is off. It's a very realistic view of Mr. Spencer, that is what I had intended.

If you're a very minute early record collector, you probably know of the story of Len Spencer losing the sight in his right eye around 1905-1906. So as the story goes, Spencer's height was an advantage, and also, a very outweighing disadvantage. At one of the many recording studios, they had a rather short(to Spencer's height) swinging door, and as Spencer was leaving that room, it must have smacked him...HARD! As you would think that that door had quite the momentum to impact him so hard to have Spencer wear a comical-looking eye-patch for a few months and eventually having no sight whatsoever in that eye. Some door, huh?

Anyhow, the second part of this post is dedicated to this event, fully described in the article from The Phonoscope below:

Not much has to be explained here.

The only thing that really surprised me is that last sentence. That fact really proves how all of his sketches and songs were inspired by things that he experienced,even things as extreme and wild as this one. He wrote hundreds of sketches, and dozens of songs that relate not just to minstrelsy, but pure oddity Vaudeville. They are a really unique view on the world in this time period, so most of the time when you're hearing a Spencer tune or sketch, you're seeing it in his perspective. 

Remember that...

(I will be doing more of these studio stories as a series after this! stay updated for more!)

I hope you enjoyed this! 

two big birthdays!

The two great performers in Ragtime shown here were both born on February 7, which is to-day. Eubie Blake in 1887, and Arthur Collins in 1864. Eubie Blake was a performer in the Ragtime era and far beyond, all the way into the 1970's! He had the hands of a piano god and was a revolutionary pianist, who furthered the progression of Ragtime into Jazz, starting in 1911. 

Arthur Collins was one of the two who I did a seminar on last November, and it was interesting doing this, as I had to dig through so many books and record catalogs for information on him, as his background is a little sketchy. He was never really the most accomplished or well-known performer, even years after he began recording. So I'm guessing that his stage presence wasn't the best(unlike his partner in recording Byron G. Harlan...). Collins was a very good singer though, it's a shame that he didn't gain a very good reputation as a stage performer. He got his wonderful vocal skills from his mother, who to many accounts was a wonderful soprano. He was not the best person to be working with in recording though, as he wasn't a very nice person, and to the account of fellow recording artist Harvey Hindermeyer, "Every other word he said was profanity."Kinda makes sense, he sounds like the kind of person who would be like that. Anyhow, Collins is significant for recording a good heap of Ragtime on early records, and being the third-in-line to do so(Vess Ossman and Len Spencer were the first to do this.)

Eubie Blake was a late-ragtime pianist and performer who is best known for being the partner in vaudeville of Noble Sissle in the teen's, twenties and thirties. He became one of the most popular black performers in the 20's, after the death of the predecessor of this place, Bert Williams, in 1923. He was a showman, pianist, and a true Ragtime/jazz pianist. He kept these long-standing memories for as long as he lived(which was not over 100!) which was for 96 years, and he always played piano, every day to his death. I have many friends who were not only in the audience at his performances, but were also well-associated with him! he's a piano god who will never be forgotten to ragtimers and to jazz players! 

I hope you enjoyed this!

"Freddy" Hylands' loaded records

Ah, yes. Freddy Hylands, the pianist that Len Spencer and the boys at The Columbia Phonograph Company praised for his talent and his adorable and easygoing personality. He had no faults it seemed, as his playing always made a "hit" with the lead performer on each record he was on. He was not always this way however. Remember that Fred. Hylands became practically the "best friend" of Len Spencer, and in being this, he got caught up in the wild lifestyle that Spencer led. This is why Hylands only lived to see age 41. Why so? Drinking and "living large", that is what murdered the great Fred. Hylands. He was a very kind person, a gentle and comical chap who always had music on his mind, whether it be Ragtime or something completely opposing to that. 

A heaving force in Rag-Time to be reckoned with, that was "Freddy" Hylands.

(the statement above is in my novel by the way!)

Aside from all of these lovable traits, Hylands was indeed a drinker. And a pretty hard one too. As this can be heard on MANY of the records that he is the pianist on. And I know that I described his drunk pianos playing, but I think this is a perfect time to do so:

Hylands could play his heart out on any take that was thrown at him, even if it was the thirtieth take of something. But he tended to drink between the takes, to ease his strained muscles and quit the trembling that his fingers had kicked up from the previous take. This made him feel better, but little would be know, that his piano playing deteriorated from this. His rhythm became unsteady, messy, and his notes were slurred in both hands. The engineers behind the end of the plain horn couldn't bother him, as they just didn't want to. He wasn't troubled as a drunk, as he never was, it was just a trifle harder to handle the regular recording business when he could barely play, and was practically numb where his fingers had to work. 

His piano playing deteriorated as the takes came along, but he would barely realize that. he just kept playing his heart out, as that's what his impulse dictated and what he did best, 

even as a drunk. When he was recording with J. W. Myers, his piano playing had to be precise, as Myers was very nitpicky when it came to Hylands' piano playing, as he must have been one of the only ones on Columbia's staff who told Hylands that his mind must be completely clear if he was going to accompany him for the day. Everyone else could pretty much just trust him with anything, as long as he was playing in the right key and had reasonably good time for the day(he could still have alright time as a drunk). 

Even with all his faults, we still love him just as much the Columbia staff did, it is a due that all of the new "Ragtimers" owe to Fred. Hylands by paying our respects to his grave, and just playing his music in general. 

I hope you enjoyed this!

Vess Ossman, Columbia's bossy banjoist

Many know of the great Vess L. Ossman, who recorded like a fiend in the 1890's and early 1900's on his banjo. Ossman was a great self-taught banjo player, don't get me wrong, but he was really an awful person to deal with, this is why most of the duos and groups he was part of didn't last very long. He was selfish, vain, and had an absolutely horrible temper. He had to be all tuned up before a take, it was precise with him, couldn't be any sharp, any flat. And if a banjo string broke, all hell would break loose, he would just explode. I'm surprised that he worked with Spencer for so long! 

it would be a mess if he worked with someone he just didn't like, someone like Fred Van Eps, or any other strings players in general. It's interesting to think that he and Fred. Hylands worked so well together, I guess that when Ossman met Hylands, he left his pianist in vaudeville Frank P. Banta in the dust, kind of a "dick move" if ya ask me. He was always said to have been a little too picky with the money that was distributed to the artists, even if he worked with someone else, he would always have an excuse as to why he should get more money of the bunch. He worked with Spencer alright, as they didn't seem to run into any problems(not that I have found) in their time as a duo from 1897 to 1904. 

I'm sure the two of them worked fine as one. They even had similar hairstyles! 

Nothing could stop Vess, he would sometimes want to keep playing when the boys were ready to cut out. Though, much like many of his fellows in recording, having this impulse was not uncommon. 

The Dudley brothers(George and "Audley') always spoke jokingly of Ossman, as they often had gigs with him once or twice a week when they were a trio from 1904-1907. Ossman was always forgetting things, coming in late, and sometimes even getting the bad chair on the stage! It's alright, he didn't really treat the Dudley's the way that he should have, as that was why George practically quit, as Vess was terrible dealing with their money, that was why this trio ended so quickly. 

I hope you enjoyed this! 

Freddy Hylands and Mike Bernard

Many of you may wonder why I have put these two rather well-known Ragtime pianists together. 

The first one pictured is the amazing Mike Bernard, who is often known for his extraordinary piano style and his complicated and nasty personal life. the second one is one that you all know, Freddy Hylands. 

I have put these two together because I have just connected two completely different paths in Ragtime. How could Hylands have know Bernard? well, when Hylands got his first job on the stage on the east coast in c.1896-97, he was recruited by the very vaudeville circuit that Mike Bernard was already the star pianist of. Bernard must have been surprised that a new pianist was coming his way, and a damn good one! So upon hearing Hylands, Bernard must have nitpicked through his style and "taken" a few things with him(by this I mean that he took some licks of his and used them in his own solos). As i just listened to a few of Bernard's records,  I just noticed that he has several similarities to Hylands' piano playing as heard on those Columbia brown wax records of over ten years prior. This would make lot of sense, I mean, if I ran into Hylands as my new sort of "replacement" and heard him play, I would use some of his licks!That trademark thing that Bernard always did with insanely fast notes and quick walking bass octaves must have come from somewhere! And it's clear that Bernard must have gotten his wild ideas when he performed from the great Freddy Hylands! Only because of what he improvised on those Columbia cylinders. 

I hope you enjoyed this!