Russell Hunting, 1897(from my own art)
Among the genius things that Russell Hunting did for the recording business, he started up The Phonoscope in November of 1896, and when he started this up, he wrote some very funny and informative sections when he had a larger role in the magazine's actual content and publication. Hunting was a very liberal thinker, and always had the future and the latest of things on his mind. He was one of the few earliest recording artists who knew that the records he made would last for 100 years, and maybe even more. When I am reminded that Hunting thought this, the only thing I can think about when I listen to the few surviving smut cylinders he made is that in the back of his mind, he knew someone would be listening to his voice uttering those nasty words generations after he made it.
Since his voice had several different shades and sides to it, he could disguise his voice easily, even when he used pseudonyms. But of course, there were certain ways he said things that gave it away. It gave away that it was Mr. "Michael Casey" who was speaking. His smut cylinders were popular, but they all knew who it was speaking the words. His voice was too distinctive:
https://archive.org/details/TheOldManAndJimByRussellHunting1894
The people who didn't know of him just knew him as "The Original Casey", not Russell Hunting.
The man was a genius, he knew that he would eventually get in legal trouble for his cylinders, but it lasted longer than he probably would have thought(which must have been a kick for him!). After all that legal trouble, he returned a hero after three months in prison.
What Hunting did on records was what he really was as a person, not giving a rap whatsoever of what the big politicians and people who ran the country wanted. He made records for the people, the majority of people, in America, and all over the world(later he did). Hunting didn't really give too much advice in The Phonoscope, but his sections are really the best of the best when it comes to that magazine. He gave out lots of advice to exhibitors of various talking machines, and since he's in this picture:
We can very well assume that this exhibition went very well and was very successful. Whenever Hunting was at an exhibition, you knew it was going to be a good one.
His advice looked a lot like these sections here:
The first one is exhibtor advice, the second one is general advice. Other than this, there were stories he recalled from his earliest days in the recording business, which funny lines in them, such as this one:
In this section, he was recalling when he was first starting out in the business and began experimenting with his own horns, which as the quote above suggests, were made of those things.
He wasn't in the business for the frivolous things like sacred songs and old minstrel music(like Steve Porter and Len Spencer were!), he was in the business for creation, new ideas, realistic thinking, new music, and comedy. Even after a decade of traveling in Europe and beginning a new century, he was still formulating those new progressive ideas he always had. By 1916, he was back in the U. S. as the manager of all the Pathe company, which was no small thing. In 1916, a new style of music came to the public's ears, "jass" as it was called. Before the big explosion of "Jass" in 1917, Hunting did one small thing in '16 that was just as jazzy as he could be. Fred Van Eps spoke in the 1940's of Russell Hunting allowing a saxophone player in Van Eps' trio, only because John MacDonald(Harry MacDonough) just didn't find the idea attractive enough. How Hunting got a big score on that. MacDonald felt ashamed by this and immediately allowed the Sax player just after their first Pathe was released. It was not only forward thinking of Van Eps, but also of Hunting, as within a year, Jazz became an official style everywhere, with the saxophone as one of the style's most important instruments.
This didn't end Hunting's great decisions though, in 1918 and 1919, many collectors may notice a handful of records by James Reese Europe's band. All of these records are Pathe's. So we know who the person who decided to have this was, Russell Hunting. The members of the 369th infantry band were invited several times in early 1919 to Pathe to make their many famous records, under the obliging and supervision of Russell Hunting. This was the best thing he did in my opinion, it really doesn't get better than that. The Jim Europe band was the best black band of its day, and Hunting gladly hosted them at Pathe, and paid them all very well, probably just as much as all the prestigious white artists. They really are the most groovy records of early jazz, here is my favourite of them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gftl8zClfUQ
Pathe was really the only compny who could accommodate the whole band and get a decent sound, as Hunting did all these weird and progressive tricks to make their recording room the best of its kind.
Hunting still did shows and talks occasionally after his term in the managing chair at Pathe ended in 1926. They were mostly for benefits of other things than recording, though he did do some things like that occasionally, some of which even included reviving his "Casey" character.
He is a figure in the early recording business who should never be forgotten for all that he did, even if he is still pretty obscure to-day, and disliked for his policial views and his few surviving records.
Since his voice had several different shades and sides to it, he could disguise his voice easily, even when he used pseudonyms. But of course, there were certain ways he said things that gave it away. It gave away that it was Mr. "Michael Casey" who was speaking. His smut cylinders were popular, but they all knew who it was speaking the words. His voice was too distinctive:
https://archive.org/details/TheOldManAndJimByRussellHunting1894
The people who didn't know of him just knew him as "The Original Casey", not Russell Hunting.
The man was a genius, he knew that he would eventually get in legal trouble for his cylinders, but it lasted longer than he probably would have thought(which must have been a kick for him!). After all that legal trouble, he returned a hero after three months in prison.
What Hunting did on records was what he really was as a person, not giving a rap whatsoever of what the big politicians and people who ran the country wanted. He made records for the people, the majority of people, in America, and all over the world(later he did). Hunting didn't really give too much advice in The Phonoscope, but his sections are really the best of the best when it comes to that magazine. He gave out lots of advice to exhibitors of various talking machines, and since he's in this picture:
His advice looked a lot like these sections here:
He wasn't in the business for the frivolous things like sacred songs and old minstrel music(like Steve Porter and Len Spencer were!), he was in the business for creation, new ideas, realistic thinking, new music, and comedy. Even after a decade of traveling in Europe and beginning a new century, he was still formulating those new progressive ideas he always had. By 1916, he was back in the U. S. as the manager of all the Pathe company, which was no small thing. In 1916, a new style of music came to the public's ears, "jass" as it was called. Before the big explosion of "Jass" in 1917, Hunting did one small thing in '16 that was just as jazzy as he could be. Fred Van Eps spoke in the 1940's of Russell Hunting allowing a saxophone player in Van Eps' trio, only because John MacDonald(Harry MacDonough) just didn't find the idea attractive enough. How Hunting got a big score on that. MacDonald felt ashamed by this and immediately allowed the Sax player just after their first Pathe was released. It was not only forward thinking of Van Eps, but also of Hunting, as within a year, Jazz became an official style everywhere, with the saxophone as one of the style's most important instruments.
This didn't end Hunting's great decisions though, in 1918 and 1919, many collectors may notice a handful of records by James Reese Europe's band. All of these records are Pathe's. So we know who the person who decided to have this was, Russell Hunting. The members of the 369th infantry band were invited several times in early 1919 to Pathe to make their many famous records, under the obliging and supervision of Russell Hunting. This was the best thing he did in my opinion, it really doesn't get better than that. The Jim Europe band was the best black band of its day, and Hunting gladly hosted them at Pathe, and paid them all very well, probably just as much as all the prestigious white artists. They really are the most groovy records of early jazz, here is my favourite of them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gftl8zClfUQ
Pathe was really the only compny who could accommodate the whole band and get a decent sound, as Hunting did all these weird and progressive tricks to make their recording room the best of its kind.
Hunting still did shows and talks occasionally after his term in the managing chair at Pathe ended in 1926. They were mostly for benefits of other things than recording, though he did do some things like that occasionally, some of which even included reviving his "Casey" character.
He is a figure in the early recording business who should never be forgotten for all that he did, even if he is still pretty obscure to-day, and disliked for his policial views and his few surviving records.
I hope you enjoyed this!
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