(from Tinfoil.com)
It's George Schweinfest! Now the reason I want to start with him this evening is because I had just noticed this weekend that Mr. Schweinfest lived an awfully long time, as compared to some of his colleagues in the early recording business. This fact is very interesting to think about, because Jim Walsh never really did an article corresponding with Mr. Schweinfest, and this frustrates me greatly. Why? because Schweinfest lived until 1949. The few record researchers like Walsh could have easily gotten to him! Schweinfest would have been a wonderful source of information for sure, as he was not only that famous piccolo man, he was also the pianist at Columbia' phonograph company the years between Fred Gaisberg and Fred Hylands. So there's no doubt that Schweinfest would have quite a variety of stories. Schweinfest was an unusual band member of the 1890's recording business, as he played five or six different instruments, which was uncommon as far as the house musicians go from that time. He was very valuable in that sense, as he was used for all the instruments he played. I have seen records of him playing piano, Flute, clarinet, violin, and of course piccolo. Before he was a recording star(starting in 1890), he worked in several east coast German bands, playing his various flute instruments, and maybe leading sometimes. Anyhow, I just looked through what names were listed in the Jim Walsh Collection on the Library of Congress' website, and I did not see Schweinfest listed anywhere, so that pretty much proves it. Walsh didn't get to interview or correspond with one of the best potential sources of information on the early recording business. That says quite a lot about Walsh, that he didn't really care too much about the musicians behind all those singers that he praised so highly. It's very unfortunate that he never really got an interest in the recorded accompanists. This lack of interest has kept a lot of us collectors wondering about the over-worked accompanists. This is why record collectors get into battles over who the pianist is on certain records, as I have seen this happen before. This unknown nature of accompanists leads me into my next part of this post.
The next thing I would like to speak of is the fact that all the records of recording dates and general personnel of the Columbia company have vanished. Why is this so? Not anyone I know has any idea. It is certainly something many record nerds have pondered on before. What happened to all of the Columbia catalogs, cashbooks, ledgers, and legal papers? No one knows. The only written records we all have access to are from 1919 onward, not anything before that, which is a terrible disappointment to all the early recording collectors. It is something we have all cried about before, but we have to deal with the fact that they're all gone. But what happened to them? Were they recycled into other things? Burned to bits at a specific destroy date? Lost in a studio fire? Or are there still some out there now? It's a fascinating mystery really, as most of the Edison ledgers survive, or at least a good amount of them. All of the Victor ledgers survive, this is why we have exact recording dates everywhere with Victors and Berliners. This will never be so with Columbia's. All the dates listed on Columbia discographies are usually best guesses bu record numbers, but then other takes with the same number can always be there to confuse. This is why many Columbia's have dates listed like these:
c.1896-1899
c.1898-1900
1901-1904
1904-1909
Those are dates that one can usually find with many Columbia cylinders, though, if a nerd knows the dates in which Columbia spread outward to other states and countries, one can understand a more accurate way of dating these cylinders. I have had the theory though that the Columbia staff hadn't the best record-keeping in its time, as the Edison ledgers are very complete, and the Berliner and Victor ledgers are among the best that exist from that time. The Columbia ledgers were either terrible, or very efficient and complete. It is certainly the great mystery. Were they burned? Or scattered everywhere? Who knows. Some examples of these unsure dates are here:
one from late-1897 or early 1898:
I am in debate with my mind about the date on this one, as it could easily have been recorded in December 1897(which would be the month if it's 1897) or within the first three months of 1898. It's a Fred Hylands led Columbia orchestra with Len Spencer singing a chorus, so it's more likely to be very early 1898. One more thing to note about the song on this cylinder is that this tune was actually the first published song with Rag-Time accompaniment, by the team of Williams and Walker, seen here:
Williams and Walker, 1897.
This next one is by Billy Golden from what most people say 1897, but is actually more likely to be mid-1898:
(the first sound file listed on the page that is)
Most people are misled to think that this cylinder is from 1897 because of the announcement, which makes sense, but the piano accompaniment would not line up with the 1897 date at all. That is obviously the piano accompaniment of an anxious Fred Hylands, not of George Schweinfest.
this next one is by Vess Ossman, and all the discographies I have seen have differing opinions on the recording date of this one. One says 1897, another says 1899, and another says 1898, all with "accompaniment by: Unknown"
Here is that cylinder:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder5293
I say 1898. Again, because of the piano accompaniment, which from quite a few hard-to-hear characteristics, it is certainly Fred Hylands. It certainly wouldn't be the long-assumed Frank P. Banta, as it's not an Edison cylinder.
This next one is also by Ossman, but it's one of those later Columbia's where the date is almost impossible to trace because of it holding an older record number:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder4880
I don't care what anyone says, I hear this as it's 1903. They say "1904 to 1909" as the date, but it's certainly 1903, by its sound and according to when many remakes of older Columbia's were done. These sound much like this one here, by the piccolo player mentioned earlier in this post(George Schweinfest):
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder6211
I am almost 100% sure that this "Skirt Dance" by Schweinfest and Hylands is from 1903, much like tha last Ossman record I shared.
Anyhow, if anyone knows anything about the fate of the early ledgers of Columbia, please comment on this post and tell me! It would help many collectors so greatly! I really want to know if they were burned or not.
I hope you enjoyed this! Getting ready for the West Coast Ragtime festival has really kept me busy!
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