Issler's orchestra and Hylands' Columbia orchestra

Edward Issler(1856-1942)(from Tinfoil.com)

and his parlor orchestra soloists(also from Tinfoil.com)

I recognize all three of those boys, Clarinetist William Tuson, Cornetist David Dana, and multi-instrumentalist George Schweinfest.

Edward Issler was the first house pianist at any record company, starting in 1889 at Edison, and remained there until about 1895. He was also the first pianist to alternate accompaniment with Frank Banta and Fred Gaisberg. Issler was the first studio pianist of many, and he had a very unique approach to his choices of the music they recorded in his band. His orchestra always consisted of the people pictured above, but oftentimes with an extra two brass players and a sound effects man(who was young Len Spencer). You can hear them here in 1894 with Len Spencer playing some hand-held bells, and announcing for them:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder5291

Len Spencer was known in the early phonograph business9other than being a great "coon song" singer) as the announcer and sound effects man for Issler's orchestra, and from that cylinder above, it is evident. Spencer is not on all of these records, but he was on most of them. 

Here is another one from 1894, not with Spencer :

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder10475

Spencer probably was doing the bells again(if you could hear them), which were mostly overpowered by the piano. This record is a fantastic example of pre-Ragtime as some would say, I would think it's not really a great example of this, I have heard better examples. Any recording of "The Virginia Skeddaddle" is a great example of what pre-Ragtime would have sounded like. Here are two examples of "The Virginia Skedaddle":

Issler's orchestra from c.1896, with Len Spencer(doing some funny calls!)

Columbia orchestra with Harry Spencer and Fred Hylands, 1900

The one by Issler's orchestra is very quick and up tempo, and Len Spencer is really loving it! However, I do like the second one better. It's slower, more controlled(even though Issler's orchestra was very skilled and "tight" so to speak), and it has a better tempo for a pre-Ragtime piece, that is mostly Hylands' fault. 

Most of Issler's musicians went to work in the Columbia orchestra after Issler's term as a house pianist was over, which is slightly ironic. As when Tom Clark formed the Columbia orchestra, the Spencer brothers and George Schweinfest were still back at the U. S. Phonograph company, recording regularly in Issler's orchestra. It took a little convincing and personnel changes to recruit the boys under Issler. It may have been Issler actually on the earliest Columbia orchestra records, now that I think of it. That's not very likely though. The piano job was quickly given to you know who(Fred Hylands). The Columbia orchestra is essentially the second installment of Issler's orchestra, just without Issler himself and more people. Tom Clark was their leader, but he didn't play the piano. The Columbia orchestra looked something like this back in 1898:

That was not everyone in their band, but it is most of the important ones in the group(including Hylands at the piano!). Later, after 1901 that is, they would have at least five or six more people come in regularly to make their records. When Hylands brought Rag-Time to the Columbia orchestra, the Edison house band had some real competition for their band pianist Frank P. Banta. From this competition, this is where we get the great examples of Rag-Time from 1899 to 1904 from both of these orchestras. Here is the Edison house Band playing "Jovial Joe"(a slow drag cakewalk).

That is a wonderful example of orchestral Rag-Time, even if this is a little bit after Banta's death. Here is the Peerless Orchestra's version of "HotFoot Sue"(cakewalk) from 1899. There's Banta! I hear him on the piano on that one. 

Here is Fred Stone's "Ma Rag Time Baby" by the Peerless orchestra, 1899. Not only do you get Banta on the piano here, you also get Arthur Collins doing just what the Spencer's did at Columbia. You can tell by the arrangement(and a few times where the piano sticks out), that it is indeed a Banta arrangement. 

Now onto some Columbia recorded Rag-Time. Here's Harry Kelly's "Peaceful Henry" by Hylands and the Columbia orchestra(the first record listed on the page). When Hylands saw "Slow Drag", he did what was intended, he played it slow, which it is reasonably so here. Here is J. B. Lampe's "Dixie Girl" by Hylands and the Columbia orchestra(recorded on the same day as the last one!). Here is "The Honeysuckle and the Bee" by the Climax(Columbia)orchestra from 1901. Hylands was always loud on every Columbia orchestra record you will find. The odd thing about the one just above, is that Hylands' arrangement(which it most certainly is...) involves a sort of tango-ish rhythm that is very unique to this arrangement. I have never heard anyone play this song like Hylands does here. It's queer, but very "groovy" nonetheless. This next one is "Smokey Mokes" by Hylands and the Columbia orchestra(kind of...) skip to 57:50 for the record I mean. That record is a mess, and it fell apart at the beginning of the cylinder, but you can hear Hylands' will on the piano, even if it's not really in sync with the rest of the band very well.  Since it's that way, you can really tell it's Hylands who counted them off! No matter how much of a mess it is! 

I hope you enjoyed this!