Columbia Rag-Time vs. Edison Rag-Time(also some Victors too!)

A little list of Columbia cylinder offerings from 1900.

Here's a section from it:

Some of you real nerds out there might have been able to see right away that these are all Len Spencer and Fred Hylands selections. Three or four of the selections listed here were published by Spencer and Hylands in 1899, so this would indicate that the list of records was issued in earlier 1900. You can see some very attractive selections here, such as "Whistling Rufus", "You Don't Stop the World From Going Round", "Hello Ma Baby", "Smokey Mokes", "At A Georgia Camp Meeting" and several others that seem they'd make for a great listening. That's the thing about Columbia cylinders from that time frame(the later brown wax era), is that they had the few artists that hit the Rag-Time hard in 1898 to 1900, even if they didn't have Arthur Collins in that time, they had Spencer, and that was enough. In 1898-1900, Collins was just getting started, and wasn't exactly the most popular Rag-Time singer on records until after 1900. The reason Columbia didn't take Collins until 1901 might have been because of the popularity of Spencer and his minstrels in that time, and Collins was an independent outside of the "Columbia crowd"(if you know what I'm saying...). Spencer did not want to have to compete with someone who did exactly what he did, minus everything else Spencer recorded other than "Coon songs". 

Now with Spencer and Hylands at Columbia in the 1898-1900 timeframe, you get Collins and Banta at Edison. The only thing about Banta is that he wasn't paired with anyone on the staff as a specific act. He wasn't like Hylands who clung to the richest of the staff members, Banta was more independent that that. He did fill much of the Edison catalogs from the late 1890's with great and tasteful Rag-Time selections. With Banta leading their "Peerless Orchestra" from about late-1896 to about 1901, you get a great variety of Ragged selections, well orchestrated, and not at all a big cluster like Hylands' " Darkey Volunteer". 

Here is Banta and the Edison Peerless Orchestra playing Fred S. Stone's Ma Rag Time Baby" recorded in 1899(with a comical intro by Arthur Collins!).

In 1899 and 1900, Banta also did arrangements of "Smokey Mokes", "Whistling Rufus", and even "Ma Tiger Lily":

(My copy of it, that isn't the more common song version)

Banta's leadership of the Peerless orchestra was ended in 1901 because he became more infatuated with leading Victor's(before 1900 it was Berliner's house ensemble) Metropolitan Orchestra.

Banta did keep the Rag-Time flowing over at the somehow more conservative Edison company toward the end of the brown wax era and into the Gold Moulded era. You can hear Banta playing all sorts of very fun and Ragged accompaniments behind Arthur Collins, Will F. Denny, S. H. Dudley, and especially behind Vess L. Ossman. This is where you get these two Rag-Time gems from 1898 and 1899:

Collins and Banta with Lyn Udall's "Zizzy Ze Zum Zum" from 1898

Denny and Banta with "The Change Will Do You Good" from 1899

The Rag-Time factor at Edison dropped dramatically after Banta began working much more with the Metropolitan orchestra in 1901, even though in 1903 and 1904(after Banta died mind you), we see some more fun pieces of Rag-Time again, such as Justin Ring.'s "Jovial Joe" and E. Harry Kelly's "Peaceful Henry". It wasn't the same without Banta. 

Meanwhile, at Leeds, Columbia, Zon-O-Phone, and American, you can hear fantastic Ragged renditions of popular songs scattered all over the catalogs(by Hylands of course!). Banta's Rag-Time was popular more to record buyers, but Hylands' was more advanced and rugged, with more of the soul that Rag-Time needs.

Some more of the fun Rag-Time arrangements that Banta did from 1897-1902 include his own "Kareless Koon", "Ragged William"(which you can hear Here!)

"At A Georgia Camp Meeting", "Cotton Blossoms"(of which you can hear a German version here!), "Sambo At the Cake-Walk"(hear Banta's arrangement in action here, recorded actually in 1899-00, not 1901), "The Gridiron"(by Arthur Pryor, which can he heard played here in 1901),  and so many others you can find listed on this page here:

http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/talent/detail/14357/Metropolitan_Orchestra_Musical_group

I will write more on this soon, as the UCSB site is down this evening, and that can be a real problem when wanting to compare these records, when half of the records I would have used on this post come from there. 

I hope you enjoyed this!