We begin to-day's post with a caricature.
Who's that freakishly tall weirdo with the music?
IT'S FRED HYLANDS!
This morning, Charlie Judkins sent me this fantastic cartoon from Judge magazine mocking much of the Union work that Hylands did, and other things of that sort, as he stated that the cartoonist, Art Young, was a prominent leader among the new unions that were sprouting up in New York from 1902 to 1910, and it seems that he at some point encountered Hylands as one of the blunt leaders of the White Rats Union.
Everything about the caricature is right! Everything about Hylands there is exhibited at its best, and makes it just as funny as it needs to be. The real thing that made me convinced that this was Hylands is the fact that he's wearing the costume in this picture:
Yes indeed.
This caricature exhibits everything that I do when I make fun of how weird he was! And yes, finally a way to at last end the glasses debate.
This cartoon will be used as a final addition to my seminar on Hylands for next month.
Many of these newly slowed down transfers that Ryan Wishner and I have been working on are being uploaded to the Internet Archive, for all to access, and with that, I will share some of the latest additions to the collection of these that he and I are amassing in our files. The first two files that will be shared are two different recordings of the same song by Len Spencer. The older take is is terrible shape, but the first half of the cylinder can be heard somewhat well, though I would advise to give up on the second part, because it's such a bad and messy transfer. It's by far the most interesting version I've heard of the song though, regardless of the awful mess of mold.
Here is the older take of "My Gal is a High Born Lady":
https://archive.org/details/MyGalIsAHighBornLadywHylandsc1897
It's awfully messy, but it's a genuinely interesting take as far as these records go. It almost sounds like it's from 1897, but really can't be that early because of the prominent syncopation, and that was almost nonexistent on Columbia records from 1896-1897(it was there, but not as lumbering and powerful as when Hylands was there). It sounds like a Columbia record more than anything else, but it doesn't help that Spencer says not any company name in the announcement. In fact, it sounds like those pirated Columbia records from 1897-1899, and since no company is announced, that's likely. Also, it must be noted that Spencer's singing sounds like it does when he was tipsy, as it's not very in tune with the piano, and the dialect is over-exaggerated(in the best possible way!), which are both aspects of his singing in that state. It's a great comparison of different takes to this later version here:
https://archive.org/details/LenSpencerMyGalisaHighbornLady1898
They are completely different from each other, yet they are the same song by the same singer, and likely the same pianist believe it or not. This record also sounds like Spencer's a little tipsy(which is great!) but really as much so as the older take, his pitch is much better on this take, in fact, it actually very good compared to other records of his. Of course like most Hylands and Spencer records, these two are great examples of early Rag-Time.
The next one is a record by:
and
(still love that look on his face)
This record has been on the Internet Archive for many years, and I have heard it so many times, really hoping to hear it at the correct speed sometime, and now it's so!
Here you go:
https://archive.org/details/MyMoneyNeverGivesOutwBanta1902
It's now at an even, slightly flat A flat, which is rather normal for a recording of the era. Banta's playing on this record is phenomenal, with a good variety of syncopation types and characteristics, with that equalling and Rag-Time recording of Collins with Hylands from the same time. This record is just as good as this 1898 cylinder by Collins and Banta:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder8650
Banta was such a great Rag-Time pianist, though he was not as natural to the style as Hylands. There are times where Banta sounds just a good as Hylands, such as the record just above, and this one here(this record is among the top examples of brown wax Rag-Time out there).
This next one is by
In fact, the image just above of him was taken around the same time that this recording was made. This is one that has had time to circulate around Youtube and the internet in general, but this is the superior transfer of this record from David Gionannoni's fantastic Grammy winning CD Dan W. Quinn, the King of Comic Singers, of which I have mentioned often on this blog, as it is a phenomenal CD with even better liner notes to accompany. Here's the best transfer out there of Quinn and Gaisberg's November 3, 1895 Berliner of "The Streets of Cairo":
https://archive.org/details/TheStreetsOfCairobyQuinnandGaisberg1895
I have used this record before to illustrate points related to Quinn's accidental involvement in the "Little Egypt" scandal of later 1896, as this is the song that really caught the essence of the "Hoochie Koochie" craze. It's a fantastic example of what Berliner record sounded like before their more commercial operation began in 1897, when each one was made with special care, and when it was essentially a family run business, with Mr. Berliner and a bunch of teenage boys running the studio to keep everything in line.
This next one is also by Quinn, but this time he's with his "man crush" Frank P. Banta. It's one that didn't need that much slowing down, but the bass was turned all the way up and slowed down ever so slightly to turn out great!
Here's Quinn's famous 1902 recording of "More Work for the Undertaker". If you listen to the original take, of which you can hear in this link here, it's a very slight change like that that will make such an immense difference. I have always envisioned this record sounding the way it does on the newly slowed down transfer, and now I won't listen to it any other way, since it sounds so dark, pure, and natural; as these recordings were supposed to sound.
The final recording to exhibit in this post is the edited version of Johnson and Issler's 1891 cylinder of "The Whistling Coon", which sounds so much better now that it's slower, and all of the syncopation is very well heard and can be deciphered. Here you go:
https://archive.org/details/GeorgeWJohnsonWhistlingCoonIssler1891
It sounds just as it's supposed to now.
Hope you enjoyed this!
No comments:
Post a Comment