When speaking of these recordings, most people forget about the pianists behind the singers, but of course, there's a reason for this to be so widespread. It's simply because of no credit being given to the pianists. Even if you dig through the very complete Victor ledgers, you will only come across a handful of recordings with pianist accreditation. But it is certain that Frank P. Banta worked for Victor, as it helps that in their earliest catalogs that they list Banta specifically as the leader and pianist of the Metropolitan orchestra, the first house orchestra for Victor. When the pianist is listed, then we won't have any frustration and confusion of trying to dig out a style and attach it to the pianist on the recording.
This is why Banta is the easiest of the early studio pianists to identify.
(Banta at Edison's piano in c.1902)
He's got a very distinct style, and he was the best-identified of the early studio pianists, this is exactly why record collectors know his name in regards to pianists. But it is because of this fact that collectors don't know of the other pianists. This is something that is the fault of his son, just because his son was a popular pianist just like his father, this kept the name around in music for longer than the other pianists. His father's death was such a tragic and sudden thing for the whole of the recording community, this earned him scores of admirers and mourners. This is why he is remembered the most by record collectors.
Of course, other than all of that, there's also his Rag-Time, which is another reason why collectors recognize his name in catalogs and in research on these early recordings. His style was very strange, combining several technical yet very itinerant characteristics all the same. Much of his style was very oddly similar to another recording star of the era, this chap:
Vess Ossman.
Really, if you think about it, Banta was essentially the pianist equivalent of Vess Ossman. Banta was not nearly as much a perfectionist when it came to keeping time as Ossman was, but in many ways, their styles are the same combination of characteristics, both well-trained, yet sound as though they weren't. Recall that Ossman's first instrument was the violin, but he was completely self-taught on the banjo, keep that in mind when listening to him. Banta's view of Rag-Time was essentially the same as Ossman's, and it helps that he had the chance to build up a taste for syncopated music while working with Ossman from c.1892-1896. With this experience, Banta went into 1897 a pioneer, already aware of how to play syncopated music. This is why his Rag-Time has that distinct late-1890's sound to it. It's not nearly as folksy as other pianists, but it's certainly strange in its own way. The fact that he played fifths in his left hand is the most unusual characteristic of his style, since corresponds in no way at all with his stylistic upbringing and origin, and says something about his regional style that modern Rag-Time pianists have long preconceived incorrectly. For a primarily self-taught pianist, he had a stew-full of styles mashed into one, more so than Fred Hylands even! Sometimes Banta played a little like Mike Bernard, getting so consumed in playing quick and showy syncopation that the rhythm dramatically is rushed.
For an example of this, listen to Billy Golden's 1903 Edison of "Turkey in the Straw" with Banta. His solo between the choruses is a very Mike Bernard-like way, and it's the way that I just described. Now that you've heard that, listen to Bernard's 1913 Columbia of "Maori". Not too different overall. As he nears the end of the recording, much like Banta's solos on "Turkey in the Straw", the playing gets more intense and rapid. Banta did this often, such as on his accompaniment behind Denny on "The Change Will Do You Good", and his accompaniment behind Denny on "Go Way Back and Sit Down" from 1901. The second recording exhibits this characteristic better, and it is overall one of the best recordings I've ever heard of Banta, and yes, it is better than his 1903 recording of "violets" in my opinion. It's this very characteristic that not only ties him to other popular star accompanists, but it's also what defines him as a pianist, and as a character. Banta was an intense man, wide-eyed and focused. The speeding up and added stiffness is what easily gets the point across that he was an intense guy, and deeply consumed in the music when he could be. It's just what separates him from the other studio pianists, his accommodating nature, stiffness, looseness, and intensity. This must have carried over for him as an orchestra leader, since he led many house orchestras from 1893 to 1903, from one of his own to the studio orchestras of Edison, Berliner and later Victor. His arrangements were very good, and he was able to keep the Edison crew in line extremely well, even when he was playing all the offbeats. A good example of this is The Peerless orchestra's 1899 recording of "My Babe from Boston". In the last two strains, Banta's playing great rag-time under the band playing it a little syncopated as well. It's exceptionally well executed for a relatively conservative orchestra. The Peerless orchestra was only not conservative because of Banta, without him, it would be just as boring to hear them play Rag-Time as it is to hear that by Prince's Band. One thing about Banta that must have angered some of the studio musicians was his choice of keys for them to play in. Sometimes he chose awful band keys like E and B, such as he did for this record here. Makes me think he had perfect pitch, being able to play any song in any key, and be able to tune pianos, those are all signs of a pianist with perfect pitch.
Before moving to the next part of this post, here's one more fantastic example of Banta's Rag-Time:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder2453
The solo at the end is phenomenal!
We know about Fred Hylands, yes indeed, but of course, for many years this was not a universal state.
(detail from a cartoon I did of Hylands)
It took until Jim Walsh briefly mentioned Hylands in a few articles on Len Spencer to keep his name somewhat in the knowledge of a few collectors. Though really it was Tim Brooks mentioning him in his A Directory To Columbia Recording Artists of the 1890's, other than that, that was pretty much it with Hylands identification until now. Despite well-advertised sections and frequent mention in The Phonoscope , few older collectors will recognise his name if dropped somewhere. Of course, all of that extra endorsement from Russell Hunting and Charles Carson was a fantastic thing for Hylands, since it must have been a big deal when Columbia hired him. Taking in Pastor's music director as one of their accompanists was something that hadn't been done before by record companies, as the studio pianists weren't really supposed to already be huge stars when they were hired to work in the studio. Issler was an everyday musician when he began working for Edison, just a piano teacher and a leader of a small parlor orchestra. Banta was a little more famous, because he was Ossman's accompanist, but other than that there's really nothing. Hylands had a reputation already when Columbia began considering him as a studio accompanist. I don't really know what his reputation was before he became a recording, but I wish I did know, since it must have been interesting. His playing was certainly something to draw attention away from the main performer on a recording, more so than Banta's playing. It's pure vaudeville piano playing, absolutely fit for accompanying cake-walkers in a Vaudeville show, as that's what he was likely doing when he was performing at Theaters before 1898. This must have been part of his reputation, as this is certainly something that would have been told to the Columbia management when auditioning this new pianist.
Hylands' style was very distinct, yet confusing at times, luckily, he had very good rhythm and sense of good tempos, so singers wouldn't have to worry about that aspect when working with him. With Hylands, there was no dramatic rhythmic problems like there is on this cylinder here from 1898-ish. Of course, this wasn't a problem only when Hylands wasn't sleep-deprived, hungover, or slightly high on something. These were all problems with Hylands, since he was the type who didn't take very good care of himself, and especially since he was such a busy worker, he barely had enough time to sleep well. The exhibitions the Columbia management made him go to didn't help his already busy schedule.
It's important to keep all of this in mind when listening to records Hylands is on, since that creates a more realistic view of the man and his work habits. Hylands' playing on recordings from 1898 are the prime examples to listen to as good representations of his playing style, and his habits. Much of this leads to recordings with lots of mistakes, such as this take of "The Laughing Song" by Johnson with Hylands. He's pretty scattered on this recording, though despite this, it's a very nice example of his Rag-Time playing, since he breaks into it at the last chorus. It's not the best overall recording is his playing, since there are so many good examples out there. Because of this, there really isn't a definitive example of his playing, but that's what makes Hylands so great! Luckily for Hylands, he worked for more labels than just Columbia after 1900, whereas Banta only worked for Edison and Victor. After 1900, Hylands worked for Climax, Zon-O-Phone, and Leeds, all of whom Columbia was in fierce competition with when he worked there. It is particularly surprising that Hylands was even able to work for Leeds, since Columbia's management hated Leeds with passion, since they tried to sell them out of business perhaps five times, but it never seemed to work until 1909. Hylands worked for them during the short time Leeds made those gorgeous gold foil labels. Wish there was a way to know how and why he started working there in the first place, but it's interesting nonetheless.
Here are two Leeds records where he's on piano:
https://ia802300.us.archive.org/31/items/ArthurCollins_part2/ArthurCollins-TheGooGooManCoonSong.mp3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIYitsz8glA
Hearing a Columbia pianist on Leeds could certainly catch the attention of some collectors, since it really is a little strange.
There's a reason that I drew this cartoon of Hylands with those pesky Leeds people.
Certainly Leeds made a deal with him, maybe they accepted his stubborn work habits, and strong will to unionize. That was really the worst of Hylands' baggage when having him work for a company. Everything else was able to be borne by the management to a certain extent. Of course, everything you could think of was effecting Hylands' playing in the studio, as Charlie Judkins and I discussed yesterday, it wasn't just drinking as we had long assumed that had him. Anything that could have gotten to him certainly did. As said a little above, sleep-deprivation was a big one with him, as well as being hungover, drinking, and being physically tired from anything just preceding the recording day. As Charlie had stated, it seems that Hylands was a spacey kind of chap, constantly thinking about other things while making records, so this is another reason why there are recordings such a horrid mess like the Columbia orchestra's 1899 recording of "Smokey Mokes"(skip to 57:50 for the transfer). Still can't get over how awful that take is, and the fact that Hylands doesn't attempt to stop and reset himself at the same tempo as the rest of the orchestra. This is exactly what we're talking about! This sort of thing was never a problem with Banta in the studio, and this is why Banta was so highly regarded by the studio stars. Hylands zoning out so much couldn't have been a good thing for the singers.
The fact that he did that though makes him ever more interesting and comical as a studio star.
The final pianist to speak of here is one that almost no other collector I know has ever mentioned as a possible pianist.
Frederick Hager.(taken in 1898)
He was the youngest of all the early studio pianists, and was 24 when he was first hired to work in the studio at Edison, he was the youngest since Fred Gaisberg at Columbia to take the job. Not much is known of his piano work, if anything, but that pianist that we all thought might have been Hylands on all those early Zon-O-Phones is actually Hager! The playing style sounds too much like a hybrid of all the studio pianists to be one of the previous regulars that we know. That style that we now are starting to associate with Hager would work with who he was as a musician, and the fact that he really knew how to orchestrate extremely difficult and complicated Rag-Time arrangements, such as his "Dill Pickles" that can be heard on this list here. They seem like they're not that hard, until you really dissect them, and try to play them out yourself. That's the beauty of Hager's arrangements, particularly his Rag-Time arrangements. His arrangements of Rags are the best of the era, as far as early recordings go, since they are very "tight", well thought-out, and masterfully executed. Not one instrument was out of place or out of tune, whereas with the Columbia orchestra, all of these things were an issue, many at the same time in fact. Hager wouldn't settle for an orchestra like Columbia's, he wanted something a hundred times better, and threw harder arrangements at his musicians all the time. His recording of "Chocolate Drops" is phenomenal, as it combines everything that's great about Hager's orchestra, and nothing falls out of line at any point, despite the very hard arrangement.
Also, on many of Hager's orchestra recordings, there's a drummer, and the drummer was never missing a beat, which is very unusual for house orchestras of that time, since most of them had announcers who weren't musicians play the percussion, which wasn't really a good idea, but was the default.
The fact that Hager is on all of those early Zon-O-Phones really saves so much confusion that many of us have had for a while, since I know collectors who pile up their collection of early Zono's because of the great piano accompaniment, and it seems we've put a more accurate name to that pianist who isn't Fred Hylands or Frank P. Banta. This means that the strange and very ragged early Zon-O-Phone(I can't share the transfer of) of "The Nigger Fever" by Frank Mazziotta has Hager on piano! This also means that he's on many of the very early recordings Edward Favor made for them as well, such as these fantastic recordings:
https://ia801406.us.archive.org/25/items/EdwardMFavor/EdwardMFavor-EverythingatReillysMustbeDoneinIrishStyle.mp3
The most wild of wild Denny recordings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0u8HiXdrtI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ITot33CDuo
Hager's Rag-Time is very interesting, and it sounds like a strange mix of Hylands and Banta, with the fifths in the left hand paired with the heavily syncopated right hand---that's literally a cross between Hylands and Banta! This pairing can be very well heard on the last link listed above. Luckily for Hager, he had the best sounding label to work with and show off his piano chops, so there's not much we can't hear--ever. All of this about Hager only applies to pre-paper label Zon-O-Phones, as in 1902 and 1903, Hylands began working for them, since recordings like this one and this one, are certainly not that cross between the two star pianists. The one thing to notice about the paper-label Zono piano playing, such as that of the "Billy Bailey" recording in the second link, is the overall rhythm, and the technically excellent playing(such as the fantastic rollicking octaves at the beginning of the second chorus). The rhythmic aspect of the later Zon-O-Phone records is better than the earlier ones, but the creativity that went into Hager's playing was hard to beat.
As of now, we are still trying to find more on Hager as a pianist, everything else he did(which is a whole lot!) you can find on all sorts of websites and in many early recording books. There's nothing about his piano playing however.
Of course, other than all of that, there's also his Rag-Time, which is another reason why collectors recognize his name in catalogs and in research on these early recordings. His style was very strange, combining several technical yet very itinerant characteristics all the same. Much of his style was very oddly similar to another recording star of the era, this chap:
Really, if you think about it, Banta was essentially the pianist equivalent of Vess Ossman. Banta was not nearly as much a perfectionist when it came to keeping time as Ossman was, but in many ways, their styles are the same combination of characteristics, both well-trained, yet sound as though they weren't. Recall that Ossman's first instrument was the violin, but he was completely self-taught on the banjo, keep that in mind when listening to him. Banta's view of Rag-Time was essentially the same as Ossman's, and it helps that he had the chance to build up a taste for syncopated music while working with Ossman from c.1892-1896. With this experience, Banta went into 1897 a pioneer, already aware of how to play syncopated music. This is why his Rag-Time has that distinct late-1890's sound to it. It's not nearly as folksy as other pianists, but it's certainly strange in its own way. The fact that he played fifths in his left hand is the most unusual characteristic of his style, since corresponds in no way at all with his stylistic upbringing and origin, and says something about his regional style that modern Rag-Time pianists have long preconceived incorrectly. For a primarily self-taught pianist, he had a stew-full of styles mashed into one, more so than Fred Hylands even! Sometimes Banta played a little like Mike Bernard, getting so consumed in playing quick and showy syncopation that the rhythm dramatically is rushed.
For an example of this, listen to Billy Golden's 1903 Edison of "Turkey in the Straw" with Banta. His solo between the choruses is a very Mike Bernard-like way, and it's the way that I just described. Now that you've heard that, listen to Bernard's 1913 Columbia of "Maori". Not too different overall. As he nears the end of the recording, much like Banta's solos on "Turkey in the Straw", the playing gets more intense and rapid. Banta did this often, such as on his accompaniment behind Denny on "The Change Will Do You Good", and his accompaniment behind Denny on "Go Way Back and Sit Down" from 1901. The second recording exhibits this characteristic better, and it is overall one of the best recordings I've ever heard of Banta, and yes, it is better than his 1903 recording of "violets" in my opinion. It's this very characteristic that not only ties him to other popular star accompanists, but it's also what defines him as a pianist, and as a character. Banta was an intense man, wide-eyed and focused. The speeding up and added stiffness is what easily gets the point across that he was an intense guy, and deeply consumed in the music when he could be. It's just what separates him from the other studio pianists, his accommodating nature, stiffness, looseness, and intensity. This must have carried over for him as an orchestra leader, since he led many house orchestras from 1893 to 1903, from one of his own to the studio orchestras of Edison, Berliner and later Victor. His arrangements were very good, and he was able to keep the Edison crew in line extremely well, even when he was playing all the offbeats. A good example of this is The Peerless orchestra's 1899 recording of "My Babe from Boston". In the last two strains, Banta's playing great rag-time under the band playing it a little syncopated as well. It's exceptionally well executed for a relatively conservative orchestra. The Peerless orchestra was only not conservative because of Banta, without him, it would be just as boring to hear them play Rag-Time as it is to hear that by Prince's Band. One thing about Banta that must have angered some of the studio musicians was his choice of keys for them to play in. Sometimes he chose awful band keys like E and B, such as he did for this record here. Makes me think he had perfect pitch, being able to play any song in any key, and be able to tune pianos, those are all signs of a pianist with perfect pitch.
Before moving to the next part of this post, here's one more fantastic example of Banta's Rag-Time:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder2453
The solo at the end is phenomenal!
We know about Fred Hylands, yes indeed, but of course, for many years this was not a universal state.
(oh those signature long legs of his! Haha!)
Hylands' style was very distinct, yet confusing at times, luckily, he had very good rhythm and sense of good tempos, so singers wouldn't have to worry about that aspect when working with him. With Hylands, there was no dramatic rhythmic problems like there is on this cylinder here from 1898-ish. Of course, this wasn't a problem only when Hylands wasn't sleep-deprived, hungover, or slightly high on something. These were all problems with Hylands, since he was the type who didn't take very good care of himself, and especially since he was such a busy worker, he barely had enough time to sleep well. The exhibitions the Columbia management made him go to didn't help his already busy schedule.
It's important to keep all of this in mind when listening to records Hylands is on, since that creates a more realistic view of the man and his work habits. Hylands' playing on recordings from 1898 are the prime examples to listen to as good representations of his playing style, and his habits. Much of this leads to recordings with lots of mistakes, such as this take of "The Laughing Song" by Johnson with Hylands. He's pretty scattered on this recording, though despite this, it's a very nice example of his Rag-Time playing, since he breaks into it at the last chorus. It's not the best overall recording is his playing, since there are so many good examples out there. Because of this, there really isn't a definitive example of his playing, but that's what makes Hylands so great! Luckily for Hylands, he worked for more labels than just Columbia after 1900, whereas Banta only worked for Edison and Victor. After 1900, Hylands worked for Climax, Zon-O-Phone, and Leeds, all of whom Columbia was in fierce competition with when he worked there. It is particularly surprising that Hylands was even able to work for Leeds, since Columbia's management hated Leeds with passion, since they tried to sell them out of business perhaps five times, but it never seemed to work until 1909. Hylands worked for them during the short time Leeds made those gorgeous gold foil labels. Wish there was a way to know how and why he started working there in the first place, but it's interesting nonetheless.
Here are two Leeds records where he's on piano:
https://ia802300.us.archive.org/31/items/ArthurCollins_part2/ArthurCollins-TheGooGooManCoonSong.mp3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIYitsz8glA
Hearing a Columbia pianist on Leeds could certainly catch the attention of some collectors, since it really is a little strange.
Certainly Leeds made a deal with him, maybe they accepted his stubborn work habits, and strong will to unionize. That was really the worst of Hylands' baggage when having him work for a company. Everything else was able to be borne by the management to a certain extent. Of course, everything you could think of was effecting Hylands' playing in the studio, as Charlie Judkins and I discussed yesterday, it wasn't just drinking as we had long assumed that had him. Anything that could have gotten to him certainly did. As said a little above, sleep-deprivation was a big one with him, as well as being hungover, drinking, and being physically tired from anything just preceding the recording day. As Charlie had stated, it seems that Hylands was a spacey kind of chap, constantly thinking about other things while making records, so this is another reason why there are recordings such a horrid mess like the Columbia orchestra's 1899 recording of "Smokey Mokes"(skip to 57:50 for the transfer). Still can't get over how awful that take is, and the fact that Hylands doesn't attempt to stop and reset himself at the same tempo as the rest of the orchestra. This is exactly what we're talking about! This sort of thing was never a problem with Banta in the studio, and this is why Banta was so highly regarded by the studio stars. Hylands zoning out so much couldn't have been a good thing for the singers.
The fact that he did that though makes him ever more interesting and comical as a studio star.
The final pianist to speak of here is one that almost no other collector I know has ever mentioned as a possible pianist.
He was the youngest of all the early studio pianists, and was 24 when he was first hired to work in the studio at Edison, he was the youngest since Fred Gaisberg at Columbia to take the job. Not much is known of his piano work, if anything, but that pianist that we all thought might have been Hylands on all those early Zon-O-Phones is actually Hager! The playing style sounds too much like a hybrid of all the studio pianists to be one of the previous regulars that we know. That style that we now are starting to associate with Hager would work with who he was as a musician, and the fact that he really knew how to orchestrate extremely difficult and complicated Rag-Time arrangements, such as his "Dill Pickles" that can be heard on this list here. They seem like they're not that hard, until you really dissect them, and try to play them out yourself. That's the beauty of Hager's arrangements, particularly his Rag-Time arrangements. His arrangements of Rags are the best of the era, as far as early recordings go, since they are very "tight", well thought-out, and masterfully executed. Not one instrument was out of place or out of tune, whereas with the Columbia orchestra, all of these things were an issue, many at the same time in fact. Hager wouldn't settle for an orchestra like Columbia's, he wanted something a hundred times better, and threw harder arrangements at his musicians all the time. His recording of "Chocolate Drops" is phenomenal, as it combines everything that's great about Hager's orchestra, and nothing falls out of line at any point, despite the very hard arrangement.
Also, on many of Hager's orchestra recordings, there's a drummer, and the drummer was never missing a beat, which is very unusual for house orchestras of that time, since most of them had announcers who weren't musicians play the percussion, which wasn't really a good idea, but was the default.
The fact that Hager is on all of those early Zon-O-Phones really saves so much confusion that many of us have had for a while, since I know collectors who pile up their collection of early Zono's because of the great piano accompaniment, and it seems we've put a more accurate name to that pianist who isn't Fred Hylands or Frank P. Banta. This means that the strange and very ragged early Zon-O-Phone(I can't share the transfer of) of "The Nigger Fever" by Frank Mazziotta has Hager on piano! This also means that he's on many of the very early recordings Edward Favor made for them as well, such as these fantastic recordings:
https://ia801406.us.archive.org/25/items/EdwardMFavor/EdwardMFavor-EverythingatReillysMustbeDoneinIrishStyle.mp3
The most wild of wild Denny recordings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0u8HiXdrtI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ITot33CDuo
Hager's Rag-Time is very interesting, and it sounds like a strange mix of Hylands and Banta, with the fifths in the left hand paired with the heavily syncopated right hand---that's literally a cross between Hylands and Banta! This pairing can be very well heard on the last link listed above. Luckily for Hager, he had the best sounding label to work with and show off his piano chops, so there's not much we can't hear--ever. All of this about Hager only applies to pre-paper label Zon-O-Phones, as in 1902 and 1903, Hylands began working for them, since recordings like this one and this one, are certainly not that cross between the two star pianists. The one thing to notice about the paper-label Zono piano playing, such as that of the "Billy Bailey" recording in the second link, is the overall rhythm, and the technically excellent playing(such as the fantastic rollicking octaves at the beginning of the second chorus). The rhythmic aspect of the later Zon-O-Phone records is better than the earlier ones, but the creativity that went into Hager's playing was hard to beat.
As of now, we are still trying to find more on Hager as a pianist, everything else he did(which is a whole lot!) you can find on all sorts of websites and in many early recording books. There's nothing about his piano playing however.
Hope you enjoyed this!
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