In the last week, A dear Rag-Time friend sent me a bunch of newspaper clippings regarding Fred Hager and Justin Ring. Aside from these great new bits, I also went digging for more articles about Hager or Ring in editions of Talking Machine World. I find it somewhat difficult find a place to start on all these bits I found and those that were sent to me. Well, I guess I'll have to start with my favorite of the things that were sent along to me. I am always delighted to see new portraits of the ever-handsome and starry eyed Hager, and here's the one I got recently:
*swoons*
Well, there's no need to explain anything here. It's pretty straightforward. Judging by Hager's appearance, I would date this picture to about 1900-1901. He still looks relatively slim in this portrait, so it's definitely pre-1904.
Anyway, now moving on to the jewel of what was sent to me. This is quite an odd section compared to the usual stuff that we would typically see regarding Hager, or any of these recording folks, anyway, here you go, from 1922:
What in the hell?
Well all-right then. I guess that says a lot about Hager. I had assumed he was more of a model of propriety and grace, but it seems he was more of the thrill seeker I had stereotyped Justin Ring to be. What's funny is that I bought a copy of that very sheet "Swanee Smiles" not too long ago, knowing nothing of this wild story. Apparently, among those that Hager invited to his so-called gala for this ship's christening was Justin Ring and Otto Heinemann, which is quite hilarious to picture. All of them getting on the boat a little nervous when the thing started acting strange. Of course I can see Justin Ring swimming off much quicker than old beat up Hager.
To accompany the little bit, there was also this picture(sorry for the bad quality):
From what I can tell, The Heinemann's are to the left and right of Hager and Ring. Ring is that quite tanned guy in the middle(with his arm on Hager! aww..). I'm just going to say it, I find it quite touching to see Hager and Ring so sweet and friendly in this picture. So clearly what their friendship was, it was a good one(I mean, 50 years of friendship is a long time).
The other lovely thing that was sent to me was a long article about Hager, Ring and a large portion of other record guys going out and basically having a field day. This piece was quite long and full of recording jargon, some of which I still don't quite understand. I had to read through this thing more than once to get a good understanding of all the inside jokes and recording puns. So here's the link to the article from 1921:
The one picture I grabbed from this piece was this one here:
So who are those guys exactly?
Well, according to the caption on the article, its Jimmy Hager and Henry Higgins. Wait what? Henry Higgins? That's the beautiful cornetist with Sousa's and Pryor's bands in the 1890's and 1900's.
(Walter Pryor, Henry Higgins and Arthur Pryor. c.1895)
Why, I'm so glad to see that he held up so well! Still looked good into the 1920's.
The thing about that picture from the article, is that I knew that was Jimmy Hager the moment I saw it. I recognized that face from the 1902(or so) portrait of Hager's orchestra:
Yes indeed, there's Fred and Jimmy.
So I guess that Jimmy Hager was a little more involved in recording that I suspected. Or maybe it's just because his brother was the big dog in the recording pack.
Before I move on the the next few things, at the very end of that field day article, there's a pun about Eddie King, which really was the cherry on top to the elaborate and delicious bit of writing that whole thing was. Nothing beats a pun about that hilarious eccentric Eddie King. So the more I hear about Eddie King, the jokes keep-a-coming, which is entertaining, but creates a somewhat tragic story for a brilliant figure, similar to Hylands.
So, before i saw all of these lovely things, I went on a dig to see what I could find regarding Hager in various issues of Talking Machine World. I started digging through each edition of the magazine in the 1920's, and that proved to be promising. One of the first things I found was this here:
So according to the caption, Hager is second from the left.
This picture was featured in an early 1920 edition.
A few editions before that, in 1918, I found this interesting group picture:
This is all the Okeh management right at the beginning of the company. So, if that's true, Hager must be somewhere. Before I looked at the identification of everyone, I wanted to see if I could test myself in finding Hager. Well, he's not hard to spot, even as an older man beyond his recording prime.
There he is! Looking old and surly in the way that Eddie King was described.
So, out of my burning curiosity, I kept digging back each year to find more Hager stuff. Hager and Ring are mentioned in pretty much every edition of Talking Machine World going back to 1905, as it helps that Hager had just become a publisher in that year, so his name was on a lot more music then. I saw a few fun pieces on Hager related to recording and not. Around 1911-1912, Hager was doing a lot of work in Boston(around the time of the Phono-cut record endeavor!), so in those editions there are quite a few pieces describing his relationship with members of the Boston Symphony(which is quite interesting, classical historians!). There was a funny bit on how Hager had placed an order for a nice bearskin rug as a gift for the Boston symphony director, but it never came for Mr. director man. It was a joke on the director obviously .
So n relation to this Boston stuff, I found this curious group picture dated to 1912:
Without any context, I was thoroughly confused. My first question was, where's Hager?
Well, that part wasn't too difficult. I can pick out his face quite easily now.
So what the hell is this?
The description below the picture stated that this picture was taken at a grand steak dinner that Hager hosted for all the Boston recording boys(so does that mean Justin Ring is hiding somewhere?) to get friendly with each other. Again, this says a lot about Hager, relating back to my previous comments regarding the Hoodoo Motorboat. Hager liked living large, that's all.
That's really all I was able to gather from this research. Well, I also gathered that Justin Ring stayed looking young and hot into his middle age, which is no small thing. he was only a year and a half younger than Hager, yet he looked much younger into the mid to late 1920's. Just as I gathered from James Hager's draft card, his brother Fred aged much quicker(maybe from that living large thing I mentioned too...). You can see the both of them in this picture here:
Dated 1922.
Hager is playing violin(with curiously styled white hair...) and Ring is of course on the far right with his hands up. Another example of Ring around the same time:
(Ring with Harry Reser and Nathan Glantz? if any of you know who that saxophonist is, please comment!)
and of course we know this one here:
Even at age 46 he still had all that blond hair and that cute face.
So yes, Hager didn't stay all pretty for too long, but Justin Ring did.
So, moving on...Among the things I picked up on my digging in the last week or so, I finally got to hear some more new transfers. When I visited UCSB back in February, there was this one particular record that stood out, and it seems like quite a generic title for it to be as good as it is.
This is the copy that I got to listen to while there. To my absolute delight, there was a transfer of another copy of this record online!
(but of course it's transferred way too fast)
Ah yes, that pure and beautiful sound of Schweinfest and Hylands. Something about their records is ever charming, and I'm not quite sure what it is. It could be the absolute precision and jollity that Schweinfest carried in every portrait of him.
Somehow, that sweet smile comes through on his records, no matter the accompanist or time of the year. In some kind of way, his reserved personality seemed to blend well with Hylands' outgoing theatrical demeanor.
This particular Schweinfest and Hylands record is my very favorite at the moment, as everything is perfect, nothing slips, and Hylands plays some really outstanding things to wholly compliment the sole notes of the piccolo. The most amazing thing about this record is that one minor section that begins around 1:01. Schweinfest syncopates while Hylands plays a haunting dance melody. Genius!
Hylands' banjo strumming imitation at the second go-around of "The Arkansas traveler" is also lovely.
Just a flawless recording, hands down.
So there were a few Zon-O-Phone's that I also fell in love with. First of all, there's this great 1909 Zono of "Stomp Dance" by the Zon-O-Phone concert band(post Hager's orchestra). So here you go:
Wow! That's a hell of a record.
Well, you can't deny the odd charm of Eddie King's shouts and drum pounding. Something about all that makes this record all the better, I mean other than the always great music! This piece is a nice piece of Rag-time, despite the Indian intermezzo tone of the title and shouts on the record. It's got syncopation that seems reminiscent of the 1890's.
Another Zono issued around the same time was part of this batch I found:
Again, what an amazing record! Such beautiful harmonies, and powerful ensemble playing. Oh, the beauty of Hager and his musicians.
I cannot get over how lovely that swell at 1:27 is, it's a great way to hear everyone in the orchestra all together. Those bits of ensemble playing also show off some of what I assume to be Hager's arrangements. The full and dense chords that I associate with Hager's piano playing were all over his arrangements, creating a very complex sound and balanced sound.
To close off, here's a great record(perhaps my favorite of the batch I listened to), from 1905 of Hager and the Zon-O-Phone concert band playing Arthur Pryor's "Razzazza Mazzazza":
The best part of this record is that on the second strain you get to really hear the genius of Arthur Pryor's composition with the heavily syncopated trombone counter melodies. That's one thing I wasn't really able to fully appreciate on Pryor's own recordings of the piece.
The bad percussion at the end is by Eddie King of course. He missed the start of the last strain and was thrown off, making the whole thing sound out of whack. Typical eccentric Eddie King.
I got a few really great records coming in the mail this week, so hopefully I'll have some time to get a post in about that.
Hope you enjoyed this!
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