I hate to keep writing posts about Justin Ring, but he is becoming one of the most interesting studio musicians I've searched for. Ring is particularly fascinating because he stayed in the recording business for so long. In the last few weeks, I may have finally proven that Ring was a pianist at Columbia at the end of the brown wax era. Thanks to a single line in a Jim Walsh article, from the mouth of Hager himself, Hager stated that he was the director of the Columbia band and orchestra from 1901 to 1903. That simply means that Ring was certainly there as the orchestra accompanist and arranger. Therefore, Ring was a Columbia pianist. I didn't doubt this before reading up on it, as I was convinced he was in that Columbia orchestra group photo.
Hager and Ring around 1901-1902.
So now that we know Ring was a Columbia pianist, what can we do with this information?
Well, thanks to UCSB putting up a lot of Columbia's and Zon-O-Phone's, there's a lot more available for comparison. Since they've put those up, I have been studying these records very closely. Some of the comparisons are actually quite striking. One particular example caught my attention more than others. For years I've been familiar with the dozens of different takes of "The laughing song" by George W. Johnson, but I found a Zono from 1904 that really connects itself to the previous takes I've heard.
In the past, I have heard these two takes often, particularly the first one listed here:
So these takes are by the same pianist as far as I know.
So, now that you've heard those, listen to the 1904 Zono of this by Johnson and Justin Ring:
Everything is the same! Even the syncopated improvisation toward the end is copied!
This was especially fascinating to me. Because there's no way now that Ring didn't hear Hylands play the piece in person(or at least from the Columbia records he got from work). Also, it's good to note that on this Zono take, Johnson sings an extra verse that I haven't heard anywhere else.
With that in mind, I compared a few more records from even earlier with Ring and Hylands accompaniments. Another good example I heard was this Zono from 1900 compared with an 1899 rendition by Quinn of the same song:
I cannot share the Quinn version out of courtesy for the owner, but I assure you, the similarities are striking.
That distinct busy left hand thing that Ring plays at each chorus(that sounds rather like boogie woogie than early rag-time), is exactly the same as how Hylands played it on the Quinn record. Hylands of course had a better handle on the rhythm, as he played that sort of busy left hand often. Ring tried, and barely got it.
So, keeping this in mind, it's fascinating to know that we can observe an obvious evolution. Justin Ring went from sounding like Hager and Hylands to something very different in the 1920's. Last week, I visited a collector and he played me an Okeh record from 1929 with Ring's accompaniment clearly listed on the label. Ring was very quiet, but played dynamically. he had clearly moved from his entirely aggressive and pounding style of the 1890's and 1900's. Ring still played those signature flourishes he lifted from Hylands' accompaniments, but in a much more controlled and sweeter way. With no other studio musician can we clearly observe this. This is exactly why I keep writing about Justin Ring, because we can observe him from a rough an tumble Bowery boy to the cultured and matured recording manager of the Okeh studio in the 1920's.
So, what about Hager?
Just today, I went back and listened to a bunch of Columbia, Zono, and Climax records together. Well, it turns out I may have to backtrack on my original theory about the Zon-O-Phone pianist situation. For a little while I thought that there were two pianists who alternated playing accompaniments on Zon-O-Phone. So, after doing some more analysis(and now that I really know what Ring sounded like), I can see that this theory was actually a better place to be, even though it's more confusing and frustrating for me.
So, once again I think that the Zon-O-phone pianists were Hager and Ring.
Since I'm back in this mindset, which one is Hager?
Well, logically, he would have to be that pianist that didn't play nearly as aggressively and more smoothly. So, for example, take this Ring accompaniment record from 1903:
That's definitely the aggressive and swung style that Ring played even as late as 1925.
But compare that now with a 1900-1901 Zono by Will F. Denny:
The accompaniment is much more straightforward, and the rhythm is much more constant. There are some interesting syncopated rhythms played in there as well, though it's not nearly as adventurous and wild as the signature Ring accompaniments. This accompaniment style is very agreeable, easier to follow, in a way similar to Banta's. It doesn't ruffle the feathers(in a good way) like many of Ring's accompaniments. This style seems very similar to Hager's composition style as well, so luckily that lines up. The sweet and sometimes odd harmonies, and occasional fun risks, these are reminiscent in Hager's pieces. So, this ought to be applied to other Zon-O-Phone records, and so it shall.
Luckily as I've heard more Zon-O-Phone's, I have noticed that the aggressive accompaniments are more commonly heard than the smooth and tame ones. Considering which style goes with which name, that actually makes a lot of sense. It's a given that Ring would be playing more accompaniments that Hager. Hager had a family at home, including a brother who was in need of employment, but Ring had nothing to watch over. Just a crappy little apartment below(or a loft above?) a Tin pan alley publisher two blocks away from the Columbia studio, that's what Ring had to tend to other than work.
So, now that I can hear plenty more Zon-O-phone records, I'll have to listen carefully to each one in order to know whether the pianist is the aggressive one or the smooth one. Notice that I am not exactly associating either of their names with the style just yet, I am only doing this just to not get too ahead of myself here. I don't want to run into too many issues with this later. Though, I am reverting to my previous analyses on what I assumed to be Hager's accompaniment style. I have returned to thinking that Hager was the better accompanist at Zon-O-Phone. He was that pianist who played on most of the early operatic Zono's, following each singer as though the singer was their own accompanist. Considering Hager's musically educated background, this wouldn't be too surprising to guess. So the educated yet rough accompaniments on Zono most likely were Hager's. With all this Zon-O-Phone research I do need to keep in mind that it has been general knowledge for decades that Hager was a Zon-O-Phone pianist, so I do definitely take that into consideration in this project.
All-right then! Time to move on to something quite different, but not really. As I started writing this, I just finished doing some digging on J. Fred Helf. I became curious about Helf awhile ago when I noticed that one of his earliest pieces was published in Cincinnati in 1897. I did some digging and learned that he was born in 1872(the same as Hylands, as far as we agree upon now), and grew up in Kentucky(like Ben Harney!).
Helf and later recording star George Alexander around 1899.
So, another interesting this I found is that Helf lived not long, similarly to Hylands. Helf died in 1915 at age 43. That's never a good thing. So, clearly this guy had demons of some kind. That's a funny thing to consider when he wrote so many sweet songs. It makes sense, in all the pictures I've seen of him, he looks like a guy who had to work through some trouble. He looks rough in the same kind of way that Hylands did.
Unfortunately, I didn't find much more on him just yet. Despite this, I am very interested, and will look for more.
Before I finish here, I'd like to share a few new transfers of Hager's orchestra.
Anyway, next week I will be heading to Portland Oregon to attend my first ARSC conference! I am very excited to get going out there, but of course that will probably mean some time off from writing a blog post here. Well, wish me luck!
Hope you enjoyed this!
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ReplyDeleteJust a point to investigate...
DeleteThanks
Demystifying Kreisler's genius...?
ReplyDeleteDear, when listening to your link onto Hager's 'Cinquantaine', the first thing that came to mind was the tremendous similarity to Kreisler's well known piece 'Liebesleid' (The sorrow of Love). All the first part is a variation one of the other, but following the very same steps, melody and a similar musical development. It seems that only the rhythmic grid is somewhat different... Sorry for not having accurate data at hand, but I remember to read somewhere that the supposed genius of Kreisler was not so great, and he in fact copied much of the ideas of others for his own compositions.
It would be interesting to trace in this case who was first, Hager or Kreisler... Might have Kreisler copied Hager's composition for his Liebesleid...?