Within this past weekend at Sutter Creek California, I learned a few interesting more things about the eccentricity Les Copeland. Most Rag-Timers who know of him know him as Dave Jasen said in Rags and Ragtime , "An anomaly among eccentrics". He was more than that though. He was one who drank like a fish, ate odd edible flowers(how "hippie" of him!), dressed as a cowboy and told western tales, and even had a glass eye!
He was some freak. More so than any of the other Rag composers or singers I have read about. He was actually known for being a weirdo. It's so funny, he looked like a completely normal guy, but how he wasn't... Just like San Fransisco "Rag-man" Jay Roberts. His Rag style however is where all the other great elements of his personality came into play. He had a style that was distinctly old for the time that he was composing in, as Trebor Tichenor once said, his style was the archaic style of "Rags" from fifteen years prior, as of say 1912. I really love his rags, and I don't think I know any Rag-Timers who dislike them. They were just as weird and filled with an explosion of old and new all over the place. He must have been a wonderful performer to witness do his schtick, as he would dress up in queer clothes sometimes and play in that always weird way of his, with jolty but great rhythm.
An example of the handful of Copeland cartoons I have done.
His hand-played piano rolls give us a very good example of how he played, and that odd almost broken rhythm he had, wherever that came from...
Here is his very rare roll of his own "Texas Blues" from 1917:
See what I mean about the jolty tempo. It was just how he happened to play, it must have been weird having him in the pit with Lew Dockstader's troupe(which is where he was employed in 1911 and 1912. With all the singers and minstrels and whatnot. He was a queer singer and storyteller as well as being a great eccentric and piano roll artist. Here is a link to the listing of the only known recording he made on disc record in 1916:
I hate the boys at Victor who decided not to issue this. I absolutely hate who ever's idea it was NOT to issue this record. I always will.
But! One of his more popular rags from 1913 was recorded on a Little Wonder disc in that same year. It's still great, even if it isn't the man himself:
SO ADDICTING! I really love this record. Not just because of the music, but because Charles Prince is probably conducting the band, and he was really great at arranging and conducting Ragged songs. As he did all the great Rags of the early teen's with his band at Columbia, such as "The Oceana Roll", "Temptation Rag", "King Chanticleer" and so many more!
Now this is how he would have played it:
Yep, that's about right.
The thing about him that made these rags a breeze for him is that, as according to the great Max Morath, he had extremely long hands. This fact can be heard in how many tenths are in the right and left hands of his written music and his unpublished music. That can be seen here on these two pieces by him, the first one unpublished and the second one became one of his most popular pieces:
On the second one, all of the tenths are actually written out, and can really be seen. His piano roll version of this can be heard here, with that usual jolty and unstable tempo of his:
It's still a great Rag, that is oftentimes the most heard of Copeland's Rags. I have heard several people play it before, including Tom Brier! He really must have been a great kick to see perform, and sing, and do whatever the heck he was planning on doing when he performed. I'm just really surpised at the fact that the Victor boys dragged him into their studio in 1916. That was when S. H. Dudley(Rous) was still the personnel manager! So is was partially on him for that. That must have been an interesting encounter, having him in their studio. With the notorious weirdo Les Copeland performing one song amid the mix of the other singers on January the 27 of 1916.
I just want to thank Ryan Wishner and Vincent Johnson for all the great conversation and interesting conversations we had at Sutter Creek last weekend! Thanks for the info Vincent!
I hope you enjoyed this!
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ReplyDeleteHi Ramona,you mention the lost recording of "The Old Soaken Bucket", but are you aware Les Copeland provided piano accompaniment for Moran & Mack in 1927, playing the second and third strain of his own "Texas Blues"?
ReplyDeleteHere's a link to the recording:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9wLbSKbaTM
As you can hear, Les Copeland's real playing was not irregular or jilted at all: although he played as soflty as he can not to disturb the comedy act, he had a good rounding sound and there's a lot of ragtime tension in his piano style.
The jilted broken rhythm effect is a defect of those recording piano systems used at the time. Please check the early hand-played piano rolls by Blind Boone, Phil Goldberg, Lee Roberts and you'll hear the same irregular tempo (and the same story goes for the Unirecord piano roll by Joplin).
Indeed let me say I recently discovered 7 phonograph recordings (6 of which are songs composed by Copeland)played by Les Copeland himself between 1925 and 1929. I can assure you his playing was very clean and snappy.