Well, after being in Missouri since last Tuesday, I have been having a lot of catching up to do, as well as organizing the new discoveries I made along the way. I flew in to St. Louis with my dearest friend Virginia on Tuesday afternoon, and we stayed at the historic home of Trebor Tichenor, which is, since his death, still being organized and sorted through. This house had amazing artifacts around every corner, from piano rolls, to sheet music, to Rag-Time era posters! That can be expected from any of those out there who are aware of Trebor's collection in any sort of way.
Once we got there, Virginia gave me a tour of the house, and everything looked like something historic there, I could barely watch where I was going because there were so many things to look at on the walls and piled into shelves. There was even a room fully dedicated to piano rolls upstairs! It had shelves of rolls with very tantalizing titles to any Rag-Time collector, even to one who isn't exactly a piano roll fanatic. The ground floor is filled with many rolls and cabinets filled with great books on Rag-Time and things related. I got to crack open a book I had only heard about there! This was a book that was written by vaudeville manager Tony Pastor called They All Sang.
(that's Tony Pastor)
The section that I had read before was about Victor Emerson and Russell Hunting finding a new way to make duplicate records in 1892. It turned out that there was an entire section on the recording artists who began their own companies and publishing firms(but Hylands Spencer and Yeager was not mentioned...). Not much of it had information I didn't already know, but it was interesting getting it from the manager himself, and reading through it at Trebor's house of course!
The basement of the house was the most amazing thing I had ever seen, with piano rolls stacked in shelves to the ceiling, everywhere I looked, there revealed precious titles of Rag-Time rarities, from an original of Max Hoffmann's "Rag Medley", to "Campin' on De Ole' Swanee", to Ben Harney's "Mister Johnson Turn Me Loose". I just kept naming titles I saw, and many of them were early Rag-Time songs that I did not know were ever made on piano rolls, some recorded, some not. I wish I could remember more of what I saw, but there were some amazing things there, it was entirely overwhelming...
The one thing that was hidden in that cavernous basement was the fabled door to the Rosebud Saloon. I had heard mutters around of Trebor getting a huge crowbar and prying out that door just as soon as he heard that the historic place was going to be torn down, back in the mid-1960's. There it was, sitting up against one of those shelves, with its faded green paint and small brass handle. I stood there with my hand on it for at least ten minutes, thinking of all the amazing hands who met with that door. Just to name a few, here are some:
Tom Turpin, Scott Joplin, Louis Chauvin, Otis Saunders, James Scott, Scott Hayden, and dozens more. I just could not believe what I had my hand on, and it was slightly overwhelming just thinking of how much history that door had seen.
That was only the first day being there, was staying at Trebor's house. We stayed the night there, in the heat and humidity of Missouri. The next day, we began our drive out to Sedalia, and did some antique-ing along the way. There was this one place pretty much in the middle of nowhere that allowed for a great haul of sheet music. Of course, since we were in the middle of Missouri, much of the music there came from that state or from those surrounding it. Much of the music came from either Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, or Indianapolis. With that, the pickings were great, as in California, one won't find that sort of thing for sure. Once we got to Sedalia, the music began. It was like we were thrown into the middle of a cutting contest, the music quite almost literally smacked us across the face.
The highlight of the Thursday night concert was Terry Waldo's slot. He played one of his own compositions, which was full of hilarity and mirth, but then he played his specialty of Euday Bowman's "12th Street Rag", which ended with a fantastic whack! The final C on the piano broke clear out of the piano! The spring went flying, and the string could easily have slashed someone's face. Just after he played was the intermission luckily, so a bunch of people got up to go and fix the string, though it was not fixed until the next day. A few performers still played that piano at the concert regardless. Terry unfortunately had to pack everything and leave on Friday morning, so he left the after hours rather early that night, after a few drink and duets of course!
Friday was a similar story, with some of us walking around town and enjoying our time in the town. It was on Friday that I got to play a square piano for the first time, which was a fascinating and curious experience. My friend Ryan Wishner has been wanting to play one of these strange things, and now I must report back specifically to him(because he will be reading this at some point). This piano was very odd, no pedals, not 88 keys, and it was tuned down a whole step. If you were to play in A on this piano, the key that it came out to be was F. How it was just a mess, but once you get going, it sounds decent. The hardest thing about it was just getting going on playing something. Well, Ryan, hope you're still anxious to play one of these!
The Saturday shows were fantastic, as they were the finale of this festival, and the last spectacle of the day was the huge production of "Shake That Thing", where almost every one of the performers were invited up to play along on the stage. With this format, the song seemed to go on for twenty minutes! Not everyone even played, and it still went on that long. All the musicians were scattered around town who didn't play in that finale. Once the evening concert began, we were all confronted with a strange yet playful way of programming for this concert. All of our names were thrown into a hat(a straw boater to be more specific!), and the previous performer was to pick another name from the hat, and someone was given the specific job to go and fetch them when they were called. It sounds like a fun idea at first, but really, it became stressful and complicated rather quick, though it went well through the entire show.
Anyhow, I was driven back to St. Louis with Virginia and the Boogie legend Carl Sonny Leyland, which took fully three hours, but was a very pleasant ride back.
The next part of the day was enjoying the hospitality and history of the Scott Joplin home in St. Louis. The place was very well restored, considering all of the damage that had been done to the place before. This was pretty much the official end of the festival, there was one more place that a few of us went to after that, but that didn't involve most of the performers.
After spending the night at Trebor's house once again, much more used to the room I was staying in. We dug through some sheet music, and attempted to play a few piano rolls(that did not go well...). We packed a large bag full of cleaning supplies, got all of our luggage, and sent for the Valhalla Cemetery in St. Louis. Why? Well, so we could find this:
There he is.
The "Banjo king" himself.
For at least fifty years, this stone has been covered in dirt and grass, and spiders, until my friend Marty and I cleaned it up. How Vess would be glad to know that someone cares just enough to want this done, and does it out of full will. Now, when we found the stone, I was surprised by how simple it was. I was expecting a little banjo somewhere, and his full name, but none of those were there, as you can see. It's funny, he would have wanted something more frivolous than this, and probably more than just "Pop" there, though it was his son Vess Jr. doing this, so it's not really that surprising. Vess hadn't made any plans for his death anyhow, so this kind of proves that, as he died quick, and his oldest son had to deal with this. His son, Vess Jr. is buried at the same cemetery, but across the street.
I was half-expecting his wife to be there, or at least somewhere near him, but she was nowhere to be found unfortunately. He would have hated that for sure. Unfortunately, we were in a slight hurry to get to the airport to depart, so I couldn't really give a long monologue praising Vess, as much as I wanted to. I said a short emotional thing, then set the roses in place.
One down, a whole lot more to go...
I wanted to pick out a bundle of specific flowers corresponding with the man's character, but again, we were on a tight schedule. I will do that with everyone else I visit(especially with Banta!). Now that this is done, I plan to track down his lovely Eunice, and put the same arrangement of roses on her grave. I chose roses honoring the man's lovely youth, and beauty, though he was short tempered, ridden with thorns.
Before I close out this post, I must share a rare image that Charlie Judkins sent me while I was absent.
Here you go:
Anyone recognise that face?
Well, if you don't right away, it's Silas Leachman!
Finally, another decent picture of him. This picture would have to be dated about 1899 or 1900, judging by his suit jacket and tie, and also that his hair pretty much looks about the same as it did in that other picture of him that I use on this blog. This picture came from a newspaper advertisement, as that's why it looks the way it does, though there could be the original image buried out there somewhere...
Anyhow, that's my whole spiel about going to Missouri, and with all of this, going next year is certainly a possibility. Thanks John Reed-Torres for all the adventures we had!
The basement of the house was the most amazing thing I had ever seen, with piano rolls stacked in shelves to the ceiling, everywhere I looked, there revealed precious titles of Rag-Time rarities, from an original of Max Hoffmann's "Rag Medley", to "Campin' on De Ole' Swanee", to Ben Harney's "Mister Johnson Turn Me Loose". I just kept naming titles I saw, and many of them were early Rag-Time songs that I did not know were ever made on piano rolls, some recorded, some not. I wish I could remember more of what I saw, but there were some amazing things there, it was entirely overwhelming...
The one thing that was hidden in that cavernous basement was the fabled door to the Rosebud Saloon. I had heard mutters around of Trebor getting a huge crowbar and prying out that door just as soon as he heard that the historic place was going to be torn down, back in the mid-1960's. There it was, sitting up against one of those shelves, with its faded green paint and small brass handle. I stood there with my hand on it for at least ten minutes, thinking of all the amazing hands who met with that door. Just to name a few, here are some:
Tom Turpin, Scott Joplin, Louis Chauvin, Otis Saunders, James Scott, Scott Hayden, and dozens more. I just could not believe what I had my hand on, and it was slightly overwhelming just thinking of how much history that door had seen.
That was only the first day being there, was staying at Trebor's house. We stayed the night there, in the heat and humidity of Missouri. The next day, we began our drive out to Sedalia, and did some antique-ing along the way. There was this one place pretty much in the middle of nowhere that allowed for a great haul of sheet music. Of course, since we were in the middle of Missouri, much of the music there came from that state or from those surrounding it. Much of the music came from either Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, or Indianapolis. With that, the pickings were great, as in California, one won't find that sort of thing for sure. Once we got to Sedalia, the music began. It was like we were thrown into the middle of a cutting contest, the music quite almost literally smacked us across the face.
The highlight of the Thursday night concert was Terry Waldo's slot. He played one of his own compositions, which was full of hilarity and mirth, but then he played his specialty of Euday Bowman's "12th Street Rag", which ended with a fantastic whack! The final C on the piano broke clear out of the piano! The spring went flying, and the string could easily have slashed someone's face. Just after he played was the intermission luckily, so a bunch of people got up to go and fix the string, though it was not fixed until the next day. A few performers still played that piano at the concert regardless. Terry unfortunately had to pack everything and leave on Friday morning, so he left the after hours rather early that night, after a few drink and duets of course!
Friday was a similar story, with some of us walking around town and enjoying our time in the town. It was on Friday that I got to play a square piano for the first time, which was a fascinating and curious experience. My friend Ryan Wishner has been wanting to play one of these strange things, and now I must report back specifically to him(because he will be reading this at some point). This piano was very odd, no pedals, not 88 keys, and it was tuned down a whole step. If you were to play in A on this piano, the key that it came out to be was F. How it was just a mess, but once you get going, it sounds decent. The hardest thing about it was just getting going on playing something. Well, Ryan, hope you're still anxious to play one of these!
The Saturday shows were fantastic, as they were the finale of this festival, and the last spectacle of the day was the huge production of "Shake That Thing", where almost every one of the performers were invited up to play along on the stage. With this format, the song seemed to go on for twenty minutes! Not everyone even played, and it still went on that long. All the musicians were scattered around town who didn't play in that finale. Once the evening concert began, we were all confronted with a strange yet playful way of programming for this concert. All of our names were thrown into a hat(a straw boater to be more specific!), and the previous performer was to pick another name from the hat, and someone was given the specific job to go and fetch them when they were called. It sounds like a fun idea at first, but really, it became stressful and complicated rather quick, though it went well through the entire show.
Anyhow, I was driven back to St. Louis with Virginia and the Boogie legend Carl Sonny Leyland, which took fully three hours, but was a very pleasant ride back.
The next part of the day was enjoying the hospitality and history of the Scott Joplin home in St. Louis. The place was very well restored, considering all of the damage that had been done to the place before. This was pretty much the official end of the festival, there was one more place that a few of us went to after that, but that didn't involve most of the performers.
After spending the night at Trebor's house once again, much more used to the room I was staying in. We dug through some sheet music, and attempted to play a few piano rolls(that did not go well...). We packed a large bag full of cleaning supplies, got all of our luggage, and sent for the Valhalla Cemetery in St. Louis. Why? Well, so we could find this:
The "Banjo king" himself.
For at least fifty years, this stone has been covered in dirt and grass, and spiders, until my friend Marty and I cleaned it up. How Vess would be glad to know that someone cares just enough to want this done, and does it out of full will. Now, when we found the stone, I was surprised by how simple it was. I was expecting a little banjo somewhere, and his full name, but none of those were there, as you can see. It's funny, he would have wanted something more frivolous than this, and probably more than just "Pop" there, though it was his son Vess Jr. doing this, so it's not really that surprising. Vess hadn't made any plans for his death anyhow, so this kind of proves that, as he died quick, and his oldest son had to deal with this. His son, Vess Jr. is buried at the same cemetery, but across the street.
I was half-expecting his wife to be there, or at least somewhere near him, but she was nowhere to be found unfortunately. He would have hated that for sure. Unfortunately, we were in a slight hurry to get to the airport to depart, so I couldn't really give a long monologue praising Vess, as much as I wanted to. I said a short emotional thing, then set the roses in place.
I wanted to pick out a bundle of specific flowers corresponding with the man's character, but again, we were on a tight schedule. I will do that with everyone else I visit(especially with Banta!). Now that this is done, I plan to track down his lovely Eunice, and put the same arrangement of roses on her grave. I chose roses honoring the man's lovely youth, and beauty, though he was short tempered, ridden with thorns.
Before I close out this post, I must share a rare image that Charlie Judkins sent me while I was absent.
Here you go:
Well, if you don't right away, it's Silas Leachman!
Finally, another decent picture of him. This picture would have to be dated about 1899 or 1900, judging by his suit jacket and tie, and also that his hair pretty much looks about the same as it did in that other picture of him that I use on this blog. This picture came from a newspaper advertisement, as that's why it looks the way it does, though there could be the original image buried out there somewhere...
Anyhow, that's my whole spiel about going to Missouri, and with all of this, going next year is certainly a possibility. Thanks John Reed-Torres for all the adventures we had!
H ope you enjoyed this!
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