It has been established before on this blog that the hardest recordings for pianist identification happens to be Zon-O-Phone records and Berliners, as they were the least known of as far as ledgers go, and they didn't bother to offer some of the best identification on their labels sometimes(this is more so with Zon-O-Phones). Berliner at least tried to make an effort to make their labels clear with all the ledger information that we all was to know, like specific dates, take numbers, the singer or performer, and the accompanist on the rarest occasion. Zon-O-phone's sometime were lacking in many of these, sometimes even the identification of the singer or performer. Oftentimes, they would just say "Banjo solo", or "Baritone". It doesn't at all help when that is all that's given. Since I have been listening to more Zono's lately, I have been able to find that the etched label ones are the harder to tell with the piano accompaniment. I had hypothesized that before, but now I have really started to notice it.
The etched Zono's are harder to tell because they more often had varying pianists on them, which makes for always interesting listening, but more problems when trying to listen for a certain piano style. More styles are being thrown at the listener when digging through etched Zono's. It's not the same three pianists that we hear most often on Edison and Columbia. We can hear them on Zon-O-phone's though, you just have to find which ones.
Most etched Zono's I've heard have pianists that are either Frank P. Banta, or have a similar style to his, which makes sense, since Hylands was working regularly at Columbia from 1900 to late-1901. As I have been hearing though, there are anomalies. I heard one that is an etched label Zono that clearly has Hylands on piano, as it has pretty much all of his stylings, from the walking octaves in the bass, to the sneaked fifths in the left hand. It really is strange to hear Hylands on an etched Zon-O-phone though, but it does make sense.
Whomever was running Zon-O-phone from their beginning to 1903 really must have been all-right with anything from the pianists, since they really did play some of the best and most wild Rag-Time that was recorded in the second half of the piano accompaniment era. Columbia's late brown waxes cannot even top the amount of phenomenal examples of Rag-Time from Zon-O-phone records from 1901-1904. Even the band and orchestra Rag-Time was exceptional, since this chap was running their house orchestras:
youngster Fred Hager.
(from the September, 1898 issue of The Phonoscope)
Hager was an extraordinary bandleader, and remained in the business longer than any of his late-1890's colleagues. Since he was part of the "Rag-Time Generation", he understood the style of music very well, and this is why the recordings by his orchestra are almost always guaranteed to be good, especially the Rag-Time. He wasn't the one running that studio though, allowing that wild Rag-Time piano accompaniment to pass. Whatever manager that was at Zon-O-phone, they were just as up-to-date as Russell Hunting was in 1916! Along these lines, it would seem that Zon-O-phone had more of an "anything goes" type of atmosphere than Columbia did in 1899! That is really saying a lot in this case.
One we get to 1902, the piano accompaniment is not as confusing on these Zono's. That is because we begin to hear a more distinctly and familiar style, one that is not from Banta, Issler, Bachmann or C.H. Booth. It's Hylands this time. I have explained before why Hylands was more frequently in Zon-O-phone's studio. I will go through it once more to clearly tie this together.
In early 1902, Hylands had grown far too cross with the Columbia management, even if he had been this way since 1898 something must have made him snap one of these days. It took until early 1902 for him to become vocal about beginning a union. So that's exactly what he did, he began this union around March of that year, and the Columbia management were furious about this, and in their anger they told him to leave for a short while until this fire burnt out. While he was infrequently working for Columbia, he went to Zon-O-phone where they had welcomed him before, but this time it was for a more desperate matter. They took it to enjoy Hylands in their studio, as he was much more interesting than Banta was before. To their amusement, he was interesting both in his playing, and in his behavior that varied from day to day, so it was certainly a mirthful few months for studio workers there. During this period, we are given the most amazing examples of piano Rag-Time accompaniment, just as good as those late-1890's Columbia cylinders, well, since they're by the same pianist it helps. Just goes to show you that when those theater managers said Hylands was one of the best accompanists of the day, they really meant it.
This period sparked by discontent gave us records such as these here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEI6K0esFj4
https://ia802300.us.archive.org/31/items/ArthurCollins_part2/ArthurCollins-TheManWhoPlayedtheTamborin.mp3
The piano accompaniment on these is phenomenal. Both of these recordings have Hylands playing the accompaniment, playing all sorts of his usual tricks that can easily be heard on Columbia records from the same time and a little bit before then as well.
Of course, like everything Hylands got his hands into, it failed within two months, so the union thing didn't last, and he understood very well that it didn't work and was destined to from the start. Even after the union bust, he still worked for Zon-O-phone and Columbia, as he can be heard in 1903 still playing there behind Collins, Ossman, Denny, and everyone else that was featured there.
There are still plenty of amazing Zon-O-phone's from 1902-04 with piano accompaniment that I have yet to hear, but after hearing some more lately, it is becoming ever more complicated with every new one I hear.
Whomever was running Zon-O-phone from their beginning to 1903 really must have been all-right with anything from the pianists, since they really did play some of the best and most wild Rag-Time that was recorded in the second half of the piano accompaniment era. Columbia's late brown waxes cannot even top the amount of phenomenal examples of Rag-Time from Zon-O-phone records from 1901-1904. Even the band and orchestra Rag-Time was exceptional, since this chap was running their house orchestras:
(from the September, 1898 issue of The Phonoscope)
Hager was an extraordinary bandleader, and remained in the business longer than any of his late-1890's colleagues. Since he was part of the "Rag-Time Generation", he understood the style of music very well, and this is why the recordings by his orchestra are almost always guaranteed to be good, especially the Rag-Time. He wasn't the one running that studio though, allowing that wild Rag-Time piano accompaniment to pass. Whatever manager that was at Zon-O-phone, they were just as up-to-date as Russell Hunting was in 1916! Along these lines, it would seem that Zon-O-phone had more of an "anything goes" type of atmosphere than Columbia did in 1899! That is really saying a lot in this case.
One we get to 1902, the piano accompaniment is not as confusing on these Zono's. That is because we begin to hear a more distinctly and familiar style, one that is not from Banta, Issler, Bachmann or C.H. Booth. It's Hylands this time. I have explained before why Hylands was more frequently in Zon-O-phone's studio. I will go through it once more to clearly tie this together.
In early 1902, Hylands had grown far too cross with the Columbia management, even if he had been this way since 1898 something must have made him snap one of these days. It took until early 1902 for him to become vocal about beginning a union. So that's exactly what he did, he began this union around March of that year, and the Columbia management were furious about this, and in their anger they told him to leave for a short while until this fire burnt out. While he was infrequently working for Columbia, he went to Zon-O-phone where they had welcomed him before, but this time it was for a more desperate matter. They took it to enjoy Hylands in their studio, as he was much more interesting than Banta was before. To their amusement, he was interesting both in his playing, and in his behavior that varied from day to day, so it was certainly a mirthful few months for studio workers there. During this period, we are given the most amazing examples of piano Rag-Time accompaniment, just as good as those late-1890's Columbia cylinders, well, since they're by the same pianist it helps. Just goes to show you that when those theater managers said Hylands was one of the best accompanists of the day, they really meant it.
This period sparked by discontent gave us records such as these here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEI6K0esFj4
https://ia802300.us.archive.org/31/items/ArthurCollins_part2/ArthurCollins-TheManWhoPlayedtheTamborin.mp3
The piano accompaniment on these is phenomenal. Both of these recordings have Hylands playing the accompaniment, playing all sorts of his usual tricks that can easily be heard on Columbia records from the same time and a little bit before then as well.
Of course, like everything Hylands got his hands into, it failed within two months, so the union thing didn't last, and he understood very well that it didn't work and was destined to from the start. Even after the union bust, he still worked for Zon-O-phone and Columbia, as he can be heard in 1903 still playing there behind Collins, Ossman, Denny, and everyone else that was featured there.
There are still plenty of amazing Zon-O-phone's from 1902-04 with piano accompaniment that I have yet to hear, but after hearing some more lately, it is becoming ever more complicated with every new one I hear.
Hope you enjoyed this!
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