Wednesday, May 15, 2019

The Columbia Triangle and a first session

So, I returned from ARSC on Sunday, and there's an awful lot to report on. On the hour and a half flight back from Portland, I wrote eight pages of notes for future reference. Amid these pages, I highlighted a single conversation that I had with Tim Brooks. We spoke a good amount about the logistics of the 1900 to 1904 period at Columbia and Zon-O-Phone, and a few things came to light in this conversation. 

In reference to the last few posts, I recently uncovered from a Jim Walsh article that Hager himself stated that he was the musical director(or a director of some kind) at Columbia from 1900 to 1903. This proves that Hager worked at Columbia for certain, and also proves the cross pollination that happened between Columbia and Zon-O-Phone during this period. 
So what does this mean? Well, luckily I was able to discuss this with Tim Brooks, leading into the discussion with Hylands' role in the Columbia studio around 1900. 
So, Mr. Brooks observed that at Columbia during their early disc making days, oftentimes they would have different recording rooms for the disc takes and a different room for the cylinders. This would have been particularly so during the Climax period(1901-1902). So, this actually makes so much sense! Even if this wasn't necessarily so all the time, it would make sense that they would have different folks managing  the disc than the cylinder market at Columbia. So with the disc stuff at Columbia, this is where Hager fits in. Thanks to the large group portrait of Hager's orchestra, we know for sure that he worked at Columbia sometime in 1900 to 1903. 
So, again this begs the question, what does this mean?
Let's say Hager was the musical director at Columbia in this period, that would mean that his piano accompaniments are somewhere on Columbia in 1900 to 1903. Since this is probably so, this means there's a triangle here. 
The three being Hylands, Hager and Ring. This unusual trio would make up the Columbia piano accompaniments of this period. Well, that's great and all, but it makes the listening portion complicated. Despite the complication, I have noticed there's more than one pianist on Columbia in this period, and one of them was definitely a pianist on Zon-O-Phone in this period. So here's the issue, just as I explained in the previous few posts, I have gone back and listened to many dozens of Zono and Columbia records from this period back to back, and still the same triangle of pianists remains between the 2 companies. Nothing has changed about that, though I am still unsure of which pianist is hager. I know which one is Ring, and which is Hylands, but the Hager style is difficult to pin down. 
I still am leaning toward the idea that the smoother and looser style is Hager's, the one that sounds more directly related to Hylands'. A little while ago I wrote a detailed comparison between Hylands' and Hager's regional styles, and in the end it seems their styles of extraction aren't actually too different from one another. 
Hylands and Hager. 
The last time I compared their composition styles I used Hager's "Handsome Harry" and Hylands' "Darkey Volunteer". The first lines of both pieces are nearly identical. Hager clearly was listening to Hylands' accompaniments, whether it be in person or on the records he was studying. 
Just to refresh the memory of this, here are the two pieces played under the direction of the composers:


Now we know they were in the Columbia studio together for at least 2 years, most likely trading off as the pianist on discs and cylinders. I'm starting to think that Hager was the pianist who played the piccolo like flourishes at the very end of many Columbia records(as well as Zon-O-Phone's). This sort of signature ending was typical of bandleaders of the era, a good example being Arthur Pryor. So here are two good examples that illustrate that flourish at the end, one is a Columbia and the other a Zon-O-Phone:
(this is the Columbia)
(here is the Zon-O-Phone)
That same style is exactly the same as one of the three I've heard on Columbias from the same time, the Zono listed above is astonishingly similar to the Columbia. The rolled chord with the flourish, the likeness is mirrored. Unlike the Ring style, this particular one is more steady and constant, not swung and aggressive like Ring's. 

Well, this is still a work in progress, as it will continue to be until I see some actual ledgers for Columbia or Zon-O-Phone. 


Maybe Hager's scrapbooks and personal papers could hold answers...

Something is happening right now regarding these papers by the way...






Anyway, moving on! While at ARSC last week, I discussed a very important discovery regarding Banta's recording career. Believe it or not, I may have found Banta's very first recording date. Awhile back I wrote a bit on a newspaper article dated to 1893 regarding the new field of recording, which just happened to contain a perfect bit on Banta. So, in the original article from 1893, it stated that Banta had been working in the business for just about a year by then. And so now we have some hard evidence to prove that! 

July 30th, 1892. 

That is the date where Banta's name first shows up in any ledgers. So what were these ledgers exactly? Well, they were payment ledgers, not exactly the solid ledgers with titles and logistics, but it's the closest thing to it. This payment book wasn't necessarily from North American either, it was from the much smaller New York Phonograph company that didn't last to the patent battles of 1895. In these ledgers, it's fascinating to note that the pianists were paid equally and sometimes even more than the performers! Now that's satisfying, knowing the accompanists were paid well(at least in the earliest early days). Ever more unsurprising was who Banta was accompanying at his first session, Dan W. Quinn. Of course! Quinn was so very fond of Banta, so it makes sense that this connection goes back to the very beginning of both their recording careers. I would bet money that Quinn was the reason Banta got into the business in some kind of way. Quinn was a popular vaudeville performer in this period, so he probably came across the young hot Banta somewhere on the vaudeville circuit. 
So maybe it would be helpful to seek out some records of this company, or just that year more generally. If it's possible, it's likely that we could pick out a 22-23 year old Banta on some of Quinn's and Ossman's earliest records. A good start to this search would be looking for some of the earliest records by Quinn and Ossman that survive. The earliest Quinn record I have heard is from 1893, and here it is: 
So i have no idea what the company of this record is, and it's not indicated at the beginning, so who knows, it could be one of those early Quinn-Banta records. I'll have to spend some more time digging for early Quinn records, it's entirely possible to dig up a few of these record he made with Banta, and if they aren't Columbia's it's more likely to be Banta than Gaisberg(or Schweinfest, whoever they had there). Just on this one record though, I caught the clustered chords that mirror the right hand. That's a signature Banta characteristic, heard on hundreds of Edison's and Victors nearly a decade later. So the likelihood of Banta's presence on Quinn's earliest records is VERY likely. 
This is what a single page of ledgers can unfold. 
See how great it is to have ledgers?





I still have a lot to write about from the conversations I had at ARSC, but in this post here I stuck with the things I could easily write on without several hours of searching for. Soon I hope to dig into the Boston Symphony archives to see if I can trace Hager's relationship with the BSO director and musicians in 1911-1912. That search may be opening a can of worms, but if anything becomes of it the opening will be worth it. This is only one more thing that will likely become a project in the near future! I also have been told where to find Victor Herbert's scrapbooks, and searching for those may also open up and sort out a lot of the confusion I have been coming to regarding his mixed relationship with recording companies. So anyway, I'll get to these things in the future after I can spend more time searching around for them. 

I cannot thank the ARSC members enough, who encouraged me to go and helped pay for my trip this year! Had a great time this year and was honored to meet and converse with so many great recording minds. I plan on attending next year's conference, hopefully you will all get to hear my piano playing at the next conference.  


For those of you who get them, look out for my article on Eddie King in The Syncopated Times coming out this month! Much of the writing I did here was pulled together for this piece. 
Hope you enjoyed this! 




Wednesday, May 1, 2019

An Evolution and Mr. Helf

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!