More Studio pianist Digging and Hager's

In the last post I talked about the style crossover between a few of the early studio pianists, but in the short time since that last post I have found a few new things regarding studio pianists. When we get right down to listing the names of all the known studio pianists, it can get confusing when attempting to match the sound with the name. In case you're wondering, here's a list of all the pianists I have kept in mind in this process(in chronological order in which they started):

Theodore Wangemann(1888)

Henry Giesemann(1888)

Fred Gaisberg(1889)

Edward Issler(1889)

George Schweinfest(1889)

Frank P. Banta(1892)

 Noble McDonald(post 1894)

Christopher Booth(1897)

Fred Hylands(1897)

Fred Bachmann(c.1898)

Albert Benzler(c.1898)

Fred Hager(1898)

Justin Ring(1899)

Arthur Pryor(c.1900)

So that's about it for now, but there are very likely to be more names found in the near future. Some of these names should be familiar to the readers of this blog, Banta and Hylands included, but there are a few that are still very mysterious to me and other studio pianist scholars. Recently a copy of one of Mr. Noble McDonald's solos sold on ebay, who was one of the three Berliner pianists of pre-1898. I know nothing of Mr. McDonald, but he is likely the other pianist than Banta on many of those 1898 Berliners with rag-time piano accompaniment. I would place his name on many Berliners from 1897-98 that don't necessarily sound like Banta, but are still interesting to dissect. His style was likely the very mild one that we can hear on many Berliners around 1897, when Gaisberg was getting phased out as their main pianist. 

Soon we may be able to hear that piano solo by Noble McDonald, how that would definitely solve a lot of our issues with the Berliner accompaniments. Just like the succeeding company, Victor, Berliner's are a great source of frustration with me, as it's rather complicated with them after Gaisberg left in 1898. With Berliner, we keep seeing names pop up at accompanists, so at a certain point it becomes very odd and much more confusing than it should be. 

With Berliner between 1897-1899, about 6 different pianists' names have shown up, but only four of them have been confirmed as regular studio workers. 

Above I mentioned George Schweinfest, and I actually have come to realize something in the last few days regarding him. 

Schweinfest in 1898

For awhile now I have assumed Schweinfest to be one of the Columbia pianists other than Hylands. In 1889, Schweinfest and Issler made a handful of piano duets for North American, none of which are known to survive. Despite this tragedy, we can piece together a few things in terms of what Schweinfest did in the studio after Issler. While working with Issler, Schweinfest played piccolo, flute, and violin, but did not often take over Issler's chair. But after the orchestra broke up in 1898 or so(I know there are later ones from around 1899 of Issler's orchestra, but for the sake of keeping things in order, let's keep the idea that they broke up in 1898 or so at Columbia), Schweinfest remained at Columbia, even though Issler didn't. Schweinfest continued to make solo records for Columbia(as did the other Issler musicians, Tuson and Dana) until around 1903, but where did he go from there?

Actually, I don't think he went anywhere. Recently I saw a record listed that genuinely surprised me. 

There's a piano solo by Schweinfest floating around out here, and it's not one of the handful he made in 1889. Around 1905, Schweinfest made a piano solo of "Yankiana Two Step" for Columbia(it was issued on a 6 inch Columbia "twentieth century" cylinder). 

Wait what?

You heard me right. 

So I guess that Schweinfest didn't leave Columbia in 1903. So let's say that he hung around that changing Columbia crowd for a few more years, playing the latest piano accompaniments that we hear on Columbia. I don't think that Schweinfest is on those strange 1905 Columbia's of the 3000 series, but some of the others I would wager his presence. When you look up Schweinfest on findagrave, in his little bio there is an obituary from 1949 that states that he was a long time musical director for Columbia, beginning around the time that he stopped making solo records(c.1905). But what about those "20th century" records? Clearly he still worked for Columbia by then, doing more than just accompaniments and solos. With all that in mind, Schweinfest was also likely in the Columbia orchestra. 

I do not know how long Schweinfest was at Columbia, though his obituary stated that he was there into the early 1920's, which is quite late for an old-timer as him. 
So here's something curious, I was recently flipping through an 1898 Columbia catalog that was reprinted by a friend, I found myself looking whether Hylands' "Darkey Volunteer" was recorded that early. Turns out it was, but I found it rather curious who recorded it first(according to the catalog listings that is). Well it seems that Schweinfest was the first to record it. 
That was rather odd to see, as I always thought Ossman's take of it was the first one, a the piece was dedicated so highly to Ossman:

So with this in mind, and considering the amount of exceptional records Schweinfest made with Hylands, it would make sense that Schweinfest be one of the first musicians that Hylands befriended when he joined Columbia in 1897. Schweinfest may have been Hylands' studio mentor, as Issler was for Banta back in 1892-93. Even though we know Issler was still present at Columbia in 1897, Schweinfest is proving to have been more present toward the end of the 1890's after Issler left Columbia. 
Going through all of this begs the question, which pianist is Schweinfest?

Well, I do not really know yet. But I have a sneaking suspicion that this pianist may be him here:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder5349
The only reason I think it may be Schweinfest is because of the obvious quoting of the piccolo part at the end of the record. The year that this was recorded also helps, as it was most certainly recording 1897, with the loud and clear announcement by Len Spencer as they were. On any of those 1897 Columbia's where the piano playing is very good but generic sounding(not too much going on to distract from the main performer), I would bet that that's Schweinfest. Of course hearing one of his c.1905 Columbia piano solos or one of the 1889 piano duets would really solve this mystery, and until we have one of those to hear, we just won't know. 


Just before Christmas, I got a copy of Noble McDonald's 1897 piano solo "Little Nell", and luckily I made a crappy transfer of it very soon afterward. McDonald's playing is very similar to how Banta played a swung schottische, with bits of syncopation and more, here you go:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iKbEjOLtfsHpWxA9sIXKRrNMWrtM8nZE/view?usp=sharing
It's quite a step up from the musicianship of Gaisberg's "Honeymoon March" and "Little Kicker" solos, also recorded on Berliner. 
For comparison, here's the record from c.1895:
https://archive.org/details/TheHoneymoonMarchByUnknownPianist1890s
Here you can also hear Gaisberg's "Little Kicker":
https://m.box.com/shared_item/https%3A%2F%2Fapp.box.com%2Fs%2F6c4x0tenjw1xc7ssw6fvwty0eb5d1vdl
It's quite fitting that I speak of Mr. Gaisberg on this particular day, which just happens to be his birthday! 
Before I move on, here's my favorite picture of professor Gaisberg:

Happy birthday Mr. Gaisberg!








So now to move on to Hager's. 
Since digging up all that information on Fred Hager's brother James, I have come to wonder what his role was exactly with his brother's orchestras and such. 

Fred and James Hager. 
Obviously we can assume from that big portrait of Hager's entire orchestra that brother James was working for Fred in the orchestra around 1902(the approximate year of the picture above). But at some point Eddie King got into the orchestra and took brother James' place. When that happened I don't entirely know. From what I have gathered regarding this matter, and from lots of listening to records, Eddie King became the accompanist for Hager's orchestra around 1904. The later years of his orchestra on Zon-O-Phone had King's percussion, and the earliest years went to brother James. 
So if this is true, where did James go from c.1904-1913(he returned to work for his brother again for Rex)? 
Recently I went digging again for James on ancestry, but wasn't able to find anything between 1900 and 1913, just as the last time I did that. So unfortunately I wasn't able to find anything on him in that essential period, though we know he was working for Zon-O-phone as late as 1904. 
When I searched for him on the DAHR website, there were a handful of records that included his name, most of them were from 1918-1926, far removed from his young days at Zono with his brother. He was playing traps, drums, chimes, and xylophone, just as he was listed playing in the c.1902 picture of Hager's orchestra. James made his way to Okeh in the earliest days of their existence. That's funny to note because on his draft card around the same time it says that he's an independent music contractor. Rather than having the Okeh name sprawled in the employer section, his draft card has a generic employer's name. Later than same year he was working for Okeh, as the ledgers indicate. 
So with all this in mind, we can safely assume that James Hager is that funky percussionist on the earliest Hager's orchestra and Zon-O-phone orchestra( and concert band) records. 
So here we should be able to hear James Hager playing the percussion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdrCRA6XVug
This record is from 1901, which fits perfectly into the period that James would be in the orchestra. 
So this record would have Eddie King's percussion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHSm1YTCzxo

After listening to a few records from the 1910's with Eddie King's percussion, I can really hear his playing and understand it better, here are two good examples of him with the Van Eps trio:
https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/200014888/B-14589-Chinese_picnic
(Van Eps quotes the old Ossman piece "Sounds from Africa at the beginning of this medley!)
https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/700000083/C-15093-Old_folks_rag

King's percussion was a little bit out of whack sometimes, but it's definitely good. From what I've heard of James Hager, he was quite talented as well, considering he was basically forced into musicianship by his brilliant brother. Keep in mind that Fred would have been teaching brother James to be prepared for the orchestra job when he was around 14(c.1896). 


Well, I have more things to share, but I don't want this post to get too hectic and complicated. So with that I will end it here. 

Hope you enjoyed this! Happy new year everyone! 

Character Studies--Fred Hager(1874-1958)

Now that we know Hager was one of those famed Rag-Time pianists on early recordings, it seems inevitable for more posts to be centered around him and Zon-O-Phone in general. Despite a yearning to learn more about him, there's not too much on him out there, everything there is about him is from later on in his career as a bandleader and arranger, from about 1907 to the 1920's, bit after that there's a huge gap of time before then and after that. Soon, we hope to dig up all of this information on him, much like we did on Edward Issler. We hope that these gaps will be filled at least somewhat, so a trajectory will be known to some extent.

Now for Hager's background and upbringing. This at least gets us an idea of how highly regarded he was from such a young age. He was born in Susquehanna County Pennsylvania in 1874, and from a very young age joined local regiment bands, as this state was known for such a thing at this time.  In 1895, Hager was given a full scholarship to attend the New York Music school that had just been set up by the famous Czech composer Antonin Dvorak. He was sent here to study the violin, likely in his case under Dvorak himself, which is very strange yet amazing all at once! Once at the music school,he gained a reputation as a violin virtuoso, and a blossoming musician all around, playing brass and piano as well. By 1897, he had formed his own band, and this was given many awards as one of the top bands of all New York State, which is no small thing. He was soon invited to make records for the relatively small firm of Harms, Kaiser, and Hagen(as stated in The Phonoscope), and the next year, 1898, he was making violin records for Edison. Oddly enough, this caused some competition for Charles D'Almaine, who was then working for Edison and Columbia. It was around this time that Hager became a pianist for Edison, adding to their already three pianists on staff. Of course, just like with D'Almaine, Frank Banta must have unexpectedly entered competition when he  came along, not aware at first of Hager's curiosity in playing Rag-Time. But Banta and Benzler underestimated Hager's curiosity and rather surprising skill when it came to actually playing the style. He didn't surpass Banta in this, but he came pretty close to doing so, in a rather short period of time, since by 1898, Hager was also playing Rag-Time accompaniments for Edison, to compete with that horrid mess of a pianist at Columbia. Edison had two Rag pianists to essentially equal one Hylands. 

the equation was simple:

two Rag pianists:

Banta and Hager= equals one Hylands. Good.

That's Walter Miller's(Edison's Victor Emerson) logic for Rag-Time at Edison.

Anyway, Hager worked at Edison into 1899 and 1900, but it was around the latter that he became associated with the scandalous new company Zon-O-Phone. With this new company, he essentially was working with a clean slate, since this company had no history or baggage with any other company(save for Victor after 1900), and the orchestra was his to piece together. That's exactly what he did, and by 1901, he had created Zon-O-Phone's famed house orchestra, with some of his own musicians, and occasionally plucked out musicians from other studio orchestras. The end result was the best house orchestra of the era, and his arrangements made them ever better. Of course, since he was the orchestra leader, it seemed inevitable for him to become Zon-O-Phone's main studio pianist. He took his time at Edison as a trial for his piano skills to develop, and once he had Zon-O-phone's studio, he allowed this to be his time to really improve his piano playing, particularly his Rag-Time. His style of Rag-Time was very unusual, and it sounded like a cross between Hylands and Frank Banta, and all the other Edison pianists of the late-1890's. Luckily, that's why it wasn't too hard to put Hager's name on that style in the first place. His style was still very odd, combining the straight-laced and classically trained background with a very syncopated and rhythmically superior nature. Oddly enough, he played fifths in his left hand, and combined this with whacky yet syncopated right hand. Oftentimes his right hand was out of whack, but the rhythm in the left hand was always on point. It sounded like Hager had been to performances with Hylands accompaniment, or someone like that, such as Ben Harney, or Max Hoffmann. Wherever his inspiration came from, the style he created was unique and very interesting, obviously taking from Hylands. By 1902, he was eclipsed by his own competitor in Rag-Time, Fred Hylands, because once Hylands became horribly fed up with Columbia in 1902, he entered into Zon-O-Phone's studio and was welcomed by the management. Luckily, this relatively short period became the prime of Hager's orchestra, since he wasn't always going to be the pianist when Hylands was there. Between 1902 and 1904, the best of Hager's orchestra was recorded, you can notice a spike in Hager's Orchestra performances on Zono in this time period, and the overall sound was just as great as it had always been, if not a little better in this period. By the end of the piano accompaniment era(1905) Zon-O-Phone still held on to their piano accompaniment until the end of that year, much like Columbia did, for what seems the same reason. Hager wasn't dropped like Hylands however, he was given leadership of pretty much all the Zon-O-phone sessions, still keeping his orchestra there as the accompaniment, and for occasional band recordings. They were still a superior orchestra, with the superior sound quality that was a signature for the label. By the end of Zon-O-phone as we know it, Hager was thrown out, just like everyone else who worked there. But he feared not, his orchestra became what Issler's did, an old-style orchestra who got a surprising amount of work after recording. Hager was still young by 1912, so his orchestra didn't become archaic until the 1920's. Hager wasn't able to transition to Jazz, just like Issler, but by the late-1920's, Hager had joined the radio business. In the 1930 census, Hager is listed as "program manager-broadcasting", which proves this statement. He was doing just what he did for Zon-O-Phone, just for the radio studios. It seems that by 1940, he had left this line, and retired as a music writer, and general musician. Performances by his orchestra date as far along as 1952! That's dedication. Hager's orchestra must have sounded real old-time by the 1930's, and to think that he was performing twenty years after that! He died in 1958 at the age of 84.

Hager made sure that his family didn't seem unusual for the time period, and this can be well observed in census records. In November 1897, he married Clara Decker, and soon had two little girls, none of whom entered in the music business unfortunately. Not much of his personality is easy to put together, but it's certain that he was an agreeable musician, since he was able to work for many record companies, and not create any baggage with any of them. Record companies probably fought quietly over him, and it was likely that Columbia became envious of the perfect pianist and orchestra leader Zon-O-Phone had, since none of their own staff was as extraordinary all around as Hager. Another thing that kept Hager always well liked was that he was the best-looking of the studio pianists, not seeming to fit the pianist stereotype that Banta and Issler personified to the highest degree. Hager was tall, thin, had dark blond hair, long stick-like legs, well-sloped slightly feminine shoulders, and a gloriously classical profile, with a perfectly shaped forehead to fit this. His good looks and agreeable nature were hard to refuse to the record managers, and he earned respect and admirers from this. 

Hager was a whole lot better-looking that most of these early recording stars. 

Just saying. 

Now for some records with Hager on piano! 

Here are a few examples with Hager's interesting and distinct style:

Will F. Denny's "Ain't You Ma Lulu" from 1901

what a wild record!

Collins' "Just because she made dem Goo Goo Eyes" from 1901

Ed Favor's "Everything at Reilly's must be Done in Irish Style" from 1900

Favor's "He Calls me his Own Grace Darling" from 1901

Well, there you go! Finally information on Hager! Thanks go out to Charlie Judkins for helping in finding all of this, some of the information also came from articles by Tim Gracyk and conversation with Craig Ventresco. 

Hope you enjoyed this! 

The Mystery and search for "Violets"

That's the other pianist I mention often on this blog, and the man who was a true victim of his time. I had a chat with my dear friend Ryan Wishner this evening, and we spoke briefly of the search for Frank Banta's record of "Violets". The only reason that this rare record is an on-going pun with us is because it is so hard to find the original Banta take, as most of the time you see it, it is the Albert Benzler re-make from 1905. Banta's original 1903 take is only very hard to find because of the fact that it was so popular just after it was released, and more so after Banta died. After Banta died in 1903, it was a major tragedy in the recording business, more so than any other death in the business actually. It was really the first casualty of the early recording business, caused by the environment in which he worked. This is why it was such a big thing when he died. 

Banta's "Violets" is one of the most tragically beautiful records of the piano accompaniment era, as far as I have studied in that era. Why? Well, it's very deep and full of emotion, unlike most of the solos of that time. It's very tragic in the sense of the fact that Banta died literally six months after the record was made, and that this record was really what made all the record buyers fully recognise him as a world-class pianist and accompanist. After this record was issued, that was really when Banta became well recognised, and became more popular than he already was. If he hadn't died in November of 1903, he would likely have become more popular than Fred Hylands. Banta had so much potential in him, and it was all lost too early. 

I know I have said this before, but Banta was said to have made a brown wax of "Violets", probably in 1901, just at the end of the Brown wax era. To think of all the brown waxes that exist out there, any of those unidentified brown waxes could be Banta playing "Violets". That is another record that many piano-accompaniment mad collectors would be drooling over to have, or at the least, just to hear it once through. It is just like the original 1903 copy that he made, but on brown wax which would be even more uncommon and valuable, as it's older. I'm hoping that the brown wax version of it sounds halfway decent, as brown wax piano solos are the closest thing to impossible to find in record collections anywhere. From how good piano accompaniment sounds on brown wax records, I am not putting anything past the balancing skills of the late-1890's(into 1901 mind you), for the piano to sound reasonably good. Those studio workers knew how to record the piano, regardless of what all those ignorant collectors say about the piano being almost impossible to record in the acoustic era. Then why did they stay with the piano accompaniment for such a long time? Heh? It's something that is said far too often by collectors, to where it makes me sick sometimes, because of how untrue that notion is. 

The reason that Banta's "Violets" is so valued to a variety of collectors is because of all the good ideas that surround Banta from the artists who recalled him. Since they were all good things, the love got passed on through the generations of collectors, therefore keeping a certain amount of information on Banta in the light constantly, which makes any solos of his worthy of being collected by any early record nerd. Even those who aren't the biggest piano accompaniment buffs would find Banta's beautiful solo and kind personality too charming to pass up if they are encountered by a copy of his "Violets". 

Banta's "Violets", recorded in early 1903.

Now another record that has caused some doings around in the early record collector community lately is Banta's "Hello Ma Baby" piano solo from 1900. This is a record that I have heard about for almost as long as I've been a collector, and has been an item of interest upon first hearing of its likely existence. When you look up the record on this link here:

http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/100000411/Pre-matrix_A-402-Hello_my_baby

You may notice that it states only 346 copies were made of this record, and as might be said, that's not very many to go around. Even in the case of Victor records just under 350 copies is not very many. That doesn't make it impossible though, there are some Silas Leachman records that I have held in my hands where less than a hundred were made, such as his mess-up of a record "My Maid from Hindoostan"(if you want to see it yourself, look it up on the website in the link above). Banta's solo of "Hello Ma Baby" has been confirmed to at least exist in one collections somewhere, indicating that someone is sitting on that one extraordinarily historic piece of Rag-Time. In very few situations does this matter, but it doesn't matter at all if that one copy is a mess or not, the condition doesn't matter in such a desperate matter as this, as it's so valuable, that it repeals all needs and wants for a clean-sounding take. That is how I feel about J. W. Myers' "Will O the Wisp", though it wouldn't hurt if I could hear it pretty well. It is listed here:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder13428'

How I want to hear that cylinder awful badly...

A song about a man who hold people in a prison to torture them paired with amazing piano accompaniment is just too good to pass by. I really hope they digitize this one, of all the cylinders on their website, this is the one I would pay good money to hear. 

Anyhow, I hope to gather some more information on that "Hello Ma Baby" record soon, and as soon as I receive more news, I will report it here. 

Hope you enjoyed this! 

An Operatic record and a guide to early studio pianists

Yesterday evening, not long after I put up the last post, a good collector friend of mine posted a fantastic and unusual record on his channel. It didn't appear of much interest to me at first, but I clicked on it anyway. How I was surprised! It was extraordinary! Anyhow, before I get into details, here's "Je Veux Vivire(Romeo and Juliet)" by Suzanne Adams, recorded in 1903.

Now it took a few listens to fully understand what this was really, and it's amazing truly. The singer is great, and the announcement is by Harry Spencer, and the piano is by Charles Prince. I thought at first it was Hylands, but that would not really be realistic, for a multitude of reasons. So since I just realised that Charles Prince was, other than being the famous bandleader of the 1910's, but he was Columbia's Operatic pianist. Prince was the Operatic accompanist, whereas Hylands was the "everything else" pianist. Hylands was the one who played all of the "lower-class" music that wasn't opera. 

That makes so much sense, I think I'm starting to get who the three Columbia pianists were between 1896 and 1905, just like that at Edison. Here's a list, with all dates, and all known pianists listed:

Edison: Edward Issler(primary pianist, 1889-1896)Frank P. Banta(primary pianist 1896-1903), Albert Benzler(secondary c. 1898-1905/primary 1904-1908), Fred Bachmann(operatic/sub pianist, c.late-1890's-?)

Victor/Berliner: Fred Gaisberg(primary pianist, 1894-1898)Frank P. Banta(primary Pianist, 1899-1903), Fred Hylands(sub pianist, 1900-1903/primary 1905) Christopher H. Booth(operatic/sub pianist, c.1900-1911)Fred Bachmann(operatic/sub pianist c. 1901-1917)

Zon-O-Phone: Fred Hylands(primary pianist, 1899-1903), Frank P. Banta(secondary pianist 1900-1903) more than these two? I don't know.

Columbia: Artists play or Edward Issler(1889-c. after 1900)Fred Gaisberg(Primary pianist 1891-c.1896) George Schweinfest(primary pianist 1896-mid 1897/ sub pianist 1897-1903) Fred Hylands(primary pianist, c.mid 1897-October or November of 1905) 

Leeds/American: Fred Hylands(primary pianist, 1903-c.1905) Anyone else, I don't know.

Many small/ independent companies: Fred Hylands(primary c.1899-1902) Banta was rarely on independent labels, and if you find a record made by an obscure or independent company between 1899 and 1903, it will more likely be Hylands than Banta, or anyone else. Pirate labels also count in this category. 

Now here's a guide to the most common piano accompaniment styles of the early pianists(note! not all of them are listed, because it's hard to know on some of these "in-between" records):

Frank P. Banta, studio pianist from c.1896-1903

Distinct style characteristics: If you hear lots of fifths between octaves on records in the piano, a style that can get ahead of the singer on Victors, broken octaves in the right hand only, very fast chromatic sections, slightly "dotted" or unsyncopated Ragged patterns, quick tremolos on Edison cylinders, rarely played in the upper register, and a somewhat frantic Rag-Time style. Also, on things that aren't Rag-Time, the rhythm is unsteady(usually rushy), but has a very deep sense of "soul" to it, and isn't straight as an arrow. 

Some examples: The first two takes listed here are it.

With Billy Golden on an Edison cylinder.
With Dan Quinn on a Victor from 1901.

His own gorgeous arrangement of "Violets" recorded in 1903, arranged in 1901.

Albert Benzler, studio pianist from c.1898-1909

Distinct style characteristics:  plays lots of sweeping trills all over the treble notes, plays in the higher register of the piano, had the ability to play notes very very fast like in much of the romantic era music, very unsteady and broken sense of time, not very keen on the whole "Rag-Time" style. He may be able to be heard playing "Black and White Rag" in 1911, but it's nothing like how you'd think it would be. 

His version of George Botsford's "Black and White Rag"

"The Chapel in the Woods", recorded in 1907

His version of Banta's "Violets" recorded in 1905

Edward Issler, Studio pianist from 1889-c.1896

Distinct style characteristics: If you have a very early brown wax cylinder, you're more than likely to hear Issler, North American cylinders had Issler on them almost always, and since that is not too hard of a distinction to make, his style is of not much use for identification. He played loudly, powerfully, lots of octaves in the left hand, played exaggeratedly sometimes(such as exaggerating the waltz time, or dotted rhythms), played "pre-Ragtime" pretty well, and was always playing the most popular music. His sense of rhythm was fantastic for being a (probably) classically trained pianist, better than Banta's time. 

Here are some examples:
behind Edward M. Favor in 1893
with his parlor orchestra(announced by young Len Spencer!) playing "Wang Gavotte" from 1892-93
with David Dana in 1891

Fred Gaisberg, house pianist(in the U.S.) from 1893-1898

Distinct style characteristics: lots of quick notes, very unsteady sense of rhythm, very dynamic style, light and airy, but also could be loud as needed. His Rag-Time style was very unsyncopated and much like "negro dances" of the early 1890's, or early cakewalks(pre-1895). Put lots of energy into his accompaniments, and showed off what he could do very much. Very well-trained, and well rounded as a pianist, and it's very evident in his playing. Any Berliner record from pre-1897 is pretty much Gaisberg always.

Here are some examples: 
with John Yorke Atlee in 1893.
sort of playing some Rag-Time behind George Gaskin in 1896(on a Berliner)
behind Atlee again in 1893
behind Dan W. Quinn singing "The Band Played On" on a Berliner from 1895


Fred. Hylands, house pianist from c.1897-1905

Distinct style characteristics: If you have a Columbia cylinder from 1898-1901, it's most likely that Hylands is on the piano, if the song is at all Rag-Time related and recorded on a Columbia from 1898 to 1904, Hylands is there on piano. His style was rough, strong, jumpy, rhythmically superior, very Ragged, and just sounded like a style that all the record managers craved. It was more reasonable to work with rhythmically than all of the other styles that Columbia had before 1897. He played broken walking octaves in the left hand, lots and lots of notes, weird chord configurations, lots of tenths and twelfths everywhere, had a style that lingered sometimes(as his mind was always in a different place), he drank prominently in the studios, and of course when he did that, his time got more broken and unsteady. Sometimes he sounded frantic, nervous, or anxious. Other times he sounded slow, careless, and vain. He was a true saloon pianist, but he was a little more "classy" than the stereotype somehow.

Here are some examples: 
an 1899 take and 1903 take of "Turkey in the Straw" with Billy Golden
Behind Joe Belmont in 1903
behind George Schweinfest in 1903
behind Arthur Collins in earlier-1905.
behind Charles P. Lowe in 1901

I hope you enjoyed this! 

More on Columbia Rag-Time vs. Edison Rag-Time

Since the UCSB website is working again, I will continue my post from yesterday evening. I meant to showcase these two records by the Peerless Orchestra yesterday:
here's "Ma Tiger Lily" by the Peerless Orchestra, 1900

It was also intended that I use their version of "Whistling Rufus" from 1899(with an introduction by Arthur Collins)

These are both very tasteful selections of Rag-Time chosen by Frank Banta. The renditions(there's two takes on the page!) of "Whistling Rufus" are especially fantastic, because of the very syncopated melodies paired with the straight march melodies of the song. That was something that the Columbia orchestra didn't do too often, as much as Banta did with the Edison orchestra. Also what I meant to share yesterday were a few more of Banta's and Collins' brown wax cylinders. 
This first one is one that Len Spencer also recorded with Fred Hylands around the same time(if not in the same month or so!)and on the list of Columbia cylinders from my last post, you can actually see it listed. 
Here's "All I Wants Is My Chickens", from late-1898(by Collins with Banta)
It's just about as good as Rag-Time on cylinders could get from pre-1900, and Banta's playing can be very well dissected on this one, more than usual. You can actually hear him hit a fifth on the last chord(which was something that was characteristic to his playing!), and you can actually hear all of those bass notes, more so than many brown wax Edison cylinders. 
I would like to hear Spencer and Hylands' version of the song though, that would certainly make for a fascinating comparison. If anyone has the brown wax Columbia of "All I Wants Is My Chickens" by Len Spencer, comment on this post!(the catalog number is 7446). 

This next Collins and Banta selection is a fantastically hot Rag number entitled "Lam Lam Lam", recorded in 1901*just a nerdy Rag-Time note, this song was written by  Benjamin Jerome, the composer of the "A Bunch of Rags" medley in 1898, and it's not Ossman's!*. 
Banta really plays his tail off on this one! Not every note is clearest, but you can certainly hear how he's playing everything! This is just about how hot Banta could get on Edison's piano, and all his musical traits are present. I have heard this record countless times, and am still hearing things I didn't hear before. Just as I'm writing this, I just noticed this audible deep note at about 2:05-06. Banta hits the deeper note of the octave first, then the higher note, almost like Hylands did on hundreds of Columbia records. There's so much to hear on this cylinder, and it takes a few listens to really get the gist of what Banta plays. 

Meanwhile, at Columbia--- Collins began working there in 1901, starting with working with 

Yes, that guy. Aside from working with Natus, Collins made some fantastic Rag-Time records with Fred Hylands, in 1901 and 1902. 
It's when you can hear records like this one:
Collins singing Cole and Johnson's "My Castle on the Nile" in 1902
That's pretty wild for Hylands, but not the most he'd been before that. He did show off his style on this cylinder by playing lots of broken walking octaves. It's somewhat amazing really, the way Hylands plays on this one is nothing less of genius. 
Hylands must have been showing off on the last one, like he usually did, but a little more so that usual on that one. In 1901-1903, Collins and Hylands did turn out some excellent Rag-Time records. There are one's like this from 1901. 
Like this one,
and of course, this one.
There's not a way to choose which one if better than the others, as they're all perfect examples of genuine Rag-Time. Yes, I know, you get a white singer, and a white pianist, but you do get "Chicago Professor" playing Rag-Time freely as he would, with not much changed from his "very 1896" Rag style(if you know what I mean...). As I mentioned in my last post, I mentioned that Hylands also was at Leeds in 1903. In bringing Leeds back to the picture, you get records like this one, from 1903. Now this is a weird one. It's Collins with the "Leeds Orchestra", which could have composed of many known or unknown musicians. One thing is for sure, Hylands was their pianist. There is not a doubt that Hylands would have been dragged in to Leeds rather than Banta, only because Banta was leading the Metropolitan orchestra still in '03, and was still Edison's regular pianist. Having him work for Leeds would have been far too much work than he already bore. This Leeds record has a fantastic piano part, and for some odd reason, it's pretty much the loudest instrument in the whole ensemble(other than the flutes). That's one thing that also indicates Hylands on the piano, also because the tempo for the song and the sense of rhythm are far too good to be anyone like Banta or Albert Benzler(it couldn't be Benzler anyway, but he's an option because he was Banta's sub at Edison in 1903.)  Columbia's house orchestra in this time was also a great source for Rag-time, as they turned out tunes like "Dixie Girl"(which you can hear here.)"Peaceful Henry", "Virginia Skedaddle", "HoneySuckle and the Bee"(you can hear it on a Climax record here!) and many more great Hylands arrangements. 
Hylands led the orchestra every time they made recordings, no matter who it was who did the arrangement, as he's loud, pushy with tempo, demanding of attention. That could certainly he said with the record of "HoneySuckle and the Bee", as for some reason, they go into a little bit of a tango time section at the end, that had to be of the devising of Fred Hylands(because it's not in the written music!).
Now I meant to share this cylinder yesterday, and it's that cylinder with this piece on it:

Yep, that's it. I wish I owned a copy of the original sheet music, but I don't ,and I haven't any friends who might have it. Anyhow, enough explaining, here's Hylands' almost mess of arrangement of his own, self-published, "Darkey Volunteer(s)" recorded in mid-1898(excuse the home recording just after the music ends...). 
There's so many weird things that went into the making of this piece of music, and the creation of this recording. 

One: Hylands hadn't had the means to publish the tune until 6 months after he wrote it.
Two: He didn't have anyone who wanted to publish it, so in order to solve that problem, he had  to do it all himself, EVERYTHING. 
Three: He found that after he recorded this with Ossman in about July of 1898, he dedicated it to Ossman, as seen above^^
 Four: He hand-wrote all the arrangement parts for all the members of the orchestra, and they must have just LOVED(sarcastically), having to read those...
It's a hell of an arrangement, and there's  so much going on at the same time that it's hard to keep up with the amount of sounds that are going. But that's the beauty of Hylands and his music, it was all exquisitely tangled up in his mind, until he found a way to make it somewhat less perplexing to the musicians who had to read it. It's still very hard and strange music to read, and to listen to. That's Hylands for ya. 

I'm not really sure it you'd consider "The Darker Volunteer" a Rag-Time piece, but it must have been considered that in its day, and perhaps by the composer himself, who hadn't a title(or a written score) of it until about a month after he had the idea sprouting. Banta was a little less scattered. 

Banta was one who had his idea, and then got to writing it down the night after it came to mind, not letting it linger and somehow recollecting the melodies, after a multitude of harsh drinks. Banta had more music written out, and more arrangements full and ready for the musicians to read. They didn't always fall together so well with the Metropolitan orchestra, such as on this mess here. Yes, that record is pretty much the definition of the music falling apart, but it's still interesting, because if you're listening close enough, you can hear Banta count them off at the beginning, like he did so often.  The problem with Banta leading an orchestra is that he was rushy, and pushed the rhythm sometimes, so that can be uncomfortable to some of the other band members. But minus the tangled up ones like "The Sleighing Party", there are also fantastic Rag/Cakewalk arrangements by Banta, such as his great and very "tight" arrangement of Kerry Mills' lesser known Cake-Walk "Impecunious Davis" recorded in 1901. That is an outstanding early recording of Rag-Time, enough said, Banta did well on that one. 

Well, there's so many more great examples, but I would need to save them for other posts, as I've exhausted much of the material I know of off-the-top-of-my- head, more will come soon! 

I hope you enjoyed this! 

"Professor" Banta and "Professor" Hylands

Fra

Yes indeed, Frank P. Banta, the pianist of Edison who worked himself to death. 

Banta, much like the other early studio pianists, is a very mysterious character as far as the early recording stars go, as his personality is questionable, and his background is also one that has briefly been challenged. The things that his son said in the 1940's are only what a four to eight-year-old recalled, and also what his polite father did, who also wasn't home too much to see his two children. Him being quiet and passive seems somewhat accurate, as there were never any reports of complaints from him, and he continued to work for Edison and Victor until the week that he died. As my friend Ryan Wishner and I discussed last evening, it's hard to know what Banta was really like, though I am convinced by the "introverted" personality he has long been described to have had. I have the feeling that he might have been extremely complicated however, but not in the way of being broken and frustrated at one time, and another time being wild and drunk(that sounds a little more like Fred Hylands!).He must have been complicated in a sort of quiet way, not constantly spreading about his troubles, and demanding for things. He would probably be staring off in the distance often, deep in thought between takes, and would have to be snapped or hollered at to get his attention fully. He would probably work even after the recording days, as he wanted to get work done, other than that he did in the studio. 


Now to refer to the title of this post. I noticed in one of my sources researching a little bit on Banta recently(on Professor Bill Edwards' site) that an ad from 1892 suggested Banta to be a "Professor"(and for those of you Rag-Time nerds out there, you know exactly what that means, if not entirely sure of it, it would refer sometimes to a brothel pianist or rough saloon pianist). Reading that struck me, because that connotation being attached to Banta's name is something that could mean a few different things, other than the two things I just listed, and that it was so early on in the era of popular vaudeville accompanists, it is odd. Banta was regarded as the more "proper" of the studio pianists of the 1890's, as he was very well trained(at least said to be by others, not really from his own words... hmm...), also that he was calmly-tempered, and that he was an exceptional bandleader. The title of "Professor'' would not usually be associated by me with Banta, it would more than likely be associated with Fred Hylands. That's, if you're referring to the connotation of brothel pianist with the term. Hylands would(and could be to many) be considered as a "Chicago Professor". Why? Well, Hylands got his start playing on his own in Chicago, wandering around, and playing at saloons, small vaudeville houses, and yes, brothels. This is why he was so loud, and also why his style was so much like that of the style that some described by those who went to Chicago in the years after the World' Fair in 1893. It's a very distinct style that can be heard the best on any record of any sort of "coon song" on the Columbia label from 1898-1904. 

Banta was able to play Rag-Time just as wildly as Fred Hylands, even if he wasn't really known for doing so. He probably thought doing that used too much energy for a single take, as there were plenty more takes from other singers he had to do, saving his energy for all takes was his strategy. Even with all of this supposed "culture" from Banta's playing, he was still able play things like this here. Or like these two here:
https://ia902605.us.archive.org/27/items/GoWayBackAndSitDownByWillF.Denny1901/GoWayBackAndSitDown1901_64kb.mp3

https://ia802503.us.archive.org/33/items/WillFDenny/WillFDenny-AintDataShame.mp3

These cylinders back up the "professor" title somewhat, especially the last one listed. It is odd, Banta played "Ain't Dat a Shame" very well and Ragged, more so than expected, but it's not nearly the same as Hylands' version. 
Here's Hylands' with Bob Roberts.
Hear! The differences are so obvious, and are great in their own ways. Banta could get pretty ragged sometimes, not on every record he's playing Rag-Time, but on many of them. He starts off pretty tame, and plays some ragged sections here and there, until toward the second verse, he begins to get wild and all over the place, almost speeding ahead of the singer. This sequence is very much so on his takes with Silas Leachman playing Ben Harney's "Mr. Johnson Turn Me Loose". He plays exactly how I described the sequence. 
Another thing about Banta, is that he probably also heard Ben Harney play onstage in the mid-1890's, just as Hylands did, and was inspired even more to play syncopated cake-walks and "coon songs", as even when he can be heard playing one of Harney's songs, you can hear the inspiration. I thought for a long time that it was Hylands on the takes of "Mister Johnson" by Leachman, but come to find out that the wild and shaky Rag-Time playing was by the supposedly "more proper" Frank P. Banta. One thing Banta could never get right about playing Rag-Time was keeping a steady tempo throughout. You can hear on many records that he was on that he could keep a moderate cake-walk tempo at first, but by the last part of the record, the speed would be much faster(and NO! It's not just because of running out of time on the records!). 

Another thing that gives away the title of "Professor" for Banta is the fact that he played fifths in his left hand octaves. That is very strange to me. That was a characteristic of mid-western/southern rag players, and Banta was from New York. Hmm... I think he was in Chicago at one point, so that might be a clue. Here is one example of Banta playing quite a lot of fifths:
http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/100002497/Pre-matrix_B-3354-I_need_the_money
It's very weird that he did that, because that is something that could be expected from Hylands' playing more than Banta's. I haven't heard Hylands play that too much in his left hand, but he had the just as interesting and queer habit of playing walking octaves.  Hylands had the best sense of rhythm of all the early house pianists, Banta comes second, if not last or the same as the others. It sounds slightly biased I know, but Hylands really was his own category of weird when it comes to the early house pianists. Banta was kind of the same way, but he had the same sense of rhythm that Fred Bachmann, Gaisberg, Christopher Booth, and Albert Benzler had(though Benzler's rhythm was worse than the others somewhat...). 
I still don't understand where Banta playing fifths came from. It was obviously part of his playing style, but I don't know where it could have come from, it might be from how he just learned to play the piano. Doing that might have been a habit he never got rid of that he had since the beginning of playing. It certainly wouldn't be something that a piano teacher in the 1870's would approve of at all. I would imagine that a piano teacher of Banta's probably would have hit his hands in anger at seeing that he had the habit of playing fifths in octaves. Banta also played broken octaves in the right hand sometimes, which must have been an imitation of Hylands, as there's not a doubt in my mind that they had both heard each other play, either on records, or at shows. Banta tried to imitate Hylands' "boogie" sounding style by playing broken octaves in the right hand and pairing that with slightly syncopated chords in the left hand, to give the effect that Hylands' broken octaves had. He probably couldn't get how that was done, or thought it was too frivolous. You can hear a great example of this at around 2:02-2:03 on this record here. I believe that there was also another example of this on one of the cylinder by Will F. Denny toward the beginning of this post as well. 
It's also funny that Dan Quinn called Hylands "Professor'' on a few occasions, which must have made him smile from the piano, you a hear that here(it's transferred too fast though...). Now that's accurate for a thousand reasons! Hylands is also pretty drunk on this one also(hear him having way too much fun laughing from the piano chair!). Quinn also called Banta that on some records, in fact, since Quinn preferred having Banta as his pianist, he must have meant the more respectable connotation of the term for Banta. With Hylands, he probably meant the opposite, even though Hylands probably thought of it either way. Hylands was a freak, Banta was a more moderate version of that. 

I hope you enjoyed this!