Picture analysis and deconstructing Frank Banta's style

Now that we have a much clearer picture of Fred Hylands, it be time to go back and look at the studio pictures with unknown pianists and pick him out. That infamous Columbia picture now makes much more sense because of that clear picture of Hylands, because we can now all come together in seeing that the pianist in the background is indeed Hylands. 

Despite now being able to fully see that the pianist is Hylands, we still can't yet answer how he changed so much from that time to the time of the exhibition picture: 

Even with that rather amazing change, we still cannot answer the question of how. I guess we can call this dilemma one of the many Rag-Time mysteries that us record scholars and Rag-Timers have to solve. We know that he looked pretty rough toward the end of his life, thanks to the two new pictures, and I guess such awful times while at Columbia would be a reason for this. More and more we are realizing that Hylands was truly an 1890's character, despite the "second-wind" he caught in the 1900's performing on Broadway and in Vaudeville. We know also that this second go around he had after 1900 slimmed him out over time, which is good, but this slimming down was forced on him by illnesses and constant touring(he toured in the mid west starting in 1905 and ended around 1909). It must have been a great help that he was a theater director in this period of time as well. 

Just to really get into finally proving this thing once and for all, here's a detail of the picture:

Now that we're pretty certain his hair was vibrant red, we now look to the more minute details. 

Notice the same long sloped ears on both pictures(it's hard to see in the c.1897 picture...)

Take note of the flushed areas around the cheekbones, there appears to be that in both pictures. In the 1897-ish picture the shadows are at just about the line where these flushed cheeks would be visible, and despite those dark shadows, we can still see signs of variation in color. One thing I've been trying to figure out in the handful of weeks I've had this new picture drawing new cartoons of Hylands, is whether those flushed cheeks were speckled with freckles, which they may very well have been, but thanks to re-touching we can't tell. 

It's been a part of my descriptions of Hylands since the beginning, that crooked mouth he had, and it truly was a sight to behold it turns out(it's especially weird in the exhibition picture for some reason).The few times he spoke on records he was hard to understand, and since he did do some singing(if you at all are skeptical of this, think of his role as a Broadway performer, this would require that he sing, and occasionally do some tricky footwork believe it or not), his voice(the one we assume to be his)carried surprisingly well for an early recording star. In the 1897-ish picture we see the "better side" of that weird mouth, but if you really look at both pictures it's the same awkward structure. This really leads me to think he had some kind of Winston Churchill like speech impediment, especially if one side, as can be observed, drooped downward. It's rather funny actually how clearly that droopy side of his mouth can be seen in the exhibition picture in exactly the same way in the 1912 picture. 

Now I don't think I need to say anything about that curious nose, it pretty much explains all that needs to be said in the pictures. I must say though, that curious nose of his looks much better in profile(1897 picture). Again, he had a really weird profile. Of all these performers I draw in cartoons, his profile is the weirdest looking of them all, I have yet to see a profile as magnificent as well as comical as Hylands'. 

Thanks to the picture of his sister Etta, we know that those pleading droopy eyes ran in the family.

Etta had a little bit of that weird mouth thing, but at least it manifested rather gracefully on her, rather than a little out of whack with Fred. 

It's still hard to beat those desperate looking eyes, even though they look made to wear strong gold pince-nez glasses. He looks like his eyesight was crap. Not often do people look like that have bad eyesight, but when you can see it, you know it. With Hylands, it appears his bad eyesight was ever visible. With those likely ocean blue eyes sunken in shadows, usually they would be exaggerated by glasses, as for example the way they are in the exhibition picture. You can see the shadows over those wide eyes in the 1897 ish picture that are ever present in the other pictures definitively identified as Hylands. 

I guess there's no more need to debate who that pianist is in that 1897-ish studio picture, even with the baggage of change of his figure from that to the exhibition picture, we can now be assured that he worked for Columbia some time in 1897. Now that we are assured this, we can go on to say that he worked at Columbia during the day and did his shows and management at Pastor's theater by night. Recall that he lived across the street from Pastor's in 1897 and 1898, so he was conveniently located for sure. 

Now to move to a similar subject matter, Frank P. Banta. 

Such a kind and warm face...

Within the past week or so, I've been digging into Santa Barbara's new transfers, as there are so many new ones it's entirely overwhelming. There's one in particular that has been sparking new ideas about Banta's playing. I've said a lot about Banta's style in the past, since he's more well known, and has a distinct style that's near as outstanding as Hylands'. Before I get into the analysis, here's the specific record I'm talking about: 

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder17123

It's an outstanding example of brown wax rag-time, just need to get that out first. This record is a classic example of Banta's entirely solid and well-founded syncopated style. It helps that the performer is Billy Golden, so then it is assured that the song will be folksy and full of itinerant aspects. This particular selection brings out the weirdest of Banta, and not would I have thought I'd be saying that about Banta. According to most records we've heard with Banta's accompaniment, they're pretty restrained and not nearly as wild as those rough folk characteristics of Hylands. This particular record is outstanding from other Banta records because of a significant mistake he makes. 

WHAT! 

Yes indeed, Banta makes a few significant mistakes here. 

These mistakes are actually the same issue had more than once. Only three times have I heard Banta make this mistake he makes on this record. On this record, he completely gets stumped by Golden's adding and subtracting of measures. This is no a bad thing however, it's not something to look at in a negative light. This sort of thing is what adds eccentricity and uniqueness to Banta's playing, even though(in this case), it may be the fault of Golden rather than of Banta. The song itself is really simple with melodies, and has little variation in chord changes and melodic progression, so that already is a sign of its folk classification, and Banta luckily does nothing but enhance the nature of this song. The first half of the record is not nearly as interesting as the second half. Most interesting part is perhaps what Banta does in the extended vamp between the whistling solo and the second verse. This is where the big mistake lies. Banta had likely assumed the vamp would only go for a certain number of bars, an even amount, but Golden elongates it and audibly throws Banta off at 1:40-1:45. Notice how the melody and chord changes are different this time around from the first time. There's the mistake. It's unintended variations, but if you sit down and really try to dissect it, it's actually really interesting, despite the jarring break in the nice steady rhythm. Also note how Banta plays non-syncopated riffs in his extended vamp before the melodic mistake, and how he stays on a "drone note" in the bass. That means that he's only playing a single note throughout the beats of the entire vamp. I have heard Banta do this before, which is curious, because it somewhat corresponds with his written music. This "drone note" concept is something that was unique to Banta, in terms of studio pianists, and it's a really telling characteristic. I'm not exactly sure where he would have acquired this odd habit, but it's likely a manifestation of the long-standing banjo imitation paired with his entirely itinerant musical upbringing. 

Take his "Ragged William" for example. There are hints of his "drone note" tendency in the piece, as well as his weird counting of rhythm and measures. So could it be possible that Banta was, at his musical core, more itinerant than Hylands? They all said that Banta was truly gifted(Dan W. Quinn for example), with perfect pitch and the ability to play anything having heard it once, and in any possible key. These are characteristics that yield a natural musical talent that would require little training from the start. Yes, Banta must have had some training, but in his case, he likely had little of it and he refused to rid of oddly acquired habits. Where's another example of this?

Just to point out another example of this extra measure nonsense, here's a 1901 example with Arthur Collins: 

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder5245

The issue is at exactly the same place as the Golden record, the vamp between the first verse and the chorus. 

Now this whole thing may just be an example of the singer and accompanist just disconnecting for a moment, but the combined nature of Banta's overall music writing and common tendencies, it actually opens up many more possibilities that we normally wouldn't think about with Banta. 

In keeping with the theme of hot Banta records, Santa Barbara recently put up another great take of "Go Way Back and Sit Down" by Denny:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder5275

Both takes are absolutely fantastic, but the second one is the new transfer recently put up online. In this new alternate take, it seems Banta almost embodies the slightly exaggerated and pushy melodic style that was characteristic of Hylands and his Indiana style. Now it seems that like Hylands, Banta's style could change here and there, and why that is I would be afraid to say. Unlike Hylands, Banta wasn't an alcoholic. Banta was clean living as far as anyone knows. With the amount of respect I have for Banta, I'd hate to throw around any theories assuming such habits. This is especially so when considering his horrid asthma and weak stature. If anyone has any ideas as to why Banta's playing varied here and there, please throw in your input in the comments! 

As much as we know about Banta, he's still pretty mysterious in many aspects. We have no idea what he was like as a person. And there are no hints either. At least with Hylands we have a few letters and quotes to work with to piece together a hyper-intelligent eccentric who was rather egotistical, or a typical theatrical-artistic type if you will. With Banta there is nothing to work with, all we have are technical descriptions of the guy, and hundreds of records with only accompaniment. That sweet smile of his though must be a hint that he was a pretty kind and loving man, and this can be supported with the amount of praise studio workers had for him and how much open mourning there was when he died. He was obviously well respected, and someone like Edward Issler would have found much merit and charm in him, especially in the both of them being part of musicians' unions. 

Before I close out, I'd just like to say that it's interesting that Banta and Hylands had those inward poking cheeks. Usually when I see that I think back to that picture of Georgie Emerson, looking all beat-up and drug ridden. 

Usually such a characteristic leads me to assuming a bit of a drug dependency. With Hylands was know this is true, as he died at 40 for a reason. Banta was already not well-built physically, so maybe Banta needed something to mellow out that rigid intensity...

Sit on that for a while.

Hope you enjoyed this! Sorry it's been a month since the last post...Summer has begun, so hopefully that means more posts.

Two Indiana women and more discoveries

*I'm back!*

Who's this lovely lady? 

Well, thanks to the great-nieces of Fred Hylands once more, they dug up this fantastic photograph of Fred's sister from around 1912 or so. Just as expected from Etta, she looks so much like Fred, or just a better-looking female version of her brother. She's very pretty, and it now is clear why she had marital issues, and why many men tried to get at her in a rather short period of time. She even has the messed up teeth that Fred had! No glasses though, that's all-right. 

Another thing, she appears to be rather tall, which makes sense. After  seeing this picture, not only do I have a better understanding of what the two siblings looked like, but also makes me want ever more to hear her play piano. Of course, she couldn't have been too different from her brother, since they essentially had the same musical background...though with her it's more likely that she gained better skill in technicality, since I would assumed her to be just enough more disciplined to gain more essentials of the basics. Though when I say that, I'm not saying much, since it's obvious these two were stubborn, according to the lives they lived.  

Her hair appears to be just as wild and curly as Fred's was, according to the picture below:

Of course, due to the issues we often have with black and white photographs, I'm not safely sure what to say her hair colour is. I want to say light brown to red, but I'm not sure. Whatever it is, it's the same colour as Fred's. Hmm, so maybe his hair was red? or at least kind of red. Wish we could figure this out better. One thing is for sure, long straight profiles ran in the family, and so did being tall and curly hair. 
This fantastic picture of Etta was not the only thing that the sisters sent me, that also sent a link to a professional picture of Fred's wife Marie.
This picture is dated 1912

So now that I'm able to see pictures of the two women in Fred's life, I actually have to edit something that I said a while ago. This picture above would indicate that the picture on Fred's sheet music from 1899 is actually who I thought it was initially. 

That's Marie, not Etta. It makes sense now.
Something that you might notice about the picture of her from 1912 that I though was kind of funny is hoe she's wearing lots of makeup. You can see that there's none in the 1899 picture of her. But that's not surprising at all, since she was a typical gaudy Broadway star of the era. Yes, now that I said that, her husband goes into the same category. She still looks like the type that would cause a stir with the boys at Columbia. 
She and Cal Stewart's wife must have done this when the boys brought them to outings they had, such as Steve Porter's yacht races, and those trips to the Waldorf in May of 1898 and 1899. 
Either way, it would be great if we could hear Etta play, or Marie sing, since they were pretty popular at what they did. 




This brings me to the other Indiana woman I was to discuss. 

This lovely lady is Verdi Karns. 
She was born in 1882 in Bluffton Indiana. Where's Bluffton? Well, actually it's right next to Fort Wayne, where Fred Hylands was from. So with that being said, we would expect her music to sound similar. This is entirely so, in fact, it is to the point of where it sounds exactly like if I were to transcribe any of the records Hylands improvises on. After reading up on her recently, she was essentially another Fred Hylands, a child prodigy, who did everything herself, writing her first rag at age 16, only to create the cover all herself, and publish all her pieces as well. She played in local orchestras and concert halls from age 13, becoming a popular favourite by age 17.Her most popular rag(if any were to be considered as such), was "The Bluffton Carnival Rag", composed in 1899, and written in the signature Indiana style, that just so happens to sound identical to Fred Hylands' playing. Since she attended the namesake of this rag, it's likely that Fred and Etta Hylands played there in the late-1880's when she was a little girl. With that, she probably heard Fred play violin or piano, in that strange and Ragged style he did. So it's no wonder that her rags sounded so much like Hylands' playing. Since I keep talking about it, here are two of her three rags:
"The Bluffton Carnival Rag"

"Ragamuffin"

To illustrate this point, listen to three recordings where Hylands sounds like the composition of these rags("Ragamuffin" particularly has that feel):
(of course there are plenty more examples out there!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgqBFQGXWEc&t=49s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxo1FJev4G4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cXPziKyIEA&t=1s

See! They're so similar! Of course, things like this aren't too surprising, since Karns and Hylands were from the same region, and were literally from the next town over from each other. This is something that us collectors come across rather often, so it doesn't come as a surprise, though how often do we get to hear a pianist from a certain region from sheet music, and get to compare it with a recording star from exactly the same time? Not too often does this happen, particularly as early as the 1890's. It seems little strange however that Karns played the same way that Hylands did, at exactly the same time, and Hylands had been removed from Indiana since 1892 by the time he was recording. Not to mention that Karns was ten years younger than Hylands, and had only been playing piano since about age 7 or so, which would have been since 1889. I guess it makes sense. It's not far removed from Hylands' style that developed only a few years before that or so. That means that this distinct style must have been deeply rooted in the area of northeastern Indiana and western Ohio, so much so that even two musicians born a decade apart in the area would sound almost exactly the same. 



Also! I have been meaning to share this interesting recording for a long while, and it's a real good one to study! It's a 1901 Climax record of a medley of Coon songs by Ruby Brooks, or that's what it's supposed to be anyhow. It actually turned out to be recorded as something really different than that. It turned out to sound more like a piano solo with scant banjo accompaniment. Since this is a Climax record(technically Columbia), that pianist ought to be Fred Hylands! 
Here you go:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By7WuiOUrg7YamN3RzZnazBLMkp3aV9YNFprNFREVFU2aFJJ/view?usp=sharing
Where's the banjo? That's the point here.
I don't think they meant for the record to sound this way, but it just happened to turn out that way. 
Anyhow, this recording is really significant because it's the closest thing we've got so far to a piano solo by Hylands, of course, that's only true if none of those other solos we've heard aren't actually of him playing.
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/12000/12956/cusb-cyl12956d.mp3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wjzWHXShCI

I really want to think that the first one is an audition record for Columbia in 1897. Of course, it's not likely, but anything's possible on these terms. These piano solos scattered around all over the place are interesting to listen to, because oftentimes they are actually some of the best-made recordings out there, all the more reason to debunk the misconceptions people have about recording the piano in the brown wax era.  These unknown solos are often the most unusual sounding things to us, since we're not really used to hearing just piano on these records:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder12994

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder13135

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder13166

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder9145

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder10638

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder10620

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder10626

Most of these aren't very good, but there are occasionally ones that get us wondering about their origins. Some of them sound like commercial recordings, like the "Greater San Francisco" march brown wax. Which was actually recorded around 1906, as per the date of publication of the piece. The recording of "Sobre Las Olas" is just as nice, and well recorded as well. These are important strange recordings to study, even though some of them are less than mediocre. Luckily, the good ones in the mix a really good!

Haven't too much to say, but I'm sorry about taking so long of a gap since my last post. It's been real busy and stuff. 

Hope you enjoyed this! Next post will be longer and won't be so long awaited. 

A Zon-O-Phone dilemma and the search for more pianists

After exchanging a lot of conversation and ideas with Charlie Judkins within the past week or so, he and I have been trying to figure out more pianist names as far as these records go, of which not much luck has been had by us in this matter. Two names were found, but they were supposedly Victor pianists, which is just what we need to hear, since there was already a glut of pianists there in 1900 to 1905.  These two names were actually those of two women, unknown ladies that have no significance in Rag-Time communities and publications, which is unfortunate. These ladies are not well or highly praised, despite their mentioning specifically under a Victor section in a New York Newspaper. Nothing detailing these ladies has been found thus far after just seeing their names. Other than that, we haven't come across a treasure trove of pianist names yet. That will hopefully come later, in wherever one of us happens to find it. Victor and Zon-O-phone will remain the hardest to tell as far as pianists go with early disc records. With that, Lambert will stand as the hardest to tell with cylinders.  

Even with all this confusion, I think I have come to a realization. I was listening to a take of "The Nigger Fever" by Frank Mazziotta, which has some of the strangest rhythmic patterns I've ever heard on an early piano accompaniment record. With all of this strange left hand playing, I listened to two early Arthur Collins Edison cylinders just afterward, these two in fact:

Collins' 1898 cylinder of "Zizzy Ze Zum Zum"

and his 1898 recording of "All I Wants is my Chickens"

We have known for a while that Frank P. Banta is on both of these cylinders, with all of the evidence present on many later Victors from 1901 to 1903, and my previous explanations about this. After several listens to these records back to back, I realised that the pianist making up those strange yet very syncopated left hand things was Banta! The pianist identification on this record seemed irritatingly hard, until I inadvertently listened to the records to create the solution comparison for the issue. I cannot share the link to this Zon-O-Phone of "The Nigger Fever", in order to respect the one who shared it with me, but I will describe what is heard and why it sounds similar to the two brown waxes linked above. The strange rhythm patterns are heard primarily on the first one, "Zizzy Ze Zum Zum" in this case, which immediately caught my ears, as it wasn't identical rhythmically, but the similarities and touch to it were suspiciously present. These were all slight and strange characteristics of...

Frank P. Banta! 

(this is a sketch I did of him recently, really trying to perfect his strangely structured profile, I'm still trying to get it right...)

His attributes all check in on "Zizzy Ze Zum Zum", from that strange rhythmic pattern, that can be heard mostly at the solo sections and also at the choruses, to the fifths that Banta was known for playing on Victors. The final chord on that record involves a big and loud fifth, which really sounds like all of those early Victors, and on this 1899 cylinder with an unspecified label(this cylinder is still up for guesses on the pianist). It is still a strange and idiosyncratic thing that Banta played fifths n his left hand, since he was not a mid-western pianist nor native, which is usually where that originates from(from states such as Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri). The second cylinder listed "All I wants is my Chickens", has all of the fifths that is on the Zono of "The Nigger Fever", and even some of that strange rhythmic thing, which can be heard in the Choruses and very well at around 1:22 to 1:25. That very rhythm is exactly the same as the strange thing on the Zono of "The Nigger Fever", just played a little differently, and better yet, earlier on in the history of Rag-Time. 

What does all of this lead to? Well, it confirms that an Edison and Victor pianist played for Zon-O-phone in 1900-1902. This gives a little more insight into the queer and well-hidden studio of Zon-O-phone, but that still doesn't explain the brief period after that where Hylands worked there, but that's a different story that I have already addressed in previous posts. As always, I am not entirely sure if this pianist that I mean here is Frank Banta or Fred Bachmann, as it's one of the two. Remember that Bachmann was the only other studio pianist at Edison who moved to Victor after 1900. In this case however, it seems more likely to be Banta, since the two Collins cylinders were recorded so early on(1898), and Banta was known already to have been a Rag-Time studio pianist(so was Hylands as we know), and had several years of pre-ragtime on Hylands by performing with Vess Ossman. That don't mean anything when talking about Hylands' Rag-Time status however. In many ways, Hylands had the best amount of luck and status in the early(white)Rag-Time community. 

Since I took a few listens to "All I Wants is my Chickens" while writing this, I realised that the ending solo on it is almost identical in phrasing and feel as the Denny cylinder of "The Change Will Do you Good" on an unconfirmed label. Really take a listen! They are freakishly similar. 

We are still to yet find more names associated with Zon-O-phone, since it seems now that they had a flaming pan full of hot pianists, which included Banta and Hylands. 

With all of this said, it makes these two wild Zono's up for some more educated guesses and listening:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi8K8iKZyXM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0u8HiXdrtI

(these were recorded on the same day, so whoever it is, it's the same pianist on both of them, one guess leads to two in this case, which helps a whole lot.)

Another matter I would like delve into is the time that Fred Hylands was actually hired to work at Columbia. it remains very hard to tell and pick out a timeframe that Columbia hired Hylands, even though the date range is early 1897 to early 1898. It can't be late-1896 since he was not really in New York until around that time, and it can't be later than early 1898 because he's mentioned in early 1898 issues of The Phonoscope, and the piano accompaniment had a polar shift in style in late-1897 at Columbia. After discussing the matter over with Charlie, we really think that he was hired by Columbia in earlier 1897, more like March of that year or so, earlier than we could have assumed, since he was reportedly working as a music director and stage accompanist at Pastor's Theater, and others as well. Since that was the case, he must have been in the studio by day, and by night was working in the pit and herding theatrical cats. The two records that have us suspicious of him working there early on are these two puzzling records: 
Billy Golden's "Uncle Jefferson" from earlier 1897

and "The Jealous Blackbird" from around the same time in 1897

The Billy Golden record listed above is still notoriously hard to identify the pianist on, until Charlie and I sorted it through, picking out small sections and comparing them to other records we heard with Hylands from several years later. The recording of  "Uncle Jefferson" particularly has many of the more idiosyncratic aspects of Hylands' style, which include the very "dotted" syncopated patterns and the heaps of tenths and twelfths. The one thing that really got us suspicious is the final rolled chord and tenth, which is something that was distinct to Hylands on Columbia records. If you're listening close enough to "The Jealous Blackbird", you'll notice that there's some of that rolled chord and tenth thing there too, which is very weird, but somehow they stick out. A record that comes to mind that has this tenth with a fifth and a chord ending is a strange 1899 cylinder by Len Spencer and Hylands of "My Josephine"(of which I can't share with you, sorry...). Spencer does a whistling chorus after the first verse, and after the whistling chorus, Hylands plays a short solo, where just at the end of it, he hits exactly the same thing as he does at several parts of "The Jealous Blackbird" with the fifth thing and ends on exactly the same chord on both records. It's starting to pull itself together it seems, as the similarities are beginning to make more sense, and are untangling just a little. It seems that the pianist on  the 1897 records of "The Jealous Blackbird" is the same as Len Spencer's 1899 recording of "My Josephine", which tells you a lot, and that that pianist had been there for a while by 1899. Much or how the pianist plays behind Spencer on "My Josephine" is actually similar to how Hylands' "You Don't Stop the World from Goin Round", was formally written believe it or not, so that really throws up a frantic red flag about the pianist here. 

The motion stands that Hylands worked at Columbia in earlier 1897, until we find something that contradicts all aspects of the statement. 

Hope you enjoyed this! Sorry about posting for so may days, school has been taxing and time-consuming this week, and hopefully I'll get to post more frequently this next week.  

Arthur Pryor, Ben Harney, Silas Leachman and more interesting analyses

Sorry it's been over a week since my last post, I have not only gone to another Rag-Time festival, but also began my new year in school. The school part is not exactly the most exciting, nor the most enjoyable part of what happened this week. I left my last post just prior to my going away to the Sutter Creek Rag-Time Festival, which was very fun and full of great music geeks just as usual. It's always fun to see everyone again, all the musicians, and friends of the performers just the same. I cannot thank Charlie Judkins enough for being able to put up with all of my antics and later being able to stay over at my home. He really made my weekend worth while!  All of the performers really made that weekend so much fun!

With the three days of festival and two more of staying over, Charlie and I listened to many records, and played many of these rare songs that only he and I have really studied deeply. Since just before this weekend, I had been awaiting to hear the only piano solo that Arthur Pryor made. Rather than just thinking that this is probably just another boring solo of a tune that none of us find important, it must be taken into consideration that Pryor's Rags are actually great examples of a strange and very syncopated style that I often highlight on this blog. Of all early recording stars who wrote music, Pryor's rags are among the most interesting(other than Hylands' and Burt Green's of course!). They kept many of these old traditions of Rag-time playing into the later 1900's and early 1910's to some extent. Knowing that Pryor made a piano solo in 1900 could unlock many unknown doors into how the early style of Rag-Time was really played, and Pryor being from rural Missouri says all that needs to be said in this matter. Being surrounded by the early studio pianists like Banta and Hylands also gives us hints. Just to further back up that statement, Pryor made his only piano solo on the same day that Banta made his infamous solo of "Hello My Baby", that really tells you that Banta and Pryor were at least in the same studio on the same day, to make two infamously hard-to-find piano solos. 
As of now, I am still anxiously awaiting to hear the solo, of which it is indeed out there in someone's collection. Once I hear it, I will report the details. 

Charlie and I often discussed the interesting background of Silas Leachman throughout much of the five days seeing each other. Leachman had a background that was full of mysteries, and interesting theories. 

Leachman(c.1895)

He and I have concluded that Leachman was a traveling minstrel in various shows in the 1880's, performing in places like Detroit, Fort Wayne, Louisville, and later Chicago. With all of this traveling, Leachman stopped and performed in the hometowns of stars of the generation after Leachman, such as Fred Hylands, and Ben Harney. Leachman's recordings to this date remain among the best period examples of true and accurate imitations of black performers in the late-19th century. That may sound strange coming from a Len Spencer freak, but really, Leachman has Spencer beat by his accuracy, and it helps that the piano accompaniment on all his records was always great and fitting, regardless of who the pianist is. 

Now, here's the question, did Harney take from Leachman, or did Leachman take from Harney? 

It's hard to know, but since Leachman was a generation older than all of those Rag-Time pianists, it makes this dilemma even harder to solve. Leachman did probably perform in Harney's hometown in the early or mid-1880's, when Harney was just a youth, very bright and curious. With all of this curiosity from Harney, it seems inevitable that Leachman's performance style would have rubbed off on Harney. But of course, the only way to really get an idea of this is to listen to Leachman's rendition of Harney's most popular song for many decades:

http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/100002498/Pre-matrix_B-3355-Mr._Johnson_turn_me_loose

This is great in all ways, and this recording will forever be important to the history of Rag-Time. This is even more so with this theory attached to it. After listening to this record,  the only way to really get a sense of this would be to listen to Harney's 1910's-20's recording of "Good Old Wagon". 

I hate to do this, but who ever is hiding the fifteen or so other cylinders of Harney singing out there, WHY ARE YOU HIDING THEM FROM US?!

Apologies for that... I feel the need to say that finally. Anyway, Harney's recording is very much similar in a lot of ways to the Leachman recordings that we know of, especially that one of "Mister Johnson". I know that I have done the Harney to Spencer comparison before, but from the two other takes I have heard of Spencer's Lambert of "Good Old Wagon", it seems that Spencer is the most similar to Harney in singing style of any of these performers. It seems inevitable that Spencer would have known Harney at some point in the late-1890's, since Spencer made the effort to go and meet all of these singers that he imitated(others include May Irwin, DeWolf Hopper, Barney Fagan, and George M. Cohan). Spencer was also involved in the booking field with Harry Yeager in 1896-1900, and that is the perfect timeframe to have met with all of these pianist and performers like Harney, in fact, this area must have been where he first met Fred Hylands. Yeager not only got him shows as a minstrel, but also was able to introduce him to many great figures of Broadway and of vaudeville. 

I don't know exactly how long Harry Yeager was involved with Spencer, but it was certainly a few years, that began around 1897 it seems. Yeager must have been a great help to Spencer, who was obviously someone too smart for his own good. With this intellect, he was bound to easily lose things and forget things(there is solid evidence of this!), so I have the feeling that Yeager was his sideman before Fred Hylands came along and literally consumed most of his time and living. Fred couldn't keep anything for the same reason, so Yeager was stuck between them as the nightmarish bookkeeper constantly ridden with anxiety and stress. Regardless of all of that, Yeager outlived the others in Hylands' publishing firm. Harry Yeager remains still a mysterious character in the mix of these "Columbia clan" members, even if he was mentioned a few times in The Phonoscope in 1899 and 1900, and I have been able to track him somewhat in census records. 

That's supposedly him in the early-1910's. 

He would have been about in his mid-40's at the time of this picture. That makes sense, considering the age of the others in the publishing firm. Yeager seems like the sort of man who was the best to communicate with when wanting to consult Hylands' firm. Hylands was not often home at reasonable times, as was Spencer, Burt Green was too good-looking and young, but with all of this, Yeager was the "straight-man", or just the regular businessman at the firm. He was the man that you'd've wanted to meet with when you called. You be damned if you met with Hylands himself! 

Yeager's official role in the firm itself remains unclear, though it's certain why he was involved in the first place, as that was the work of Spencer pulling Fred's leg earlier before the firm began. He did have to beg him it seemed. Harry's role might have been for to be the bookkeeper, and just another salesman, even if they had plenty of those. It must be noted that he was also a performer and show organizer, so that gives us some clues. He was clearly organized, and much more of an everyday man than Hylands, Spencer and Burt Green, even if he just happened to also be a singer. Things are yet to unfold about Harry Yeager, and we haven't that much to work with as of now. 

Other than going to Sutter Creek and spending time with Charlie, staying up 'til two in the morning listening to records, and beginning school again, there's not much more I have to say for this post. 

Hope you enjoyed this! 

What Les Copeland heard as a youngster, and some folk Rag-Time

That's the eccentricity Les Copeland.

Many folk Rag-Time enthusiasts know very well of Les Copeland, from his eccentric style, and his very odd personality. 


Now think about this for a moment, what could have Copeland grown up listening to?  He was born in 1887, and was beginning to flourish as a young musician around the end of the brown wax era. Copeland may have been born in the second generation of Rag-Time pianists, but he played much like those born in the first one, for example, Fred Hylands(1872), Ben Harney(1872), Theodore Northrup(1869) or Max Hoffmann(1873). What would have caused this off displacement of style and age? Well, to begin, recordings. These brown wax cylinders that Copeland may have heard when a youngster would be one way to indicate where his early style came from. Yes, I know that he was born in Kansas, and that certainly helps with his style's origins. The more concrete evidence that his style was played many years before his published rags of the early teen's is really the recordings of the late-1890's. It has always been a little suspicious to me that Copeland's style sounded almost identical to Fred Hylands', well, for as long as I have known about Hylands that is. In the extremely helpful and informative book, Rags and Ragtime by Trebor Tichenor and Dave Jasen, it is indicated in a small section this: 

Some of the irregular idiosyncrasies can be heard in those folk performances recorded on 78's[and cylinders] and piano rolls, where undoubtedly a few playing characteristics were lost(probably in the way of bass patterns), but the rag was destined to become more formalized, a disciplined for m of broader and more varied expression. 

There is not a doubt about the section just above that the point of the loss of queer characteristics was present, though since Tichenor knew very little to nothing at all about Fred Hylands, it is not at all surprising that he was not mentioned at all in the introduction section, and on the very broad examination of folk Rag-Time. It must be noted however, that Hylands' accompaniments are the most tangible examples of early folk Rag-Time that exist, and they're not uncommon to find either. You may run across some of Charles Hunter's, Tom Turpin's, Max Hoffmann's or Theodore Northrup's rags, but that is only written, it cannot be heard exactly how the pianist or composer would have played it. It is not the same as putting your head up to a horn and listening to the hands of one of the best accompanists in vaudeville play behind a popular studio star. Another great example of folk Rag-Time is the piano rolls that Les Copeland made in the 1910's. 

Copeland grew up in a similar environment to Ben Harney, and in fact, being in exactly the same area that Brun Campbell was located, the two of them were distant acquaintances, much like Max Hoffmann and Fred Hylands in Chicago. Copeland and Campbell had highly varying styles, though they came from the same area, which is a very strange thing if you think about it,as regional styles were very prominent, and easily an indicator of where a pianist came from. Copeland's style, believe it or not, was more of a Chicago-Indiana-Kentucky style, more than a Kansas and Missouri sort of style. As I'm writing this, I am listening to Brun Campbell's solos, trying to catch similarities to all of the other styles of these other pianists I mentioned, and Campbell seems like an anomaly in this mix, as he was the most rough playing of all of them, and the least showy. Campbell, not surprisingly, sounds the most like a brothel pianist. 

Unlike all of the famous composers and pianists of the early 1910's in New York, Copeland refused the modern ways of "Tin Pan Alley" and remained playing his archaic style which was just as mid-1890's as all the Rag players of the mid-1890's. It is still unknown as to why Copeland's style was specifically 1890's-sounding rather than the typical early "Tin Pan Alley" style that was emerging at the time he was getting his rags published. He might have been listening very closely when all those records were being put out in the late-1890's and early 1900's. He was listening to a pianist who had a similar sense of musical mirth that he did, Fred Hylands. And of course, this did help once he was out touring with the B. F. Keith theater circuit, which, as you might recall, Fred Hylands was part of, starting in c.1893. It is most impossible that Copeland and Hylands would have actually passed by one another, but, the possibility that Copeland had heard many of Hylands' records is highly plausible. 
It is hard to doubt this possibility when you actually hear Copeland's rags:
his rendition of "The Texas Blues" made in 1917

his "Rocky Mountain Fox"

his famous "French Pastry Rag" from 1914

his "Twist and Twirl Rag"
Copeland's "Twist and Twirl Rag" especially shows Hylands influence all over the place, especially with the walking octaves in the left hand, which was a lost tradition by 1914. Also! It must be noted that Copeland ended his rags with a rolled fifth or tenth in the left hand with a right hand chord, which was a tradition that Hylands used on almost everything I have heard him on, from his early records in 1897 to his latest in 1905. 
You can hear records similar to Copeland's Rags above here, with that final chord thing I mentioned:
Hylands with George W. Johnson on "The Laughing Coon", 1898
(ends on a rolled G chord, with a G octave in the bass with an added fifth)

Hylands with Spencer on "Whistling Rufus"1899(skip to 6 minutes for music!)
This one is a fine example of Hylands' will in the left hand, showcasing everything he did with it. I also forgot to mention the habit of interchanging between fifths and octaves in the left hand that was also a similarity. 

"Ain't Dat a Shame" by Bob Roberts with Hylands, 1902
This one gives away one of the prime attributes of Copeland's playing, the lagging and jagged sense of rhythm. It sounds almost too exaggerated, but Hylands was actually making fun of it when he played, because the pianists who came before him at Columbia did that often. Copeland just played that way, and from hearing that from Hylands, it might make a strong connection of these styles. 
Another example of this jagged time paired with great rhythm is on Spencer's cylinder of "My Gal is a High Born Lady" with Hylands from c.January 1898. 

I would love to point out the similarities in Copeland's playing to Hylands and Golden's "Turkey in the Straw", but actually, the only thing I can really find similar on that one would be the walking octaves, and the occasional fifths in the left hand. Hylands plays much more like a true vaudeville pianist on that one, in this case, more in the nature of Mike Bernard. Copeland would have thought of Hylands' playing on that cylinder too showy and broken to be understood by any listener. 
Whatever it was that kept that eccentricity Les Copeland with that old style of Rags, he certainly would have gotten it from somewhere, and it's a style that all Rag-Time pianists and performers now can appreciate, even if they aren't really into the folk-ragtime as much. 


Before I end this post, I must share two records is just heard recently by George Schweinfest and Hylands. The first one I will share is in the collection of a kind friend of mine, who just recently learned of how valuable it is in the sense of piano accompanied records. Anyhow, it's an unusual take of "The Nigger Fever" recorded in 1901:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQf5L0vHyP4
This is a fascinating record, that has so much odd stylings played by Hylands on it! Including almost everything he did, minus the walking octaves though. I must point out that once they got to the section in A flat, I hear a whole lot of fifths in the left hand, and also in the minor section as well. 

The next one is a different take of a record I have used on this blog before. I used the 7-inch version of this before, but now I have tracked down the 10-inch! It's Schweinfest and Hylands playing "A Rag-Time Skedaddle" with some interesting extended repeats, and some fun mistakes!(done by Hylands of course...)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0x33jvo3DY
This record is fantastic, and I love that the final strain is repeated at the end! 
In thinking what to-day is, Hylands was probably high on some kind of drug when they got to making the take just above.

Hope you all had a good 4/20! 

Les Copeland and other eccentric anomalies

Within this past weekend at Sutter Creek California, I learned a few interesting more things about the eccentricity Les Copeland. Most Rag-Timers who know of him know him as Dave Jasen said in Rags and Ragtime , "An anomaly among eccentrics". He was more than that though. He was one who drank like a fish, ate odd edible flowers(how "hippie" of him!), dressed as a cowboy and told western tales, and even had a glass eye! 

He was some freak. More so than any of the other Rag composers or singers I have read about. He was actually known for being a weirdo. It's so funny, he looked like a completely normal guy, but how he wasn't... Just like San Fransisco "Rag-man" Jay Roberts. His Rag style however is where all the other great elements of his personality came into play. He had a style that was distinctly old for the time that he was composing in, as Trebor Tichenor once said, his style was the archaic style of "Rags" from fifteen years prior, as of say 1912. I really love his rags, and I don't think I know any Rag-Timers who dislike them. They were just as weird and filled with an explosion of old and new all over the place. He must have been a wonderful performer to witness do his schtick, as he would dress up in queer clothes sometimes and play in that always weird way of his, with jolty but great rhythm. 

An example of the handful of Copeland cartoons I have done. 

His hand-played piano rolls give us a very good example of how he played, and that odd almost broken rhythm he had, wherever that came from...

Here is his very rare roll of his own "Texas Blues" from 1917:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmpnKggkKXc

See what I mean about the jolty tempo. It was just how he happened to play, it must have been weird having him in the pit with Lew Dockstader's troupe(which is where he was employed in 1911 and 1912. With all the singers and minstrels and whatnot. He was a queer singer and storyteller as well as being a great eccentric and piano roll artist. Here is a link to the listing of the only known recording he made on disc record in 1916:

http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/900001073/Trial_1916-01-27-01-The_old_soaken_bucket_sic

I hate the boys at Victor who decided not to issue this. I absolutely hate who ever's idea it was NOT to issue this record. I always will.

But! One of his more popular rags from 1913 was recorded on a Little Wonder disc in that same year. It's still great, even if it isn't the man himself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOooA1V-Xaw

SO ADDICTING! I really love this record. Not just because of the music, but because Charles Prince is probably conducting the band, and he was really great at arranging and conducting Ragged songs. As he did all the great Rags of the early teen's with his band at Columbia, such as "The Oceana Roll", "Temptation Rag", "King Chanticleer" and so many more! 

Now this is how he would have played it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql7KsdFnH8A

Yep, that's about right. 

The thing about him that made these rags a breeze for him is that, as according to the great Max Morath, he had extremely long hands. This fact can be heard in how many tenths are in the right and left hands of his written music and his unpublished music. That can be seen here on these two pieces by him, the first one unpublished and the second one became one of his most popular pieces:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkHk6068mBw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0mGC9kWAak

On the second one, all of the tenths are actually written out, and can really be seen. His piano roll version of this can be heard here, with that usual jolty and unstable tempo of his:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daehxcVBXZE

It's still a great Rag, that is oftentimes the most heard of Copeland's Rags. I have heard several people play it before, including Tom Brier! He really must have been a great kick to see perform, and sing, and do whatever the heck he was planning on doing when he performed. I'm just really surpised at the fact that the Victor boys dragged him into their studio in 1916. That was when S. H. Dudley(Rous) was still the personnel manager! So is was partially on him for that. That must have been an interesting encounter, having him in their studio. With the notorious weirdo Les Copeland performing one song amid the mix of the other singers on January the 27 of 1916. 

I just want to thank Ryan Wishner and Vincent Johnson for all the great conversation and interesting conversations we had at Sutter Creek last weekend! Thanks for the info Vincent! 

I hope you enjoyed this!