Fiddler Fred and other items of Interest

In the time that has elapsed since my last post, my dear friend Charlie Judkins and I spoke over telephone of Hylands, Banta, Gaisberg, Issler, and even Jay Roberts and Les Copeland. This long conversation was very informative on both ends, and from this, Charlie sent me an amazing mix of newspaper sections relating to Hylands, Burt Green, and Les Copeland. The first thing that was extraordinary about the sections he sent me was something having to do with the first part of the title of this post. I'll give a hint with a cartoon:

Yes, it does look strange to find Fred Hylands playing a fiddle, but apparently, according to this section just below, he did play violin!

Wow! What a program that was! 

But wait a moment, "Master" Fred Hylands playing fiddle at fourteen? What! Hmm, I couldn't get over that when I first read through it. I still can't now, after several days from reading it first through. Since this section clearly indicates that Hylands was an accomplished violinist at just 14, that means that he was a violinist for the rest of his life, as I can recall a piece of his music from 1900 that is a violin part only, which is strange, but now makes sense. Hmm. This opens so many new ideas when thinking about Hylands, as Violin players are notorious for being showy, competitive, and vain. Hmm, that sounds an awful lot like Hylands... I wonder what it was he was playing there, Paganini or something like "Old Dan Tucker". Either way, it well indicates that he was a pianist as well as a Violinist, which is really fascinating. 

Anyway, the next fascinating section was a May 12, 1900 section about a performance out at the Dyker Heights club done by a handful of Columbia minstrels under Len Spencer. 

Yep, that's the majority of the management over at Hylands Spencer and Yeager. When I read that Hylands played bones here, it prompted one of the funniest images in my head. Hylands all in his minstrel garb playing bones, then getting up quick to go and play piano, hilarious!

Yep, that's pretty much the image I saw. So of course, I had to get out my pencils and paper to draw it! 

There are many familiar studio names in that section above, from Len Spencer to William Hooley, so that would indicate that it was a sort of joint performance with Spencer's minstrels(I just knew Hylands performed with Spencer's minstrels!) and just some of his studio friends. Spencer really must have enjoyed Atlee, since he seems to have been somewhat just on the edge of the "Columbia clan", that would indicate that he was a favourite of not only Spencer's but also of the audiences and record-buyers. 

Another of these great sections is a short but interesting advertisement from the Boston Sun from November 17th, 1901:

Looks like a fantastic show! Having Fred Hylands in a show must have been considered a great thing in 1901, as that was the very year he was officially considered one of the top three pianists in vaudeville. It's very interesting to see his name listed in a cast that was not at all related to Columbia and its artists, unlike the previous one. It was in 1901 that he was still prominently working for Columbia, so I bet that he came in to Columbia at least once during the week-long run of the show advertised above. I'm finally starting to understand Hylands' time spacing while working at Columbia. It's beginning to make a little more sense, just have to find more sections like this though. 

Now this next item is a very interesting look into Irene Franklin and Burt Green, which is a much more dramatized telling of their meeting, but regardless, it's a good read for sure. 
https://books.google.com/books?id=Dp3PAAAAMAAJ&pg=PR27&dq=burton+green+irene+franklin&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiJs_S73MXMAhUFHh4KHWprCT4Q6AEIKjAC#v=onepage&q=burton%20green%20irene%20franklin&f=false

There are some fun truthful parts to this tale, but the whole meeting when Irene was sixteen was a myth, as we all know that Green met Irene in about 1906 while working at Huber's for $75 a week, which beats Hylands' salary at Columbia by quite a lot! Burt Green might have been kind and affectionate toward Irene when they first were getting to know each other, but we know that the dates are all wrong from logistics of knowing that Burt was married before he met Irene. This was not at all mentioned in the article above for some reason. Must have been because if any of the truth about Green was mentioned, well, it would be a little less romanticized, even though the idea of him being dissatisfied with his first wife, then finding Irene and splitting with his first wife for her is a pretty good story. Thought it's not exactly the same as the sweet tale told in the article, nor would it be considered as so to readers of the magazine. Think back to what I said about the problems with The Phonoscope with possible myths being told, and rumours being spread, who knows what's right and wrong. 
Anyhow, I am still waiting for my friend Daniel's copy of "You Don't Stop the World from Going Round" to arrive in the mail, and I will certainly do a post on it once it comes. 

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!