Style Crossover and more Digging

Since the last post, my sole interest in Fred Hylands has been re-sparked. This interest is more regarding his family than his own life, but for the sake of all your sanity, I will skip over all those discoveries, as it's all rather complicated and difficult to explain without speaking in the flesh. 

All I can say regarding this matter is that Hylands definitely looked a little strange for a reason, and that his hair was almost certainly a vibrant firey red. 

I hope you can all see it now. 

Time to move on!

With this reawakening of Hylands interest, this has also prompted a lot more listening to his records and dissecting his style. Like any time that I get on kicks of doing this, I pick up on and notice small things in thoughtless moments. One thing that I have long wondered about is whether Fred Hager listened to his fellow studio pianists before he took over Zon-O-Phone's piano chair in 1900-1902. We can assume that Hager listened to all those other pianists, and even came to know their sound and characteristics well, considering his position in his early recording days. So with all these studio pianists, it should be generally assumed that they all heard each other, considering that they were the ultimate insiders in the business. Each of these pianists had to listen to their records, just to get by and make sure they knew what they were doing. 
Edward Issler certainly listened to his own orchestra's records, as he was so early in the business that he was also the engineer for many of his own recordings. This must have been protocol that Issler established, as he was the first studio pianist there was, anything he did became where the bar was set. So consider that Issler was Frank P. Banta's studio mentor(as I am almost certain he was), with that in mind, Issler would have taught young Banta how to play for the phonograph, how to announce, perfecting timing, and of course would have influenced his playing. This mentorship began in 1892, and it likely lasted until at least 1895, around when Banta was making records with his own orchestra. 
This is actually where this idea came from, Banta's Orchestra. That very concept was almost certainly inspired by Issler. Banta's Orchestra had the same instrumentation as Issler's, and even had a similar sound and played similar repertoire. Recently I grabbed one of those(outstanding) CDs that Tinfoil put out quite awhile ago, just because of the few Banta's orchestra tracks they had on there. I have been studying those quite carefully in the last few weeks, and pairing them up with Issler's orchestra records from around the same time. The similarities are quite shocking really. 
So here are two examples of Banta's orchestra, both were recorded in 1895 or so: 
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder11738

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder10472

Now listen to two records by Issler's orchestra from around the same time that are of very similar selections:
https://archive.org/details/DancingOnTheHouseTopByIsslersOrchestra1890s

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder8101

I picked these particular Issler records because they are very similar selections, the first is a typical syncopated 1890's dance, and the second is a sketch with lots of talking and strange affects. Every one of these four records was recorded around 1895. I am fully convinced that Banta spent a his first few years in the studio with Issler, learning the ropes, and putting together his own Issler-like ensemble. So with all that in mind, it would make sense that some of the earliest Banta accompaniments would sound an awful lot like Issler's playing. So it makes sense why I've become rather confused after learning that Banta began recording in 1892. Banta and Issler crossed over for a little while at North American and later Columbia(before Hylands came along), so it would entirely be logical for Banta to sound a little bit like Issler, particularly since Banta had an impeccable ear. Anyone Banta worked with often would rub off just a bit, and that's guaranteed. 

(Banta in 1900 or so)
There are a handful of records I can think of where Banta seems to have been channelling Issler's playing, and this is especially so whenever I hear Banta play a schottische. Take this record for example: 
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder17203
This record is a classic example of a very authentic yet progressive schottische. This is what Banta took from Issler, the straight and very steady rhythm. Much like Issler's records, if you count the beat throughout the record, the tempo remains exactly the same at the beginning as at the end. 

But did Banta listen to the others? 
I would assume that too, as those Edison people were always listening to the competition, whatever their position was in the studio. Banta would have known about Hylands at Columbia, as it seems that it was quite a hot thing when he was just starting there. The new fangled "rag time" proved well with the Columbia people, as Hylands attracted some attention that their previous pianists just hadn't. Integrating one of the new hot "rag-timers" was ambitious, but also definitely a fascination. Banta being a still young veteran of the business would have caught on, and probably listened to quite a few of Hylands' accompaniments on records, to brush up(or roughen rather) his own rag playing style(that was already well established from traveling around with Ossman and from who knows what else). 
A good example I can think of is Banta's 1903 Edison of "The Whistling Girl", as in 1897 we don't really hear Banta play that steadily rollicking rag-time, but in 1903(sadly at the very end of his life) we can hear that something like Hylands' records helped him solidify that style. 
Here's the 1903 record:
(skip to 3:30 for the music to start!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=groIZgk0EJU
So compare that with the 1898 Columbia of "Medley of Negro Songs" by Billy Golden and Hylands:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By7WuiOUrg7YTVVTR1BlamV3SHdRWmNGSWU3MHRLR2JkdXRZ/view?usp=sharing
For an even more definite comparison, here's the 1903 Edison of Golden's "medley of Negro Songs" with Banta! 
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder2649
(It's kinda messy and transferred too fast, but you get the point). 
It's actually quite similar, despite the time difference. Now Banta likely helped to arrange this medley in the first place in 1898, but when Hylands got a hold of it, you know Banta was compelled to listen and dissect it. Hylands and Banta play the same bell affect at the "hear dem bells" on both takes, which is astounding.  Once again, I am pretty sure that the medley originated with Banta(the arrangement at least), but after it was recorded a few times Hylands took from Banta and Banta took from Hylands. 

Also, listen to one of the many edison and Columbia takes of  Billy Golden's "Turkey in the straw", this is another selection that proves well for distinguishing Banta and Hylands, and what they heard from each other. 
Here's one of my favorite Hylands takes of "Turkey in the Straw":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgsxttjZ6FY
This particular take very inventive and folksy. Hylands even throws in a few blues like melodies, more so than others I've heard scattered through several records. 
Here's the classic 1897 Edison "turkey in the straw" by Golden with Banta:
https://archive.org/details/TurkeybyGoldenwBanta1897

This is the classic take where Banta plays "Mister Johnson Turn me Loose" at the whistling choruses, which is quite genius. Now you may notice that on the 1898 Columbia, Hylands goes off quoting his own thing(I have no idea what it is he's quoting), but on a certain later Columbia-Hylands take, Hylands plays exactly the same quote, and even integrates the chord changes of "Mister Johnson" throughout the song(which is strange and doesn't really work to be honest):
https://archive.org/details/TurkeyInTheStrawGoldenandHylands1899
In some kind of way, whatever it was, Banta's way of playing the tune with Golden influenced Hylands. One thing is for sure, we can safely say that the 1898 Columbia take is quite older than the 1900 Columbia with Golden. 
I am not quite sure who took from whom here, but there was definitely some inspiration taken, whichever one of them done it. 

Now back to Hager. I mentioned Hager earlier in this post, and I intend to return to him. Where does Hager fall in all this studio pianist crossover? Well actually, Hager can be considered the descendant of the Issler-Banta-Hylands studio style. Hager was in the business by 1897, when it was the ideal time to be listening to piano accompaniments(particularly for a young hot-blooded music student like Hager), so it would seem entirely reasonable for him not only to have a phonograph to hear them, but also to head out to the theaters and clubs they were playing at. Hager likely frequented Pastor's theater in 1896-1897, when ben Harney and Mike Bernard were the biggest new acts there(and when Hylands was also creeping around playing accompaniments). So when he heard cylinders, he was hearing Hylands and Banta, and from the sound of his own accompaniments on Zon-O-Phone later, he certainly did hear them both around the same time.  Now how can I begin to prove this? A good example has been in my thought process for awhile now, and it was right under my ears and I didn't know it. 

That piece actually has become more interesting as I've studied this pianist crossover. This rather eccentric piece of studio insiders was performed often at those Columbia exhibitions by the composer, at a prime time for Hager to be wandering around New York in search of musical inspiration. I can easily see Hager(as well as Banta) going to one of those bright spectacles Columbia held at one point six nights a week. 
I have come to know this Hylands piece very well, spending a long frustrating time learning it, re-learning it, and arranging it in the various keys that I have heard it in. 
Here's the 1898 Columbia orchestra recording to refresh the memory:
https://archive.org/details/DarkeyVolunteerColumbiaorchFredHylands1898
So what has this piece to do with Hager?
Actually, Hylands' queen like nature must have rubbed off on the young impressionable Hager. Hager's 1904 piece "Handsome Harry"(Or Hager if you want to get right to the obvious pun) sounds somewhat similar to Hylands' 1898 piece "The Darkey Volunteer". 
Here's Hager's own orchestra playing his "Handsome Harry":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkKOHd0P6vM

That first section is taken almost directly from Hylands' piece. Some of the orchestration throughout is also rather similar to the 1898 Columbia orchestra recording(which I am almost 100% sure Hylands himself orchestrated). I always like to talk about this piece of Hager's, mostly because I am convinced that the silhouette on the cover is of Hager:

I know, I know, wasn't Hager slimmer? 
Right, that's what I was wondering, but I forget that the piece was published in 1904, and that pretty picture of Hager that was in The Phonoscope was taken in at least 1896-1897. That's almost a decade difference. 

So with that, it's pretty interesting to see all the crossover that these studio pianists had with each other. This group that Hager was involved in at Zon-O-Phone however is another story, quite different from the traditional crowd of Edison-Columbia. Hager was close friends with Banta, Arthur Pryor, and Victor Herbert, which created more diversity, and better connections for Hager in the recording community overall. This crossover creates an interesting story, and a better sense of closeness within these competing record companies. I'm going to have to end it here, as it's late when I'm writing this, and I have exhausted this topic as far as I'll go for now. 

Hope your holidays have been pretty good so far! I hope you enjoyed this! 

Organizing some of Hylands and Professor Burt Green

One thing I really hate to do on this blog is to make things seem to repetitive, and with this, I really hope that speaking so much of Hylands recently hasn't been too much for some of you. This new image of the Columbia studio has really been something that has plagued my thoughts since I found the image. Yes, the night of finding it I even lost some sleep over it. This is what happens folks, those of us who care so much about the most minute of details in this overarching subject matter can lose sleep over just a single image. It's not healthy at all, but it happens. It's just as bad as the amount of work the studio stars we study had to endure during the "round" era. 

Of course, with the discovery of this image, there has been much discussion over who that pianist might be. I've gotten Percy Grainger, Gaisberg, and of course the unknown studio pianist. Everyone who has discussed the image has had differing opinions of who it looks like to them. In many ways, this debate is more intense and important than the glasses debate, because that got settled. 

We know Hylands wore glasses, case dismissed. 

But just like anything related to early Columbia, nothing is that easy. This image is proving to be the hardest of any so far as far as face identification.

Yep. 

Seems to be haunting still, and it will continue to be as such. 

That handsome face seemed to most who I asked too much so to be Hylands, though really if you look at the exhibition picture from 1898, you will see that it's the same face. The only thing that seems to be throwing everyone off is how slim the pianist in the picture is, that's all. Oddly enough, when I was in Missouri back in June, I had a conversation with John Reed-Torres about a similar subject on Hylands. I explained to John that Hylands seems like the type who was slimmer when he was younger, but John couldn't believe it. Now something has come along to prove this point clear to him. This image could very well prove this point. As weird as it seems, I really do think it's Hylands, despite the conflicting opinions received from the image. Only two of  the people asked about this image believed that it was probably Hylands. Luckily, those who thought this were using the artists' logic here, and with that I will explain. 

Being a cartoonist, I study faces all the time, and especially faces of these recording stars. This is an important part of my study of these widely forgotten faces, and luckily, I've studied Hylands' face just a little more than others. This is only because of the fact that we haven't found a decent photograph of him yet. As far as decent, this image is about as good as it gets until we find something better.

 One of the first things I turned to in trying to figure this out was that image of Fred's sister Etta on his music. Using that is actually a better source than some might think at first. 

Now when looking at this image, you can easily see that her lips are exactly the same as those of the pianist in the image:

Same structure. Also, the nose is similar, but not the same. Her profile would look similar in this case. If you really study the image of Etta, you can see that this "unknown pianist" looks related to her, and would therefore be her brother Fred. Her eyes don't look nearly as bright as Fred's because the lighting makes Fred's eyes look bright blue or green, which is not too surprising, since this seems to run in their family yet. Her eyebrows are also a little thicker, which is again interesting to note in terms of differences between them. Much like her brother, Etta was rather tall, but not freakishly tall like Fred. 

Just to put this into perspective, Fred would be a foot taller than me. 

Of course, that's just comparing this wildcard image to something that seems completely unrelated to Columbia and recording. The next step would be to use what we've got in the exhibition picture. 

Really seems strange to go back to this after seeing the other picture...
Now this image was the best of help in solving this mystery, since this was the best example of how Hylands looked before this new image. Of course the one thing that threw everyone off was the fact that the new image is probably from 1897, and that the exhibition picture is dated to September 1898. That's a relatively short period of time. Hmm, it seemed strange to Charlie Judkins when I inquired him of the image, because of this specific point. It seemed strange to both of us that he would gain so much weight in a rather short period of time. But with Hylands, Charlie noted that this seemed to be a pattern with him, something not just coincidental to when he began working at Columbia. Though, it is important to note that this dramatic change came about about the time he began working there, at the lost supposed time that he began, in late-1897. Since this new image is from more likely 1897, that whole notion of him working there that early is finally inching closer to being proven. 


But why would Columbia cause him to change so much in such a short period of time?

Well, it was a mix of many things. The first thing to consider is that he was no longer constantly running around from place to place in a theater. All of that ended when Columbia took him, really think about what he'd be doing all day at Columbia. Not much moving around. Unlike Georgie Emerson or the Spencer's, Hylands would be stuck in his piano chair the whole day for the most part. He'd only be playing for the singers all day, take after take. It's certain that he hadn't had a sort of job before then that was so tiring and stressful, so without a doubt this didn't help his disposition. Stress and lack of sleep really got to him not long after beginning his term at Columbia, and therefore, he gained an unhealthy amount of weight after beginning to work there. It took less than a year for him to be called "the heavyweight pianist" by the Columbia staff. How he had some unfortunate genes if that could get him so quickly...

(a cartoon I did mocking this dramatic change)
With all of this, I will have to go back and re-do my character studies post on Hylands, since this single image changes much of what we know of him, and leads us to more theories and such. The newly redone post will come up within the next few days. 




Now to move to a friend of Hylands'. 

We know of Burt Green as Hylands' "gopher", or sideman under the Hylands Spencer and Yeager venture in 1899 and 1900. When Hylands snatched him by the collar out of the orchestra pit in 1899, it happened to be at Huber's Museum/theater he took him from. Other than working at Huber's he was known as the chief imitator of pianists at Pastor's theater, which was no small thing. It was said that when he took the place of Mike Bernard or Fred Hylands one night of regular performances, he WAS the orchestra pit. By this, they meant that he was such a good mimic that anyone would mistake him for any of the other usual pianists, and that he was a piano freak, with wild abilities on the piano. This is a similar story Mike Bernard, though Green was not nearly as widely known for such a thing. It seems he was known as an imitator in his days before leaving Ethel for Irene in 1907. 

Burt Green was not considered one of the best accompanists, but that don't mean that he wasn't a good pianist. Unfortunately, on the few recordings with his piano accompaniment, we can't hear him play at his best, or play that Rag-Time style that he was known for in the late-1890's. This is the reason that he and Hylands were such good friends. 

It must be noted that in 1907, Green wrote a column in Billboard, which consisted of gossip about vaudeville stars. The column was called Vaudeville Happenings around New York. If you ever have the chance to read through the column, it's certainly worth it! He not only judges performers he had recently seen or performed with. Many of the names are familiar to us, such as Marie Dressler. 

One of these hilarious sections read thus:

It must be lovely to own one of those suburban homes just now. Imagine those poor actors who have to drill through all this snow. Give me the flat in New York, even though I can not save as much money, but nevertheless what I do save draws interest, and when I want to move, it's lots easier. It's a good safe bet that seven-tenths of the artists who have "stung" on those "home" propositions would sell out at half price, if you could get them with a little ready money just now. 

Wow, that's so true Burt. How funny is that? It's great to read these. One thing that really surprised me when reading through these is the amount of slang he used. Of course, Burt Green was the most dandyish of the characters in this early Rag-Time study, but it's ever more interesting to read his column. All the slang comes through just as it did in The Phonoscope. One of the statements that really caught my attention is this:

...Some actors are so stereotyped that they can not put a new gag in their act without having nervous prostration--and these are the kind that stand on the sidewalk and enviously roast their more successful brothers. It's the hustler who gets the plum, the fellow who spends his money for new material and keeps himself in front of the agent and manager at all times. 

The one thing that really was surprising was the fact that he used "roast" in the modern terms. That was rather interesting, and really funny in fact. It is really starting to make sense why Hylands was attracted to Green(not in that way), and why he was Fred's assistant, also probably helping with the advertisements.  Since Green did this column, wish I could find more of his writing! He seems to have been a great gossip writer. It's unfortunate, he would have done great as a Phonoscope correspondent. It didn't matter though, those correspondents for Hunting were just as subliminal and comical. This is why in many ways, Burt Green seems like the honorary member of the "Columbia Clan". 

Before the finish, I would like to share a recording with some aggressive piano playing on it! There is indeed such a thing as this, and in fact, this recording is the only one that could be classified with that. 

Here's the record:

(it's the first take listed)

http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/100001269/Pre-matrix_A-1245-His_own_familiar_tune

That pianist is aggressive! 

Wow, you don't need to play that harsh...

Also, something to note about this recording is the sound of the piano behind him. It's got a strange sound, that's wirey and out-of-tune, which sounds similar to a certain piano that Len Spencer flipped over. Of course, it's not that badly out of tune, but it's noticeable for sure. Every note in the piano accompaniment can be heard clearly, which is unusual, and the loud fifths in the left hand help this to happen. 

Hope you enjoyed this! 

The Search for Will J. Hardman and More fixed transfers

After spending a little time to-day searching on sheet music archive websites, I finally came across a few pieces by Lyricist Will J. Hardman, who was Hylands' lyricist in 1899 and 1900. After so much time wondering about anything that would be traced on him, I finally found some more music of his! What I found was nothing like the songs he wrote with Hylands though, in fact it was much older than the other music he wrote with Hylands. It seems he was one of those composers who began writing music earlier than expected, like Monroe Rosenfeld. The oldest piece of his I was able to trace was from 1885, 14 years before he was writing music with Hylands. The piece that was closest in date to 1899 was this one here:

Wow, what a bleak subject matter in contrast with his lyrical genius of "You Don't Stop the World from Goin Round". Without a doubt, Hardman was a genius when it came to language and diction, and this has been made ever clearer by seeing more of his music, both in the sense of lyrics and in music. One thing that is for certain now, is that Hardman was probably born in the 1860's, or just generally older than Hylands, and that debunks my preconception that he was the same age or around that of Hylands. Maybe he was Gaskin's age?(born 1863), that wouldn't be too unreasonable. Until I see census records there will only be guesses of his age. I understand now why Hylands probably had him as his lyricist, and it was because of his longer experience and previous success in the matter, though Hylands didn't publish any instrumental music of Hardman's, which is a little strange, yet somewhat telling. 

It is a little strange though that he was writing very emotional songs in the 1880's and even the 1890's, but then once Hylands had pulled on his leg long enough, Hardman was writing Rag-Time songs with him. That leap to the other side of popular songs seems really interesting to me, and must be noted in studies of Hardman. He seems like a very interesting character, as it seems like that had to be a requirement to be one of Hylands' friends, since that's a trend with those who Hylands associated himself with. 

Hylands probably took notice to Hardman's talents around the time that he was a music director at Pastor's(in 1897), since his music had been laying around in piles of music at his office, and being a music director, of course he came across Hardman's music! Since he took an interest in Hardman's music, he probably tracked him down, and he wasn't too far, since he last piece was published not far away from where Hylands worked in the next year(1898). It even could have been something as random as Hylands commuting to work sometime in 1898 and stumbling into Hardman's direction, and them getting to at last praise each other's music, instantly forming a solid friendship. According to The Phonoscope , things like this did happen when some of the recording stars were commuting to and from work(such as the horrific cable car crash of September 1898). Just to give this thoery some credibility, Hylands' commute from where he lived to Columbia would have been passing the address of the publishing firm in the music pictured above, though not every day he would have passed by it however. 

Just as a side note, Hylands lived really close to Union Square in 1898, but really far away from Columbia, just to put that into perspective. This is exactly why he moved to 33 W. 27th street in 1899, a block away from Columbia. All of you collectors out there who still aren't sure if Hylands worked at Columbia after 1898, this little blurb is the evidence.

 If he worked on 14th street, that's where he lived, if he lived on 27th street, that's where he lived, it's not that hard to comprehend. 

However they first met, he and Hardman must have become good friends quick, as it was much like his relationship with Spencer, though he didn't work in the studio with Hardman. Alright, it seems I'm able to piece together the people who worked with Hylands in his publishing firm who weren't the names in their gorgeous footer:

Here are some of the names:

Roger Harding, Burt Green, Will C. Jones, his sister Etta, Rollin Wooster, Georgie Emerson, Steve Porter, Will J. Hardman, and George Gaskin.

There are others, but these are the ones who helped him directly under Spencer and Harry Yeager, and there are probably more who we have yet to discover. Some fraternity it was! 







Now it's time to listen to some music! The endeavor of slowing down these records scattered about the Internet has been slowing down, since we're getting ready for the West Coast Ragtime Festival this weekend, and finding records played at the wrong speed is becoming harder to find, though there is so much more we can do. One record that we recently slowed down is Gaskin's 1903 recording of "The Bassoon", which is certainly played far too fast on the website it came from. 

An image of Gaskin from c.1895 that makes him look innocent and sweeter than others out there. Something about Gaskin's singing is very pleasant, but his thick dialect is often what makes it not nearly as perfect in the pleasant factor for me. I guess that's why I can never really love Gaskin's records. He seems to have been a more influential figure in the early recording business than previously thought, with his advocacy for George W. Johnson, he certainly earns some points for that, as well as throwing in a whole lot of money to the fund for his defense team in 1899. 
Without further ado, here's the original transfer of the record:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder4724
Far too fast and screechy, here's the newly slowed down version:
https://archive.org/details/BassoonbyGaskinwHylands1903
So much better. 
Like a breath of fresh cool air. 

Another record that we fixed involved many things to be done to the original transfer in order for it to sound as is does now. It is a record by:

John Yorke AtLee. 
For a long time, I knew that he recorded a few coon songs with whistling choruses, and one had been put up on the Santa Barbara cylinder website for not too long, but it was completely mis-labeled as a cylinder by Billy Golden, just because it was a coon song with whistling, which was Golden's specialty. Nope, this was even stranger record, it was one of two or three coon songs that AtLee recorded in 1897-1899. Here's his take of "Whistling Yaller Dinah":
https://archive.org/details/WhistlinDinahAtLeelate90s

This record has origins that are very hard to trace, since it is one of those independent recording companies, possibly one of the original masters of records that AtLee sold under his own company in 1898-1900. I only know of one other example of an AtLee original from that period, and it's his "Our Whistling Servant Girl", with a hard to trace date. Much like that one, the newly slowed down AtLee record is hard to trace when it comes to putting an accurate date on it. The "Whistling Servant Girl" cylinder comes from Tinfoil.com, and the company is said to be the U. S. Phonograph company, and is dated at 1900, though that doesn't make any logical sense. That company fell completely by the middle of 1897, and it had a pitiful and ugly end, dissolving to nothing in just a few weeks. 

Now the question of these two recordings comes to the piano accompaniment. Who does the pianist sound like? Well, none of the studio pianists. It just sounds like Gaisberg a little bit, but it's not, as the dates would be in the range that he was still in the United States, even though I think they're probably from 1898. After digging around in the go-to source for possible information on this, The Phonoscope, it seemed that there was a little section in the September 1898 issue that hints at a pianist playing behind him. This section stated that AtLee was at a recent phonograph demonstration(connected with Columbia, durr...), and he sung three songs accompanying himself on the piano. WHAT! REALLY? That's amazing, and raises suspicion of who might be playing piano on these two records, since they're not strictly Columbia's, with Hylands or Gaisberg on piano for certain, it makes some sense that he be playing piano on his self-made records. Keep in mind that this only applies to the records he made on his own in 1897 to 1900, not his records for Columbia in 1897 and 1898, nor his records from 1891-1894 with Fred Gaisberg. 

He had an interesting piano style if he's playing piano on these two records! 



It says in one advertisement for AtLee's records that he recorded "The Whistling Coon". Now that's a record I hope exists somewhere. 

Hope you enjoyed this! 

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.  

14th Street Swells--Some popular New York Rag pianists

A cartoon I did poking fun at Burt Green and Fred Hylands as being "swells" who both lived and worked on 14th street in the late-1890's. 

Back in 1897 and 1898, East 14th street in New York City was a hub for several theaters, and where many of the pianists who played there lived. Among these swells included Burt Green, Mike Bernard, Ben Harney, and Fred Hylands. Pretty much the entire New York "rag time" scene lived either on 14th street, or somewhere around it. Much of these old buildings where the pianists resided still stand to-day on 14th street, including Fred Hylands' old flat while he worked at Columbia in his early era there. 

It seemed inevitable for all of these pianists to know one another, as they all worked at the same theater, and Hylands was their manager at one hot point. First, in 1896, Ben Harney broke the old traditions of vaudeville music by performing his "ragged" interpretation of his own "Mister Johnson Turn Me Loose", which really started a craze for music that was ragged in "Ethiopian songs" as they were often called at that time(that was actually a very old minstrel music term, that had been around since the 1830's). From there, all of these younger performers began taking up Harney's act and creating their own spin on it, adding all sorts of new and interesting things to it. Burt Green was considered among one of the best Harney imitators around, which believe it or not, was stated in an obituary for Harney in 1938. What was special about Green was the fact that he not only took up the piano playing style, but he also did some of the dancing that Harney was so well-known for. 

His dances included things like these:

There were so many more things he did, these are only two of several more that were photographed in 1911. Green did these dances well, as he was known for it it seems, and he sometime parodied them as well. From what we can hear on those handful of records Green made from 1911 to 1915, it is certain that he was one of those early rag pianists, and took much of his style from those other famous early performers. 

There he is around 1908. 

From the few pictures I've seen of Burt Green, I can easily see him being one of Fred Hylands' publishing associates, and since he was one of Fred's income sources, he remained a valuable asset for him for many years, even after the publishing firm. They met probably not long after Fred first came to New York, as they worked at the same theater in 1897, and Fred was at one point the music director there, so it's inevitable that they became friends early on. Their friendship worked so well in many ways, as what they were missing in their lives were fulfilled with one another, and they were easily both just as strange and eccentric. As I've said before, Burt's looks made up for Fred's, and it helped that most of the stars they endorsed on their music covers would encounter Burt first rather than Fred. Fred came next. The first impressions Burt made must have been much better than if Fred were there during recording days. During the publishing firm, Burt still worked on 14th street, at Huber's museum, and occasionally filled in at Tony Pastor's theater for Mike Bernard. But as could be expected, Fred and Burt learned early on not to mess with Bernard, and Fred knew him best, since he was his director for a short but busy time. 
Bernard must have been one of the 14th street swells who was auditioned for Columbia in 1897, as they probably tried all of these famous theater accompanists. Knowing how much of a peach Bernard was, he must have hated the idea of being almost quite literally a slave to the singers and performers who entered the studio. Harney was not very versatile, and would probably done well on all of those coon songs, but everything else wouldn't work. Burt must have been one of their second decisions, but he probably turned the studio job down. Of all these theater pianists other than Hylands, Green would have been another great studio pianist, and since he was so much like Hylands, he  was probably considered something like "Freddy's double" if they needed another pianist for something. In reality, the one who took that place was Ed Issler, and Issler was not a show-biz insider like Hylands, which meant for an immediately different approach. 

While Burt worked at Huber's, he met many of the famous faces pictured on Hylands' music covers, including these two:

(Fun fact! Spencer probably wrote her name on this picture!)

(These both came from sheet music covers in my collection)

I'm sure you all recognise these faces, especially the first one. Green probably found them first, and soon went to Hylands and Spencer about his latest findings. Where Harlan came from in this case it is not certain, but Ada Jones was a regular at Huber's 14th Street museum, and it is almost certain that he met her there. Wherever of whomever introduced Harlan to Hylands, that friendship lasted a long time, and it was randomly revived in 1901 when Harlan began recording at Columbia. Other performers like Barney Fagan and Sallie Stembler must have been Hylands and Spencer findings. Burt working at Huber's not only got him an immense amount of money, but it earned Hylands and Spencer some very important friendships, such as the Ada Jones and Spencer duo that made hundreds of records from 1905 to 1913. 

No Billy Murray, you did not find her first. Damn lie...

Anyway, you understand what I'm getting at here, 14th street was a fantastic place to live and work in the late-1890's. There were more famous stage pianists who came from 14th street, but that comes later in the era, around the gaudy time of Tin Pan Alley, of which none of these early pianists were officially part of. These great pianists were too good to be part of that mess. 
Max Hoffmann was another one of these pianists I did not mention, as he was performing all over those theaters on 14th street in 1897-98, which logically works since he was such a famous "rag" pianist. Hoffmann remained pretty well-hidden considering that all of these other pianists were not really writing all of this music, but they were playing it in that same Hoffmann-like style. He remained hidden because he wasn't exactly a show-biz character out front, he was a sort of behind-the-scenes type, since he married a dancer who made up for this. His slim and pretty wife was scandalous enough to keep everyone's hands off of him, so they could scrutinize her. 

Something like this is what I mean. 
That's his wife in the center by the way. 
Funny to think that Hylands was director at the theater where this was taken. Hehe...
Hoffmann's marriage was brilliant, in so many ways, and it really is funny to think of it as a strategic show-biz marriage, far more than just the typical Hylands and Green marriages of pianist and singer. Chronologically, Hylands' marriage came first of all these famous pianist-singer ones, with the intention of an act being created from it. It wasn't as famous as the others that came after it, like Burt's marriage to Irene Franklin, but it was the same sort of thing. Fred married a singer who was not really well known, and she became a little more well-known after being married to Fred for ten years, since it took that long for him to finally put her in one of his Broadway shows. 

(that's her! on his music of course)
Took him long enough...
 It would be interesting if he dragged her in to Columbia to make some records. Probably didn't happen, but we can well assume that he considered it early on. We know that he was desperate for attention from the Columbia staff in 1898, and something like this was probably laughed upon by the long-time studio stars. It helps that he lived on 14th street in 1898, though he was not within walking distance of the studio. The bouts with cable cars were inevitable!



Anyhow, I'm just going to keep rambling on about all of this, so that's where I'll end it. 

Hope you enjoyed this!