Micellaneous recent obsevations

Since I have been noticing little things from several different records since last evening, I cannot really stay on a single subject this evening. I have been getting back into the drunken utterings of George Graham, and the melodic beauty of the early recorded quartets on cylinders. So the first thing I would like to start with is this guy:

Ah yes, George Graham, the roughest monologist recorded in the first decade of the business.I still don't know what it is about his voice and annunciations of certain words that capivate me. I love his records, even if his voice is rough, unbalanced, and jarring. 

The people who came to the exibitions at Columbia must have been puzzled when they saw and heard him in the flesh. How they must have been staring up at him with the most odd looks on their faces. He really had unusual ways of pronouncing certain words, that I have heard from other collegues of his say. Such as these examples:

he often says "fahk" instead of fork. 

he said "ay-re" instead of "are" it's a hard one to replicate in writing...

he often said "fer" instead of "for".

he said "cah" instead of car. 

you can hear a few of these in this great example of his speech:

http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/2000001513/Pre-matrix_B-2164-Forty-seven_dollars

Such a weird dialect. I think it might be Indiana mixed with a generic northeastern dialect. It's hard to tell. If anyone has any ideas, please tell me!

This next thing has to do with Frank P. Banta, and the other Bantas. 

Yep, that's Banta. 

Well, we all know he was the pianist for Edison and Victor before 1903, and that he was a soulful man usually in seemingly high spirits. From what I have found now, the Bantas lived very confortably in a very nice part of Manhattan in the late 1890's and early 1900's. Which surprised me greatly. As the studio musicians had the hardest job of anyone who worked at the studios, even more tiring than the managers or higher management above them. Yes, Edward Easton(Columbia's main founder) did try to commit suicide in 1908 from his depressed and overworked he was, but he would never know what it was like for his own Fred Hylands ten years before that incident. I'm sure Hylands almost went that far at least once. It really was the hardest job ever, and anyone who can work at it for ten years is a true saint. That's what Banta did. Hylands was only in the recording business for about eight years, maybe more, but that would be about right. 

I'm really surprised that it wasn't the recording at Columbia that directly killed Hylands. It contributed, but it wasn't direct. He seemed like he loved all the boys there, which he did, but deep inside him, he hated working there and just wanted to hang himself and leave for good. Same thing for Banta, save for his much better impulsive control, so he didn't utter his complaints and make it somewhat clear that he didn't want to be there. Banta probably didn't say a single word truthful about his thoughts about working at Edison and Victor. He was much more polite and mannered(if you will) than Hylands. He actually had the means to object about working at Columbia:

OOH! Big mistake Freddy! 

They probably thought of it as funny, even if he wasn't trying to joke around. Banta had his manners though, as he was contented with his family life enough to not complain. Hylands just had a small flat with his father and wife to come home to after the long recording days, Banta had a wonderful home with two children(as of 1901) and a very caring and loving wife, with two housemaids to tend to him. Hylands hadn't much to look forward to after his long and exhausting days. Banta could have genuine eagerness to get home after a long recording day. Hylands would have a small bite to eat, take some snuff, and go on to bed dugged and drunk. Banta would have a wonderful meal with his family, have a few drinks and go on to bed to rest well for the next recording day. 

Last thing for this post, I had an interesting dream last nght about this singer:

Yes indeed, Dan W. Quinn. 

He was very kind and comical toward me in my dream, as I'm sure he was normally when speaking to anyone. I had a few great laughs with him, and he set some brown wax cylinders on the table I sat at with him, and somehow Frank Banta. 

Anyhow, to close off, here are some early Quinn brown waxes so compliment the vision from my dream:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/7000/7115/cusb-cyl7115d.mp3

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/10000/10474/cusb-cyl10474d.mp3

https://ia801401.us.archive.org/3/items/DanWQuinn/DanWQuinn-OhMrsOflahertyWhatDidYouMeanBeThat_64kb.mp3

I love these Quinn records so much. Thanks for performing "Still His Whiskers Grew" with me at Chip's house Ryan(Wishner) I really enjoyed it! 

I hope you enjoyed this! 

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! 

Len's Brother "Harry"

We've all heard of Len Spencer:

And some of us may have heard briefly about his younger brother Henry, or sometimes as he was called "Harry". I have really learned a whole lot about the configuration of the two Spencer brothers today. They had an interesting mix of things go on with them at home. I know I have said this about Len Spencer before in previous posts, only because he is really one to get suspicious about. His documented fantastic personality can show for it. Thanks Ada Jones!(she said this later in life in an inteview from the late-teen's, not long after he croaked).

How much do the collectors know about Harry Spencer? It's uncommon to hear his name come up, even when speking highly of Len. They do often have questions about him, only because he was clearly just as bright as his brother Len, but had unfortunate genetics unlike Len who had the superior ones, minus a few. 

Harry may have had more active negative genes, but Len abused his privileged traits, and took the beatings on himself(clearly by how rugged, but nicely dressed, he always looked...).

They had almost the same voice, looked almost the same, and even had a similar signature:

Not really surprising. But it's interesting though. 

So to what I found, Harry married a pretty Italian girl who emigrated from Italy in 1890(same time that Fred Hylands' wife Marie came from England...). Her name was Gazella and she was a year older than Harry. He had never lived near Len it seemed, as according to the censuses from 1910, 1920, and 1940, it seemed that he deteriorated in health slowly through each decade, but at least Len didn't live to see that, it would have broken his heart. It would have also drained his savings...

It seemed that Harry lived not necessarily as a boarder, but as a more classy "Lodger" in 1910 with four other people. He remained with the status of ''Lodger" through the teen's as he can be found living in different place by 1920. He was still married to Gazella, but by 1940, he was out of the house and at the Mental institution that Joe Belmont remembered him being at. He was listed as and investigator in the 20's, but not long after that, he was working as a mad train caller, as according to Belmont. It seemed that Len didn't bother to leave him too much money to last him that long. Even though he easily could have. It seemed that in 1940, Harry was alone without any of his family at the mental institution, with none of his family left, save for Len's daughters, who had moved all around the U. S. by that time. 

The last of the oldest recording pioneers spent the last six years of his life vaguely recalling the echoes of Len's voice, and all the others he heard long ago. Amid his frightening madness, the tears he wept were for Len. Who was long gone by then. 

Harry Spencer didn't leave too many records of his own to us collectors, but he left a multitude of sections of his voice from the hundreds of Columbia cylinders he announced from 1901 to 1905. He didn't leave much, but his brother sure did.
*Thank you Rae Ann for helping me with this amazing amount of information!*

I hope you enjoyed this! I'm at last back from Sutter Creek CA! It was absolutely amazing, and I cannot thank all of the good friends of mine for being so comical and being themselves! 

Hylands behind the better known artists

(From my own art, representing Hylands and his wife Marie reading unexpectedly bad reviews of his shows in 1907)

Well, we all know how Hylands accompanied all the popular singers of the 1890's on those brown wax Columbia's. Singers like Len Spencer, J. W. Myers, George J. Gaskin, Dan Quinn, etc. But what about the singers who began in the end of the 1890's and became more popular in the 1900's and later the teen's? Singers like Billy Murray, Arthur Collins, Collins and Harlan, Bob Roberts, and more. He had at least been behind them all once. 
Hylands had a special friendship with Byron G. Harlan however, only because Harlan was endorsed by the "Hylands Spencer and Yeager" firm back in 1899. From there, Hylands had gotten Harlan some shows here and there in 1899 and 1900, which helped him along finely, as his recording career was just beginning. They had formed a friendship early, and it may even go back even further in Hylands' history. The connection between Hylands and Harlan may go back to when the Hylands family lived in Chicago, which is where Harlan may or may not have still been living in 1893 and 1894. Harlan had ben living there in the late 1880's and possibly off and on in the early 1890's. Which may have called for the two blond hicks to run into each other at some point, and exchange some information maybe. 
Anyhow, Hylands had to accompany EVERYONE. It's just how the job as a house pianist went, everyone who worked there as a featured artist had to deal with whoever was the pianist there when they showed up. 

To start off with the cavalcade of wonderful cylinders, I would like to start off with a cylinder that one of my close collector friends really has a strong liking for. Here you go with the one and only Billy Murray with Fred Hylands in 1904:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/4000/4730/cusb-cyl4730d.mp3
Hylands is a riot on this one! I love the sound of the piano on this! 
Murray's earliest three years in the commercial recording business were very fun and interesting. Columbia(believe it or not) was the first company to hire him after the recording bust in San Francisco in 1897. They had him in their studio for the first time in late-1902. Which is surprising, because he was doing the big minstrel shows at that time, not yet really using "Billy" as his first name. His records from 1902 are very few, and very hard to find in general. I'm not sure whether the boys at Columbia used "William Murray" or "Billy" when they issued his first records, it's unclear, if anyone can tell me, please do! 

This next one is one of Murray's 1902 Columbia's. It's on a disc however. 
This is a very interesting and unusual one by Murray, other than it being an early one for him, the song itself was one that he never went at later. He really does sound very young. 
Here you go, from 1902, with Hylands' piano accompaniment:
https://ia802606.us.archive.org/6/items/BillyMurray_part1/BillyMurray-HasAnybodySeenOurCat_64kb.mp3
Hylands hits a bunch of tenths in there...
That's very early Billy Murray alright. 
Murray became a new imported part of the late Imperial Minstrels, which to that fact, Len Spencer probably found him. How ironic is that! Murray lied about much of the so-called "Discoveries" of new recording artists, such as the whole Ada Jones thing. We all know that it was Hylands and Spencer who first found her. 
Now onto Collins and Harlan:

I still have a special place in my heart for these two. Only because after I did my big seminar about them, I had to read every thing about them I could possibly get my hands on for a whole year. So basically, it was a whole year fully dedicated to Collins and Harlan. So in this, after I did my seminar, I had to lay off anything about them for a long while, to where it almost seemed as though I forgot about them, but that will never be so.
When Hylands was behind these two on piano, it was a very fun time in the studio. As He and Harlan just fooled with each other sometimes, having that connection that Collins hadn't with Harlan. Here you go with my favourite Collins and Harlan with Hylands, from 1903:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/6000/6868/cusb-cyl6868d.mp3
I know I have shared this one before, but I love it just the same. Hylands' jarring and LOUD elbow on the piano thing is just wonderful. It's so perfect and proves how much fun those Collins and Harlan with Hylands sessions must have been. 
This next one I think I may have shared before on this blog, if not, it was the Collins and Natus version. This is also a fun Collins and Harlan with Hylands collaboration. This one is eh...Interesting...
Here you go, from late-1902:
https://ia801408.us.archive.org/8/items/CollinsHarlan_part3/CollinsHarlan-TellUsPrettyLadies_64kb.mp3
I love this parody os much. Weber and Fields really got it right. 
Hylands is really hitting the piano keys HARD! You can hear it very well. He kills it on this one! I love the lyrics and the piano, even if the record itself is pretty muted. 
This next one has the same personnel as the last two, and it's from early-1903. This one is a very odd one...
https://ia801408.us.archive.org/8/items/CollinsHarlan_part3/CollinsHarlan-TheWeddingoftheRubenandtheMaid.mp3
Ok, I have a lot of speculation about this record. There isn't an announcement at the beginning, but it's for sure a Columbia disc. Hylands is drunk for sure, just listen to the piano playing. And I hate to say it, but one of Collins and Harlan is too. I'm not sure which one, but I'm leaning more toward Collins. Tell me what you think! 
To close off, here is one of Collins' most famous records, which just happened to feature Fred Hylands on the piano behind him:
https://ia700407.us.archive.org/17/items/ArthurCollins_part1/ArthurCollins-BillBaileyWontYouPleaseComeHomeCoonSong.mp3
This is indeed a very famous recording. I still love it, even if it's slightly cliche. 
This is a very interesting record to try to dissect, as Hylands's playing speeds up and slows down quite a lot, and Collins' positions at the horn vary clearly. This is one of those few records where you can actually tell when the singer moves toward and away from the horn. It's odd that way. Also, Hylands was drunk, and I now have the feeling that Collins may have been too, as he's very tame and calmed compared to some of his other coon songs from around the same time. Really take a few listens! 

Sorry it's been a few days, I'm just about to go to another Rag-Time festival this weekend, so I'll be out of commission from Thursday to Monday, so I'll try to do a post tomorrow night before lights out. I hope you enjoyed this! 

The ever changing Greater New York Quartette

Spencer 

Harding

The quartette of talented singers mentioned in this post's title is a varying mix, and there is only three of the quartette's original personnel pictured above. I'm not really the biggest fan of quartette records from the 1900's and teens', but some groups really get to me. The Quartette records from the 1890's particularly fascinate me. One of the few groups that I like who lasted from 1897 to about 1904 was the Greater New York Quartette. The only problem with this rare group is the fact that its personnel constantly changed, and was updated with newer artists every year or so. Their personnel can get confusing if you're listening to them and trying to figure out who's on it. 

Their earliest two years were wonderful, and the personnel of the original quartette was absolutely wonderful. So, according to The Phonoscope, the original personnel of this group was Steve Porter, Roger harding, Len Spencer and a gent whose full name had never been identified named "Mr. Depew". 

Now this first example is one from c.late-1897 with Fred Hylands on the piano, possibly with the original personnel:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/9000/9989/cusb-cyl9989d.mp3

One thing is for sure, I hear Steve Porter and Roger Harding. 

Their harmonizing is absolutely pristine on their early records, I just cannot get over it! It's absolutely beautiful. They really had that perfected. The thing about their original personnel is that Len Spencer sometimes stuck out like mad. This was only because Spencer's voice was a very hard one to balance and blend with singing with anyone else, but once they got it sorted out, he blended well, even though you can still hear the odd deep-throated tones of Spencer's voice within the harmony.

This next one is from c.-late-1897 as well, with Hylands hitting one muffled A major chord at the beginning. This one is for sure with the original personnel, as I can hear that thing I described with Spencer in their blending. It's hard to hear, but if you known Spencer's voice well enough, you can hear it. 

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/14000/14246/cusb-cyl14246d.mp3

How they do it SLOW....

They sing this very slow compared to the other takes of this, but I'm guessing that that was how Spencer liked it, because in the later takes of this by this group were much quicker. 

Also, note! There's some chatter and faint noise of something else far back in the room if you listen closely!

I wonder what that was...

This next one is hard to pick out the vocal tones of certain singers. I hear Porter just as usual, Roger Harding, and I'm not sure who else because this record is to what I have found, the record by them where their harmonization at the beginning is truly gorgeous. I just wish I could pick out the voices better. 

Skip to 33:15 for the cylinder I mean! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI70A5DIU08

The personnel by mid-1898 was different from the original group for some reason. Spencer had dropped out of the group by that time. As the September 1898 issue of The Phonoscope stated this:

"The Greater New York Quartette composed of Harding,[Will C.] Jones, Porter and Hargrave are furnishing the campaign music throughout the state this fall. They are seasoned singers and make a sure hit."

Hmm... I have heard of Will C. Jones before from the Albert Campbell line of the "Diamond Four" of 1897 and 1898, but I am not aware of this Mr. Hargrave. 

By the time Spencer, Hylands, and Yeager had become one with the publishing business(which was March, 1899), the personnel of the Greater New York had consisted of Harding, Porter, Jones, and the young and new Albert Campbell. 

As stated here:

Among the many other famous names we see here, I might like to call attention to three names(not relating to the Greater New York Quartette) that are present here. 

1: you see "Lenard G. Spencer"(bad editing) who we all know it's Len Spencer.

2:Fred. Hylands is mentioned before Spencer.

3: Harry Yeager is listed as the director.

These three names being listed all at the same performance is very interesting.The reason for this is because they must have already been putting together things like this months before they became a publishing firm. It must have also been a great scheme for the three of them to not only perform together, but to announce the creation of the new firm. 

If they performed together as three, Hylands would be at the piano, singing with Spencer and Yeager(as Yeager was a tenor), even though I'm not sure what range Hylands had, but he was indeed a singer. 

Back to the main subject of this post. The quartette's personnel had what was listed above in 1899 and 1900, as this same group can be heard here, with Albert Campbell taking the lead:

 http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/7000/7926/cusb-cyl7926d.mp3

Sorry about the skipping groove at the beginning. 

This one is from 1900, and that's for sure because of the year that the song was composed, and who's in the group itself all line up with that year. 

To close off, here are two more takes of this quartette doing "Way Down Yonder in the Cornfield", one from c. December 1897 and the other from mid-1898.

(There's a short home recording at the end, sorry...)

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/13000/13289/cusb-cyl13289d.mp3

Oh! How Spencer is drunk! This one is really clear with that. His rattling deep-throated voice REALLY sticks out, this is exactly what I was talking about before. 

This last one is a quicker take(hence the thing about Spencer dropping out before!) by the second installment of the quartette from early or mid-1898

(this one also has a home recording at he end...)

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/13000/13309/cusb-cyl13309d.mp3

Hear all of that chatter in the background! 

The reason why I like this quartette so much is because they had a much fuller sound on the cylinders and they always had a great mix of voices, and with the changing personnel, it was slightly different every year they were together. Which makes them more interesting. The personnel changes make them interesting(and easier to date their cylinders!) but it also unfortunately makes figuring out who's on the record harder.They did all of this quartette work years before the "barbershop quartette" era of the 1900's and the teen's hit the record business hard.They are still a pleasure to hear nearly 120 years later. 

I hope you enjoyed this! 

Ragging the Schubert and more

We all know Columbia's pianist Freddy Hylands. 

And we very well know of his "Rag-Time" playing on all of those brown wax cylinders and early disc records. Since he was the main studio pianist over at Columbia, he would have to play literally everything that was recorded there. Everything from the sacred selections of Steve Porter to the raucous coon songs of George W. Johnson. I  was digging through the Santa Barbara cylinder website last evening and found some interesting selections that relate to the title of this post. They do have to do with Fred Hylands. 
Since he was a rugged pianist by heart, he naturally put in all of those weird saloon-like things into the songs he recorded, even if they had nothing at all to do with the Ragged nature of his style. This first record is an absolutely perfect example of this. It's a recording of Thomas Clark playing a popular piece by Franz Schubert in late-1897:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/7000/7959/cusb-cyl7959d.mp3
The cornet playing is great and it is a beautiful piece of music, but the terrible sounding old piano of Columbia makes it a very weird record. Hylands is playing slightly Ragged, which adds to the queer nature of the record. Really take a listen to the piano. It is also a very awkward record in a way. It is only because Hylands and Tom Clark were both in the Columbia orchestra and often fought over who would do the count offs and arrangements(before Fred Hager came along). So Hylands tries to do some of what he did best behind the man at the record company that he didn't particularly favor, which must have been a little odd for Clark. Hylands was probably drunk when this round was done, with the terrible sounding piano not making it any better. Hylands was still rather new there at Columbia when they recorded this though, so he was still trying to figure out how to be heard better behind the blaring artists in Columbia's big recording room(as heard on this very cylinder!). 

Hylands ragging the old favourites and sacred songs must have been only slightly ludicrous to the singers at first, and even must have been so a little while after getting used to him. He was doing this years before is really became a craze(other than Banta's "Ragged William two-step" from 1899). It was still weird all the same. 
This next one I have shared on this blog before, but it's a great example of several factors that went into making records in the 1890's. This next one is an example of Hylands making an old piece unnecessarily Ragged. This time he's playing behind singers that were actually more friends of his than Clark. Here you go from early 1899:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/11000/11858/cusb-cyl11858d.mp3
I have always had a mix of thoughts about this cylinder.I know that Spencer is really drunk,  and I'm sure if Spencer was that Hylands would be. But that solo at the beginning, it's Ragged and very odd in general. They wouldn't mind Hylands doing that with the tune though, because they all sounds like they were absolutely hammered when they did this round. You can really tell sometimes, and on this one, it's particularly clear. Heh, and the engineers said they couldn't tell the difference between drunk and sober, pffft!

This next one is by the duo we all love of Hylands and Spencer.
This one is a funny old song that was recorded a multitude of times between 1898 and 1906, but it's odd to hear Spencer sing in an Irish dialect. Here you go:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/5000/5218/cusb-cyl5218d.mp3
Hylands' Ragged time is very slight on this one, but it's there and he's pretty scattered. Doing things that don't exactly make sense. It's an interesting but quiet cylinder where you can actually hear the deep bass notes on the piano, even if the cylinder is very quiet. Hylands speeds up and slows down throughout the cylinder, which may or not have confused Spencer, though he must have been used to it by the time this was recorded, which was 1898. It's just a good a collaboration as any of the Hylands and Spencer cylinders were. 

This next one is a very odd one by someone who I don't get the chance to speak of too often, 

Edward M. Favor. 

This is one of those popular 1890's "Tearjerkers" that someone like George J. Gaskin or early Byron G. Harlan did as a semi-specialty. Here you go with an unusual Favor record with an unidentified record company(though it might be and early Leeds and Catlin or Consolidated cylinder):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_7jrdRySbU

Apparently, Will F. Denny did a version of this on Columbia around the same time, which would man that there is a clear example of Hylands playing this tune, and  bet it would be an interesting comparison. This is a very odd cylinder in the sense that it's one of those very sad 1890's songs, but at some points, Hylands goes off on his Ragged and slightly jarring left hand a few times. It's almost distracting really. But that's what his point was, he wanted to be heard, and by 1899 and early 1900, he had known well how to do that. It's still a very fine cylinder by Edward Favor, changing a bit from his usual comic Irish songs. 

Hylands doesn't really make this next one really ragged, but it's very much so in the feel and great tempo he keeps on it behind George Schweinfest. The date for this one is not given, but by the fact that Joe Belmont is the announcer and the overall sound, it is certainly from 1903. Here it is:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/6000/6211/cusb-cyl6211d.mp3

This is a pretty good cylinder, with very good on time collaboration of Schweinfest and Hylands. The rhythm is absolutely pristine. Hylands wasn't drunk and he was feeling slightly Ragged. 

This next one features a rare and great announcement by:

Roger Harding!

This is another one where Hylands didn't need to be the way he was playing when he did this round:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/7000/7957/cusb-cyl7957d.mp3

It's played a bit too fast, but at least the piano can still be understood. Not much to say here, the piano is loud and is says all for itself. 

These final two are organ accompanied Columbia's. So Hylands would be on the organ here. Hylands was a pretty lousy organist, probably because he hadn't experience on the instrument. This first one is pretty messy, and it is a tune that us old record collectors have all run across in our collecting travels:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/5000/5345/cusb-cyl5345d.mp3

The boys at Columbia couldn't figure out how to balance their burly pianist on the organ, clearly by how loud the instrument was compared to the singers. The funny thing is that I can just hear Hylands playing a sea shanty like "What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor" on the organ just for fun between takes and making everyone laugh. This one is one where I can really imagine this happening:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/9000/9764/cusb-cyl9764d.mp3

He's still a lousy organist, and you can hear him even more on this one than the last one. 

You can hear faint organ playing by Hylands here on this odd "talking specialty" by Harry Spencer from 1898:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/11000/11735/cusb-cyl11735d.mp3

This cylinder is still slightly haunting to me. 

Ha! Two Spencers and one big Hylands playing a little organ...

I hope you enjoyed this! 

Banta and Hylands a forgotten connection?

Yes, Hylands was reasonably taller than the others he worked with. The only problem is that I don't really know whether or not Banta was very tall, though I would doubt that he was taller than 5 foot 7. These two worked in the same business, one of the same record companies, and played the same instrument
, they must have known each other. But what was their relationship like?

Hylands

Banta

They must have met not long after the news of the new pianist at Columbia spread to the crew at Edison. This news no doubt got to Edison's pianist, Frank Banta in 1897 and he must have become curious about this new pianist. The fact that he played "Rag Time" also must have caught the ears of Banta. 
Not long after Columbia hired him, he was a hit with the large crowds of the exhibitions at the Broadway phonograph parlors. This is where Banta really must have done something to meet this "Freddy". So wherever he went to find him, he eventually did, but let's just say it was at an exhibition in the middle of the week. Here is a little historical fiction for you:

The short slim Banta enters the parlor, crowded with hundreds of people and gets the glimpse of a few faces he knows, like Len Spencer, Billy Golden, John Yorke Atlee, Russell Hunting, and Steve Porter. At an intermission, while the nice table of various foods and treats were being served, and when the artists disbanded, he looks around for that "Freddy Hylands" chap amid the crowd. He looks around for what seemed like forever until he finds a tall stout man talking with little Roger Harding. This tall man is well dressed, reasonably handsome for a heavy fellow, comically voiced, and with occasional flaunts of his reddish-blond hair argued with little Harding. 
When he finally argued enough with Harding, he rolled his eyes and spotted scrawny Banta. "You!" he began, looking at Banta, "I recognize yer face from somewhere."
"I don't think I have ever made your acquaintance sir." stated Banta, nearing him.
He shook his long twigy hand firmly, "It's a pleasure, Ah'm Freddy Hylands, and who might you be?"
"Frank Banta, Frederick."
"Hmm, Ah've heard tell on your recently, yer eh, Edison's piano man right?"
"You be correct Frederick."
"It's great to meet you finally Frank. Make sure you stay here for our next go at the machines and the next group of people."
When the next round of people came in, and when the intermission had ceased, then came the rattling voice of Harry Spencer, introducing the next few rounds. Banta watched Fred wail away the the piano as the tunes kept coming, and how he was a sight to see. With his changing expressions and occasionally looking out to the crowd with a smile, he was a star, even if he was just the accompanist. He was who Banta was up against in the business. 

Well, of course, I don't actually know how they met, but it must have been an interesting encounter as it was. They're relationship must have been kept reasonably hidden, as the record managers would not really approve of such as thing. 

I hope you enjoyed this!