Just a little disclaimer of a sort, I'm not going to write out any of the words or full sketches that Hunting and James white recorded from 1892 to 1896, that is not really the intention of writing this post. The only way I discuss that with others is through face-to-face conversation about the recordings. Since I was finally able to listen to the entirety of the Actionable Offenses CD put out by Archeophone about ten years ago, I finally have more to say about the whole smut cylinder venture. It was very surprising, despite the expectations I had before on Hunting, as well as James White. Hunting's sense of humor was especially crass, though he threw the especially bawdy sketches at his friend James White.
Just like always, I was impressed at Hunting's great ability in storytelling, despite the language and nature of the sketches.
Like any of his stories, they were full of all sorts of humor, some that's typical of the era, and some that's still very relatable even to modern listeners. The degree to which Hunting had to complicate this scheme of selling these recordings soon became a network, not long after beginning the whole thing in 1892. He quickly acquired an assistant, Charles Carson, who is actually turning out to be an interesting character after doing a little research of him recently.Hunting and Carson were the ones essentially running the entire business of selling these smut cylinders to saloons and phonograph parlors all over the eastern U.S.(it would be interesting if they shipped some of these records to the few phonograph parlors in the San Francisco area!), running the operation from a few different locations in New York, with the main headquarters for this being Hunting's house at 45 Clinton Place(go out and visit if you live near there!). With this, it's likely that Carson stayed frequently with Hunting, since he was doing much of the engineering work and bookkeeping for the operation.
Just something to keep in mind about Carson, he was likely to have been gay, all of the social status that surrounded him remained exactly the same for his entire life. Just throwing that out there.
Hunting likely found Carson amid the madness of the earliest years of Columbia. His first days in Columbia's studio would have involved Carson in some way, probably as an engineer. It is this quickly bounded friendship that prompted the invention of the infernal contraption for dubbing and making copies of records. This was invented in 1892 by Hunting and Carson, but later they regretted doing so, since the demand for original records became higher around 1897 and 1898, due to their superior quality and clarity. from there. Hunting and Carson became fully trusted business partners, and the venture of the smut cylinders tested their friendship for many years. This proved a great time for Hunting,despite the amount of secrecy and need for trickery of the authorities. Of course, I would have more to say if I had the liner notes in front of me, but those did not come along with what my friend sent me. That will come later. Anyway, I would highly encourage going out on Newspaper websites and digging around on Hunting and Carson, because there's actually a lot more on their arrest and trial in court than one would expect. Well, that's why Archeophone put out the CD in the first place...
One place that's free I would highly recommend is this site here:
If I've already put this link in a post a while ago, my apologies. There's a surprising amount of articles on many of these recording stars, even Issler!
Now to move to another subject, something I enjoy talking over with fellow Rag-Time enthusiasts. The styles of the early studio pianists are very different from one another, yet they are all so similar and intertwined in the strangest ways. As Charlie Judkins and I have discussed many times, the pianists were actually not chronological in their playing styles, one supposed to be right after the other in style and age indication.
Allow me to explain this better...
Issler:
He was supposed to have the oldest sounding style and touch of the studio pianists, which in many ways he did, but his sense of rhythm set him in an oddly progressive direction. We know now that he lived to see the birth and death of Rag-Time, as well as classic jazz(yes, he lived that long...), so he pretty much saw every musical fad from the Victorian era to the beginning of swing, giving him a very unique viewpoint of music as a whole. But of course, when he played in the studios in the 1890's, he seemed that tame and ingenious man at the piano on most of the earliest recordings we all cannot get over the age to the point of where we miss that there's a piano player behind the singer. We also know well that Issler experimented with playing syncopation, which is no small thing, especially since he was the generation before the one who first played and published Rag-Time. He wouldn't have grown up with strictly syncopated music, though it's important to note that he was born and was a young child in the last few years of the original era of syncopated music(1830-c.1867) before that fell out of favor in the 1870's. Luckily for Issler, he was beginning to teach music and perform in orchestras at the time when syncopation was coming back into favor(mid-1880's), so he was just in the middle of it when the permanent era of ragged music was just starting. It was also around this time that he began his parlor orchestra, which seemed to be at a prime time to do so as well. As widely known, Issler began working for Edison in 1889, and there he would remain until the fall of North American in 1894. It was during his early time at Edison that he learned at last how to play syncopated rhythm, much like George W. Johnson did naturally in his whistling. In fact, it is likely that working with Johnson in 1891-1892 contributed to Issler learning how to play syncopated time. A way to back up this theory is to listen to the one true example of Issler playing improvised syncopation, and compare that with Johnson's whistling.
Here's Issler playing syncopated time(at a little after 1:20) with his orchestra in 1896:
Now here's the 1891 "Whistling Coon" by Johnson with Issler, pay attention the rhythm of his whistling:
Even with all of this, Issler was a little more progressive than Hylands in that way, being able to transition over(kind of) from his traditional Victorian, which is a big step forward, since he was born before and raised during the civil war. Keep in mind that Hylands grew up in an atmosphere just right for Rag-Time to become part of him, so it's not too surprising that he caught the bug so early on. Of course, like anything involving these pianists, it would be perfectly fine and much easier to figure all of this out if those actually issued solos by Issler existed...or someone found them more or less.
Now lets think of Banta and Hager for a moment. We know of Banta very well, because of the amount of times the old recording stars mentioned him, especially Dan Quinn. Knowing more about Banta is great, but it did more to eclipse the other studio pianists who did exactly what he did. It's the reason Hylands is not really well known, even Hager for that matter. Speaking of Hager, I meant to go back to my last post on him and add that his birth name was actually:
Frederick Wallace Haga
Hmm...that's an odd last name. It's not one that's very common. Wonder where that comes from...
Anyway, it's likely now that Hager was actually another early Edison pianist, despite the fact that they already had Banta there to handle the Rag-Time. Oddly enough, we wouldn't expect Hager(or Haga) to become an accomplished Rag pianist according to his background, even he had a more prestigious background than Issler, which should have promoted an even more conservative outlook on music. But nope...Hager(or Haga) became just as good a Rag pianist as Banta, and that's no small thing. Banta was the top-of-the-line when it came to Rag pianists, since he rarely made mistakes, and was able to change direction behind a singer in a split second. Not even Hylands was paying attention enough to be able to do that. A good example of Banta's extraordinary ability to keep track of himself and the singer at the same time is of course these two fantastic records here:
and
These records are hard to beat, though a newly slowed down transfer of Collins' "All I Wants is my Chickens" is just as fine:
Now that this is at the correct speed, we can really tell how great and clear this recording is! It's a very well recorded cylinder, and the piano comes through rather well, like many 1898-1899 Edison cylinders. Recall that this is one of those few cylinders where the pianist is either Banta or Hager(or Haga), and every time I listen to it, it gets me more confused, since there are bits of Banta and Hager(Haga) all over the place in the playing. It's such a good recording though, as far as early Rag-Time recordings go, this one is certainly up there. It wouldn't make any sense why Banta and Hager(Haga) sound similar, since Banta was from New York, essentially self-taught(well, that's debatable...), yet he had some characteristics of folk Rag pianists, but it seems a little more weird that Hager(Haga) had more of these. Hager(Haga) played fifths in the left hand, and played left hand rhythms that were syncopated, which is a little strange just in general(the Argentine tangos written around this time have some of this, such as some of this here.)though he was from Pennsylvania, not anywhere farther in the midwest like Hylands. It seems Hager probably took from the surrounding pianists in the record business, despite all of them usually staying to their own styles.
Keep in mind that Hager(Haga) was the same age as Fred Gaisberg:
Though they were the same age, their playing styles were very different. Gaisberg was a much more typical pianist of the day, not saying that he wasn't good, his playing was exceptional, but it was a style that better fits into the time period. Hylands would have been playing pieces like this one as early 1891(note that this piece is in the earliest style of cake-walks, such as in 1891-92), and Banta would have been playing similarly by at least 1893. And what was Gaisberg playing in 1893? Well, he was playing this sort of thing. Yep. Pretty different from Banta, Hylands, and Hager(Haga). Also, it's important to note that Max Hoffmann was the same age as Gaisberg and Hager, and Hoffmann wrote all those fantastic Rag medleys in that signature style of Chicago pianists from 1896-97. Despite Gaisberg being the same age as Hoffmann, he played Rag-Time(in 1896!) in a pretty awkward way, the best example being Gaskin's 1896 Berliner of "All Coons Look Alike to Me". Even Issler played syncopation more naturally than he! Hager especially made progress for his age, and it's particularly weird for Hager(Haga) since he had all of that prestige and status as a musician. He was a fantastic rag pianist! Other than being an even better arranger... Hager(Haga)was arguably just as good as Banta, and it's clear he was the best studio arranger of the era, which is really saying a lot, since he had Issler and Tom Clark to beat(Tom Clark was a member of the last installment of Gilmore's Band, beginning about the late-1870's, and recall that Hager's band was deemed better than Gilmore's after Gilmore died in 1892). That must have been a little awkward, Hager(Haga) working as the main music man at Zon-O-Phone and his old rival Tom Clark running the Columbia orchestra and Band until 1903, much like when Charles Prince came into Columbia in 1903 with the rival musicians to the old Issler crew(i. e. Tuson and Schweinfest).
Now to listen to some more newly slowed down transfers!
Now to move back to Issler for a moment.
I have a deep respect and love to Issler's playing, since he was the best of these early studio pianists, and he just happened to be the first studio pianist! This first one is actually one of J. W. Myers' earliest recordings, dated to about 1891-92. Since it is that early, it is certainly a North American cylinder, since that's where he started making records, Myers and Issler. Anyway, here's:
This truly is a fantastic recording, even with the age that comes with it. It's a prime example of what Victorian music sounded like, even with Issler seeming to imitate the pianists he would have heard when he was younger(or just the old Viennese style of waltzes). It's essentially Issler putting on his old style in the piano accompaniment, and still not missing a note.
The next one is by George W. Johnson, in honor or black history month(though it's always black history month ;-)
Here's the newly slowed down transfer of George W. Johnson's "The Whistling Girl" with Fred Hylands:
This is played in the same key as his fantastic 1891 take of "The Whistling Coon" with Issler, that's what was used as reference here.
The next one is one of those classic comic songs by Will F. Denny.
(love that picture! You can almost imagine a crazy smile on his face!)
It's just as funny as all of those other comic songs he recorded from 1893 to 1903, but this time, rather than the take being made a little more strange with Hylands as the pianist, it's an Edison cylinder! That means that the pianist is Banta. Here's Denny's hilarious and weird Edison take of "Can't Stop" from late-1899:
Just like Quinn and Edward Favor, most people play Denny's records too fast, because of misconceptions of what they think his voice sounded like. His voice, just like the others listed in the last sentence, was a little deeper than most would assume. Just compare the original transfer of "Can't Stop" to the new one, here's the original transfer:
This is what most collectors assume Denny sounded like. Just like Quinn, he was not as high of a tenor as people have long assumed. The only reason I know this is because of how natural his voice sounds at this slower speed, as well as the tempo of the song and piano accompaniment.
The best example of how Denny really sounded comes from an unusual place to find such examples. Here's the record:
(music starts at 3:35...)
Yep. Now that's Denny. It's a perfect speed, he sounds much more natural, and the piano accompaniment is at a perfect tempo. Another good example of this is also another newly slowed down transfer, this time of a more popular comic song by Denny, here's Denny's 1899 Columbia of "How'd You like to be the Iceman?". It's just as weird and wild as any of Denny's records, though it's more characteristic of his Columbia's, as those tended to be more eccentric(durr...of course they were),with the piano accompaniment being no excuse for adding to this. This take is all good until we get to the very end, where it gets weird really quick. Denny does his usual, and Hylands plays some strange solo that would be impossible to transcribe. It's still just as great as any Denny comic song, especially since it's a Columbia.
Now, here's something by Vess Ossman:
(Ossman in 1892-ish)
Didn't think I would ever use this picture again did you? Nope, of course I'll use it again!
Here's the newly slowed down transfer of his "A Bunch of Rags" with Hylands:
This one turned out really nice. What's especially great about this transfer is that the bass notes in the piano come through unusually well. They transferred so well in fact that you don't really have to be playing close attention to gather what inversions of the chords in the left hand Hylands plays behind Vess. Whoever did the pantographing job for this cylinder really was skilled and having a good day with this copy! It's just as good as AtLee's 1898 take of "The Anvil Chorus", and that's really saying something.
I really want to think that George Emerson or Charles Carson(more likely Carson in this case)did those really good pantographing jobs, but we'll never know. If that's so, it would add another level of fascination to those better Columbia copies.
With this new transfer, we can hear a lot of Hylands' habits when playing left hand parts, which is rare, since that's always a good indicator of style origin. There are a lot of chords inverted lower in the bass on this recording, which are characteristic of midwestern and southern Rag pianists, not too surprising, but it's great to actually HEAR it! Also, take note of that strange and interesting left hand thing he plays at 2:27-ish, that's an unusual little thing, but it's a really nice addition to Vess's playing. Another record where we can hear Hylands play those low inverted chords(in fact some of the same ones as the Ossman record above!) is on this odd 1898-ish take of "The Laughing Song" by Johnson. Well, only at the end is this clear, because the rest of the record doesn't particularly catch the piano accompaniment too well. In fact, I would say that the Johnson take just above is the weirdest of all the "Laughing Song" takes he did out there. The piano solos at the end is just the strangest thing, it's had nothing at all to do with the melody of the song, and it's just a weird Rag tag at the end that isn't really the melody to another song(unless it is and I'm missing it, because that possible). It's a good tag for a cake-walk though! Even if it's not very syncopated.
Anyway, sorry about being rather infrequent with the blog posts, it's been hard to write about a single subject and find the time to do so, school has been getting real busy...
Hope you enjoyed this!
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