Tag: compilations

The CoS Tapes are a series of CD-sized compilations available to Centuries of Sounds Members. A donation $5 per month will give you access to these compilations and other member benefits. Join here.

John Philip Sousa’s world was a regimented one, as befitted a military band man, but when he left trombonist Arthur Pryor alone to record some “tinned music” he inadvertently created one of the most extravagant moments in turn-of-the-century music. Soon brass soloists of all varieties were competing to fill two minutes of wax with the most excessive collection of flourishes and sfx they could muster. By the late 1900s they had all apparently calmed down – but for a decade at least the peacocks were producing some of the most exciting music ever recorded.

01 – Bohumir Kryl – Arbucklenian Polka (1903)
02 – Arthur Pryor with Sousa’s Band – The Patriot (1901)
03 – Herbert L. Clarke And John Hazel – The Friendly Rivals (1905)
04 – Bohumir Kryl – Carnival Of Venice (1902)
05 – Sousa’s Band – Trombone Sneeze (1902)
06 – Bohumir Kryl – Sweet Sixteen Waltz (1904)
07 – Leo A. Zimmerman & The Edison Concert Band – Leona Polka (1903)
08 – Columbia Orchestra – Sea Flower Polka (1897)
09 – Bohumir Kryl – King Carnival (1905)
10 – John Hazel & The Edison Military Band – Secret Polka (1903)
11 – Bohumir Kryl – Russian Fantasia (with Variations) (1902)
12 – John Hazel, Frank R. Seltzer And The Edison Military Band – Two Of Us (1904)
13 – Bohumir Kryl – Sing, Smile, Slumber (1906)
14 – Albert Bode & Columbia Band – Seashell Waltz (1903)
15 – Bohumir Kryl – National Fantasia (1903)
16 – Bohumir Kryl – Kryl’s Favorite (1904)
17 – John C Martin – Arbucklenian Polka (1901)
18 – Sousa’s Band with Arthur Pryor – Love Thoughts Waltz (1898)

The CoS Tapes are a series of CD-sized compilations available to Centuries of Sounds Members. A donation $5 per month will give you access to these compilations and other member benefits. Join here.

The CoS Tapes are a series of CD-sized compilations available to Centuries of Sounds Members. A donation $5 per month will give you access to these compilations and other member benefits. Join here.

The CoS Tapes are a series of CD-sized compilations available to Centuries of Sounds Members. A donation $5 per month will give you access to these compilations and other member benefits. Join here.

The CoS Tapes are a series of CD-sized compilations available to Centuries of Sounds Members. A donation $5 per month will give you access to these compilations and other member benefits. Join here.

Another compilation of early recorded music – this one has a selection of virtuoso xylophone solos, from the time when this was a standard thing to release.

Tracks

01 Charles P. Lowe – Leonora Waltz (1897)
02 Charles P. Lowe – High And Low (1898)
03 Charles P. Lowe – Brilliant Gallop (1900)
04 Charles P. Lowe. – Carnival Of Venice (1902)
05 J. Frank Hopkins. – Medley Of Reels (1902)
06 Charles P. Lowe – American Patrol (1905)
07 Albert Benzler – Spoontime (1906)
08 Albert Muller with Orchestra – Katie (1906)
09 Charles P. Lowe with Columbia Symphony Orchestra – Medley Of Popular Airs (1906)
10 Chris Chapman – Dill Pickles Rag (1908)
11 Charles Daab – Irish and Scotch Melodies (1910)
12 William H Reitz – Buffalo News March (1913)
13 Charles Daab – Fairest Rose (1914)
14 Lou Chiha Frisco – Kangaroo Hop (1916)

The CoS Tapes are a series of CD-sized compilations available to Centuries of Sounds Members. A donation $5 per month will give you access to these compilations and other member benefits. Join here.

Trailblazing artists are usually better-remembered than Vess L. Ossman. The first musician to make a ragtime record, the ‘King of the Banjo’, and one of the biggest names of the Edwardian era, Sylvester’s reputation suffered three blows in the post-WW1 era – his genre (ragtime) was superseded by a more inventive one (jazz) , his reign as the ‘King of the Banjo’ was cut short by the rapid rise of a rival, and most importantly perhaps, his instrument fell out of fashion, except in bluegrass music, where it was played in a very different way.

Vess was born in Hudson, New York in 1868, and spent the entirity of his adult life as a professional musician, recording for 25 years, and touring America and further afield for more than 30. His final recordings were made in 1917, but he continued to tour with his son, Vess L. Ossman Jr., until his death from an on-stage heart attack in 1923 at the age of 55.

Vess L. Ossman was the first musican I felt I’d “discovered” in my research – a bit of an arrogant framing, I’m afraid. In his lifetime Vess achieved international fame and recorded plenty of good music, much of it of great historical importance, but the ragtime banjo now seems like it should be an obscure footnote. it isn’t. With this compilation I hope to do a little to spread awareness of his legacy.