Bernard Aal Adler (May 8, 1879 to June 11, 1942)
Compositions
1896 Have You Seen the Old Home Since You     Left It? [1] 1898 I Want a Real Coon: Two Step I Want a Real Coon: Song [1] Sweet Lillie Lavender: Waltz [1] I'm One of the Family Now [1] 1899 I'se Done Grown Tired of Coon Songs [1] Rebecca's Left Home with a Coon [1] Be A Good Fellow My Boy [1] 1906 The Rose and The Heart [2] Dat Lovin' Rag: Song [2] The Swellest Girl I Ever Knew [2] 1907 Love, Love, Love [2] 1908 Dat Lovin' Rag: Rag Good Morning Judge [2] The Boodle Man [2] Won't You Come Up and Spoon in Coey's     Balloon [2]	1909 That Dreamy Rag I Love My Horse and Wagon, But Oh!     You Buick Car [2] That Dreamy Rag: Song [3] 1911 When You're Not Here That Loving Waltz When I'm Away That Dying Rag [4] 1912 Just As the Ship Went Down: A Song of     the Sea [5,6]    1. w/Arthur J. Lamb    2. w/Victor H. Smalley    3. w/Harry L. Newton    4. w/Irving Berlin    5. w/Sidney Gibson    6. w/Edith Maida Lessing

     Only snippets of information are available on the life of Bernard Adler, who made at least one important ragtime contribution. The collective snippets are presented here for the first time as a long-view portrait of the composer. Bernard was born in Chicago, Illinois to German immigrant clock and watch repairman Louis Adler and his California born wife Sophie (or Sallie) Aal (possibly the Hebrew A’al). He was the middle child of five siblings, including Flora (12/9/1876), Maurice (c.1878), Sophie (1880) and Janet (1889). While little is known of his training or home life, his abilities went beyond what would be taught at Chicago public schools. The fact that Maurice also became involved in the music business suggests that the brothers received some kind of formal music instruction in a town full of very competent musical talent.
     Bernard's first published composition appeared in 1896 when he was just 17. Teamed up with British immigrant Arthur J. Lamb, who over the next few years would make quite a name for himself in Chicago and New York, it was the first of several songs from 1896 to 1899 that spanned the sentimental and outright "coon" song formats. In fact, Lamb's take on the genre that had done well for him in the beginning, I'se Done Grown Tired of Coon Songs, is an indication of how many musicians and consumers had reached saturation as far as exposure to such songs. Their I Want a Real Coon from 1898 was enough of a hit on the Chicago stage to warrant an instrumental release as well. Curiously, the 1900 census does not list an occupation for Bernard, Maurice or their father, which is likely an oversight, since all three were gainfully employed. Bernard is shown as a musician in at least one early Chicago directory, even though he was still living with his parents, and garnered mention as an entertainer in the Chicago papers as early as 1898.
     Adler worked largely in drinking establishments and occasionally for the stage over the next few years, as Lamb had moved on. Then in 1906 his pieces started to appear again, this time with New York native journalist Victor H. Smalley. One of their first pieces was Dat Lovin' Rag, dedicated to W.B. Dixon of St. Paul, Minnesota, where Smalley would be residing by 1910. Published first in Chicago, the piece got picked up by F.B. Haviland in New York where it saw a measure of success. This simple ragtime song was integrated into a 1907 play with lyrics and libretto by the ambitious Smalley. The Merry Widower had a short 1908 run at the famous Pekin Theater. While the play did not endure, the song did through the efforts of rising star Sophie Tucker. In fact, the feedback she got from Dat Lovin' Rag convinced her to steer more towards syncopated songs in her act, soon propelling her to national stardom. The piece also became a solo piano rag with a little bit of rearranging in 1908, one of those rare instances where the instrumental version came after the song. On June 9, 1906, Bernie was married in Mineeapolis, Minnesota to Charlotta “Lottie” A. Hayward from New York, her second marriage.
     Bernie and Victor continued to turn out a few more pieces through 1909 after which Smalley moved to Minnesota for a full time job in the newspaper business. Adler continued to write sporadically with a couple of other lyricists, including Irving Berlin. There is no indication that Bernie lived in New York City for any amount of time, so the details of how he got involved with Berlin as a lyricist for That Dying Rag are not available. Perhaps the title was not all that attractive, as sales on the piece were only moderate, even after Berlin achieved fame late in the year for his Alexander's Ragtime Band. Bernard and Lottie were shown living in Chicago in the 1910 census, his occupation listed as a musician. Bernie's brother Maurice appears in the same census listed as a sheet music salesman, although no specific firm is indicated.
     For whatever twist of fate was involved, Adler did manage to become involved in one of the most visible hot topic songs of 1912. There was an almost macabre rush to get books and songs to press after the tragic sinking of the ill-fated steamship Titanic in April of 1912. Adler teamed up with two other Chicago area composers for what would become perhaps the most enduring of these entries, Just as the Ship Went Down. Somewhere between the maudlin Asleep in the Deep and the catchy The Band Played On, it found performance venues all over the country, particularly where films of the ship leaving dock and the rescued survivors pulling into New York Harbor were shown. In spite of this success, it is the last known published song from Bernie's pen.
     The trail goes partially cold there. With the proliferation of (traditional) jazz in Chicago in the mid 1910s and the influx of talented pianists from St. Louis and New Orleans, the work may simply have dried up. In 1918 Bernie was listed on his draft record working as a traveling salesman for the Roman Oil Portrait Company. Not quite 40 yet, he cited rheumatism in his left foot and a rib injury as exemptions from the draft. He is not readily found in the 1920 census, although Maurice is still present as a sheet music salesman. Bernie is seen in a couple of 1920s directories in Chicago, but none that indicate his vocation. The 1930 census, however, does show him as divorced and working as a night club musician, actually living at the club at 749 Rush Street in Chicago with other performers. That same year, Maurice was busy in a new career as the owner of a toy store.
     From the mid to late 1930s to just days before his death, Bernie played jazz and swing in numerous ballrooms throughout the Chicago area. In the 1940 census Bernie was still living on Rush Street listed as a musician at the same club. The last advertisement listing him working at that Chicago nightclub was on May 18, 1942. He died within a month at age 63. Bernie Adler unfortunately did not live to enjoy some new level of fame when Capitol Records A&R man Lou Busch recorded Adler's most famous piece, Dat Lovin' Rag, on the first all ragtime LP, Honky-Tonk Piano in 1950. Although Busch had re-titled it to That Everlovin' Rag and rearranged it somewhat, the piece was still recognizable. An even more accurate rendition was recorded by Dick Hyman in 1958 on one of his honky-tonk albums as Knuckles O'Toole.

John William "Blind" Boone (May 17, 1864 to October 4, 1927)
Known Compositions
c.1880 The Marshfield Tornado 1886 Cleo 1891 Whippoorwill: Romance for Pianoforte 1892 When I Meet Dat Coon To-Night Whar Shill We Go When de Great Day Comes 1893 Grand Valse de Concert, Opus 13 Caprice de Concert, Number 1 Caprice de Concert, Number 2 Dinah's Barbecue You Can't Go to Gloria 1894 Melons Cool and Green Sparks That Little German Band 1899 Dat Mornin' in de Sky	1902 Caprice de Concert, Number 3     (Dance des Negres) 1907 Aurora Waltz 1908 Geo'gia Melon Blind Boone's Ragtime Medley #1     "Strains from the Alleys" 1909 Blind Boone's Ragtime Medley #2     "Strains from the Flat Branch" Last Dream: Waltzes c.1912 Gavotte Chromatique Woodland Murmurs 1913 Love Feast Unknown or Uncertain Josephine Polka The Hummingbird
Selected Rollography
Title Gavotte Chromatique Woodland Murmurs Rag Medley No. 2 Camp Meeting Medley No. 1 Dixie (Dixie's Land) When You and I Were Young, Maggie Nearer My God to Thee	Label [QRS Autograph 80254] [QRS Autograph 80268] [QRS Autograph 200142] [QRS Autograph 400034] [QRS Autograph 400038] [QRS Autograph 400044] [QRS Autograph 400048]

     The legendary ragtime pioneer John William Boone was born to Rachel Boone in 1864. census records have indicated a range of birth years from 1862 to 1866, but 1864 is the most accurate year of birth according to the author's research. Rachel was an escaped slave from Kentucky who found a position as a "contraband cook" for the Union Army in Miami, Missouri. A mulatto, she claimed to be an indirect descendant of famed American Daniel Boone, a claim with some measure of credibility, and kept that name. John's father was a white bugler with the Union Army.
     Given that information, the Union Army records show only one bugler in an applicable at that time period, Private William S. Belcher of Company F of the 3rd Regiment, Missouri State Militia Cavalary, then later with the 7th Regiment in the same capacity as bugler. Not only was he in the Miami area around the probable time of conception, but further investigation into Army records reveal that he was on a furlough to Miami about the time of John's birth in 1864. The furlough turned into an attempt to enlist with the 23rd Missouri Infantry the day after John's birth, which turned into a desertion charge from the Union Army and a conviction. After the war he married and became a farmer. It is unclear if he ever had more than peripheral contact with his son for whatever reasons.
     Shortly after John's birth Rachel moved to Warrensburg, Missouri. She is shown there in 1870 working in washing and ironing, and was working for many prominent families in the area. Curiously, John, now called Willie, was shown as only 4 years old in that census, and he had another brother, Wyatt, father unknown, who is shown as 2 years old in 1870.

The Columbia home of John W. "Blind" Boone

     When Willie was around 6 months (some sources claim 6 years) old he contracted what the doctors called "brain fever," most likely some form of meningitis by later accounts, and their cure was to have his eyes surgically removed to relieve the pressure, his lids sewn shut. Working through this supposed handicap, Willie made it into a gift. His skills and listening and recreating were clear when he was just a toddler. He could mimic bird calls and accurately drum out rhythmic patterns on tables or pans as a toddler. Having access to pianos around the neighborhood, Willie learned how to create melodies on them, and by age five had formed a small band with some of his friends. Supported by many residents of his neighborhood, they encouraged him to grow his talents.
     At age 7 he received a French harp as a gift, quickly learning to tune and play it. This allowed him to earn some extra income, even before he was 8, playing it at various functions or in people's homes. When he was eight, Rachel ended her life as a single mother by marrying Harrison Hendrix, and eventually the couple added five more siblings to Willie's family. They moved to a one room cabin, but by all reports it was a loving household, and Willie remained close to his step-siblings throughout his life.
     In an effort to accommodate her son's needs, Rachel enrolled Willie at the Missouri School for the Blind in St. Louis, with the generous help of donations by neighbors and townspeople, both black and white. Some also funded the train trip, and made him clothes to take along. His blindness and pure joy in life helped make all of them color blind as well. He left Warrensburg in the fall of 1873. It was clear early on that Willie was not happy at the school, and instead of communing with his own classmates, he preferred to listen to older students practice in the music room. One of them, Enoch Donley, befriended Willie and taught him basics of technique, and also introduced him to a piano teacher at the school. After a year of work, Boone was able to play virtually anything he heard with commendable technique.
     The situation at the school changed within a couple of years, and a new supervisor was put in place, changing the way black students were treated. Willie was removed from most of his musical access and taught to make broom instead. In order to play he escaped the school at night (presumably with some assistance) and started hanging around the nearby tenderloin district where early forms of what would become ragtime were being performed. While he was able to pick up a lot from listening to the brothel and bar pianists, he was eventually caught enough times that he was expelled from the school. Forced to live on the streets, he played where he could, often in churches, and even sang to people in public places like train depots for money. Nearly starving, a conductor found him and managed to get him back to Warrensburg and his mother.
     Back home, Willie continued to play in homes, halls and churches. It was in a church where he was giving a small concert that John Lange, a local contractor and successful black businessman, first heard Boone play. He was substantially impressed, and after some time decided to expand his scope of business operations, becoming one of the first African American managers of a concert artist. In preparation for sending Willie out into the world, Lange sent him to Christian College in Columbia for advanced musical training with Anna Heuerman. It was here that he learned a great love for classical music, which he was quickly able to emulate, and even duplicate, sometimes on the first or second hearing. After sufficient training, Boone came home, and with Lange formed the Blind Boone Company, adopting the motto Merit, Not Sympathy, Wins. Based in Columbia, the pair set out to make Boone famous, with resounding results - albeit slowly resounding.

John Lange (standing) with his famous
client and friend, Blind Boone, c.1900.

     Boone's first official public performance under Lange's management was on January 18th, 1880 at St. Paul's Methodist Church in Jefferson City, the capitol of Missouri, when he was only fifteen and a half years old. Among the pieces he played there, and would continue to in future concerts, was Franz Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody, Moonlight Sonata and other sonatas by Ludwig von Beethoven, and selections from famous operas. Later in the year he added his own Marshfield Tornado.
     This was Boone's own pianistic representation of an F4 tornado that tore through Marshfield, Missouri on April 18, 1880, killing 99 people and injuring at least another 100. Descriptions of Boone's performance conjure up a tour de force of effects that potentially had a detrimental effect on the instrument, and it became his signature piece. Marshfield Tornado was never recorded or printed as Boone wanted it to be entirely his, each performance to be unique. In truth, it is questionable whether a player piano could have fared well with the onslaught of notes from Boone's hands. One newspaper described it as follows: The piece is a variation, beginning with the quiet of the Sabbath morning at church, the approaching storm and the roaring destruction as it sweeps over the town. The noise dies down and peace again reigns."
     The early years of the show were difficult, but necessary to build Boone's reputation. Lange, Boone, and perhaps a couple of other, traveled the Midwest in a wagon carrying a piano with them, allowing them to set up wherever they needed and avoid the reservations some white piano owners might have about the boy's taking over of their instrument. However, this was hard on the instrument physically, and part of the budget from the income was set aside for replacement pianos every few months. As Boone's reputation grew, it seems that a good piano was more readily available at their destinations, and eventually they did not have to travel with one. They also often stayed with a local sponsor to avoid hotel expenses, but the home base was in Columbia.
     In the June 1880 census, Boone is shown as one of many residents in the home of Columbia farmer Alfred Woods and his large family, although no profession is listed. As Boone and Lange grew their show, Lange would hire somebody to set out a week or more ahead of the troupe for public relation purposes, advertising the coming of Boone with posters and word of mouth. Notices in the paper comparing Boone with the already established "Blind" Wiggins didn't hurt either, such as this one with an off-handed sleight towards the older artist from the Gettysburg Compiler of June 9, 1885: "Poor Blind Tom, the alleged[!] pianist, is discovering that another black pianist, known as Blind Boone, but who Tom considers anything but a boon to him, is about to become a formidablee rival in concert business."
     While Blind Tom had his own niche and a considerable lock on Midwest concert halls, the report was more or less predictive. By the end of five years, when Boone was approaching 21, the company had no problem getting booked in towns or cities of every size. The reviews were positive and more money was also coming in, so Boone and company were living well by the time the 1890s came around. In 1891, John married Eugenia Lange, his manager's youngest sister. They remained together for the rest of his life.
     According to an article in a May 1893 edition of Kunkel's Musical Review, the Blind Boone Concert Company was in town for four weeks, and the star was greatly lauded. "His playing is remarkable, not because of his blindness, but because of his artistic excellence. John W. Boone is justly considered the successor of the celebrated [Louis Moreau] Gottschalk. He grasps with marvelous rapidity any composition played for him, and the most difficult pieces are played after single reading. His engagements here drew crowded houses nightly." The company also grew in size over the next decade, as Lange and Boone added vocalists to the show, including Emma Smith, Melissa Fuell, Marguerite Day, Stella May (just 16 when she was recruited) and Josephine Huggard. They also expanded their reach, performing at least 8,000 concerts in the United States between 1880 and 1895, along with performances in Canada, Mexico and Europe.
     One of Boone's greatest joys was sharing his gifts and enthusiasm with children. He would openly promote his desire for parents to bring their children to his performances in order to bring them to music, and would sometimes bring large groups of them inside the performance hall for free, simply so he could encourage them to also learn the thrill of playing and sharing that gift. It evidently effected a great many youths who ended up working hard to learn to play, some actually becoming fine pianists in churches or theaters.
     He often gave back to the church community that supported him, providing funds for a great many church and school building or repair projects wherever he went. According to the 1900 census, Boone was firmly ensconced in Columbia, and Eugenia was now the treasurer for the company. His mother Rachel died in January 1901. Throughout his career Boone had composed a number of number of songs, instrumentals and classically styled pieces, many that were eventually published, including some notable ones between 1900 and 1910. This included the beautiful Aurora Waltz of 1907, reportedly inspired by descriptions of the aurora borealis over the northern hemisphere. In 1908 and 1909 he contributed two medleys to the ragtime collective, largely made up of folk themes and some original derivatives. Blind Boone's Rag Medley Number One: "Strains from the Alleys", and Blind Boone's Rag Medley Number Two: "Strains from the Flat Branch", were not the same type of ragtime that many other composers had been writing by that time.

Boone's custom manufactured 1891 9' Chickering
oak Grand piano

They did represent, however, a more authentic look at the melodies and rhythms that would be the foundation of ragtime; a window into that time when Boone was a youth wandering through the St. Louis tenderloin hearing banjos and pianos pound out these tunes. He was listed in 1910 in Columbia as a traveling musician, but Eugenia did not have any vocation listed even though she was still active with the company, a common oversight of that time regarding women's roles in society.
     During his years as a prominent performer, his endorsement was sought out by certain piano companies, and in the end the Chickering Piano Company of Boston, Massachusetts, would offer him the biggest incentive of all. Chickering, perhaps Steinway's biggest U.S. rival at that time, offered him a large oak nine foot concert grand in 1891 which he enjoyed enormously. (It is now kept in the Boone County Historical Society in Columbia, Missouri, and can still be played.) They made several others for him over the years which he routinely wore out. However, his name did show up in connection with other instruments from time to time. Among those were Steinway and Estey, the latter being a famous organ builder as well. In The Music Trade Review of July 6, 1901, a letter of endorsement to Bush and Gerts was quoted: "The Bush & Gerts piano is a fine instrument, possessing a pure sweet tone, and any dealer may well be proud to handle such a piano. It is bound to make friends wherever it is known and sold." One month later on August 3, 1901, the following was printed in the MTR:

     A great deal of this biography was extracted or assembled from public government records, school records, newspapers, periodicals and commonly known information about Boone. Some of the information was culled from Blind Boone: Missouri's Ragtime Pioneer by Jack A. Batterson with Rebecca B. Schroeder, available from many sellers including Amazon.com. Thanks also to the Blind Boone Ragtime Festival and Blind Boone Park in Warrensburg, Missouri, for their continuing efforts to keep Boone's memory and positive message of hope alive.

Euday Louis Bowman (November 9, 1886 to May 26, 1949)
Compositions
1914 12th Street Rag 6th Street Rag 10th Street Rag 1915 Petticoat Lane Colorado Blues Fort Worth Blues Tipperary Blues Kansas City Blues 1916 Rosary Blues Shamrock Rag 1917 That's Teasing Them All, One and All 11th Street Rag 1919 12th Street Rag Song     [w/James S. Sumner] 1921 Water Lily's Dream Then They Wonder Why a Boy Will     Leave His Happy Home [1] 1922 Jolly Jazz Blues [1]	1925 C.C. Blues [1] 1926 Lie'in Papa [1] Chromatic Chords 1934 Jubilee's Ball [1] 1936 Texas Centennial Jubilee [1] 1938 I Dreamed of Paradise [1] Hiding Your Love [1] She's the One for Me [1] Dream Island [1] Old Glory On Its Way [1] 1943 12th Street Rag Song [w/Andy Razaf] 1945 Spider on the Wall [1] 19?? Forgotten Rose [w/Edward Payne] [2]   1. Library of Congress Collection   2. University of North Texas
Known Discography
1923 12th Street Rag [note that label has     Richard M. Jones, but is     likely Bowman] 1924 12th Street Rag [Unreleased Pressing] 1948 12th Street Rag Baby is You Mad at Me?	Matrix and Date [Gennett 11493] 06/01/1923       [Gennett Test] ??/??/1924   [Bowman A-11748 A] ??/??/1948 [Bowman A-11748 B] ??/??/1948

     Often associated with Kansas City (at least in composition), Euday Bowman was actually a native of Texas, and his pieces fall under the category of "Texas Ragtime", a unique style all to itself. He was born in Tarrant County near the Fort Worth area to Kentucky native carpenter George A. Bowman and his Dutch immigrant wife Olivia Marguerite Graham Estee (Lanbin De Eske) Bowman. Euday was the youngest of three siblings, including his sister Mary (5/1877) and brother Julius (9/1880). While his birth year has traditionally cited as 1887, it is listed specifically as 1886 in the 1900 Census and on his 1917 draft record, therefore 1886 will be assumed here as most correct. There have also been assertions that he was a light-skinned black. However, looking back into his lineage his mother is absolutely white, and his father is listed as such going back to the 1870s, so such speculation is false. Bowman was further listed as white in all Census and draft records in which he appears.
     For part of his childhood Euday and his siblings lived with their paternal grandfather, Gatewood Bowman, near Mansfield, Texas. Gatewood also reportedly visited Kansas City from time to time with Euday in tow. His parents were divorced in 1905 when he was in his late teens, and Olivia moved in with Mary and Euday. Given that both his mother Olivia and sister Mary were music teachers, Mary working for the Fort Worth school system, it is likely they were both largely responsible for Euday's earliest exposure to piano and composition. Mary is listed as a music teacher at 23 in the 1900 Census.
     Following a few attempts at writing in his teens and early twenties, Bowman struck out on his own as an itinerant pianist, playing largely in the prostitution districts of large towns and cities where the better bordellos were located. It was during this period that young Euday allegedly lost a leg while trying to hop a train. However, this story is contradicted by his 1917 draft record which showed no infirmities to prevent him from being enlisted, so this dismemberment would have happened later, if at all. In 1910 Bowman was still living in Fort Worth, at least part of the time, with Olivia (now showing as a widow) and older sister Mary, both working as music teachers. Euday was listed as a teamster.
     After spending some time working and playing piano in the districts in both Fort Worth and Kansas City, Bowman composed the 12th Street Rag. He claims it was as early as 1905, but this is hard to confirm. It was melodically simple due to its secondary rag three over four pattern, which made it easy to play by ear and to improvise on, creating a durable hit once it was published many years later. However, when performed directly from the sheet music using the octaves in the original score, it becomes a bit more challenging. In fact, the first self-publication of this rag, submitted for copyright on January 2, 1915, was deemed nearly impossible to play, particularly the introduction and third strain. It was revamped for a second edition of around 500 to 1000 copies, signified by a hand-stamped copyright.
     After limited success in trying to market the piece by himself, and looking to cover his costs, Bowman sold the rag to the Jenkins Publishing firm in Kansas City for a mere $300. They marketed it well and helped convert the rag into the popular version that is still available into the 21st century. Whether 12th Street Rag was named after 12th Street in Kansas City, or the same in either Dallas or Fort Worth, all of which had a 12th Street in the entertainment and red light district, is a question of where he was when he wrote it or where he was thinking of, and this is not entirely verified. However, the first of three sets of lyrics added at a later date start out "Down in Kansas City...", likely a choice of the rag's Kansas City publisher or the lyricist he chose. A further clue would be on the covers of both the 11th Street Rag and 12th Street Rag, which have drawings of downtown Kansas City, including the large F.W. Woolworth store, and his piece Petticoat Lane, which is clearly related to Kansas City.
     Based on his post-sale success with 12th Street Rag Bowman wrote rags for Sixth Street, Tenth Street and Petticoat Lane, and had a minor success with the Eleventh Street Rag. Most of his compositions from this point were blues that were based in his Texas musical heritage, but also contained elements of good ragtime. They were initially published by a house he set up with a partner, Bowman and Ward. Unfortunately, once he sold 12th Street Rag and later some of the other Bowman and Ward scores to Jenkins, such as Kansas City Blues, for a relatively paltry sum, he did not see any more revenue from any of them in spite of the enormous national hit status of his most popular piece. For them it was just business, but it haunted Bowman for many years as he struggled to make a living. On his 1918 draft record he listed himself as a musician, but also as "not employed." Bowman was still living in Fort Worth in 1920 with his mother and sister, working as an equipment operator of some kind.
     Euday again tried to strike out on his own, marrying Miss Geneva Morris on October 19, 1920, in Erath, Texas. However, the union was problematic and Geneva abandoned their home by mid 1921. Their divorce was finalized in 1926. In 1930 he was still living with his sister, their mother having died in 1922, but Euday now was shown as a pianist and jazz teacher, having gained some fame from his most famous work. During the 1920s and 1930s Bowman also submitted a number of other pieces to the Library of Congress, likely wary of repeating his 12th Street Rag experience, but they were not published, remaining in manuscript form. (Some of these works are now available at the Library of Congress web site for viewing.)
     Finally in 1937, even before the original copyright renewal was available follwing the usual 26 year period, Euday was able to get the rights back to his beloved and now quite famous 12th Street Rag. However, he made little return from it during the war years and even soon after, in spite of reprints and promotion of the piece. It had been recorded by many prominent musicians over the past two decades, including Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, arranger and bandleader Fletcher Henderson, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, and many New Orleans traditional jazz musicians. Bowman eventually reassigned the copyright to publisher Shapiro-Bernstein. He also joined ASCAP in 1946 to assure even more protection for and revenue from his popular rag. He moved back in with his sister soon after that, and there are reports that he was engaged collecting and selling junk, although they are difficult to substantiate.
     In early 1948, big band leader Pee Wee Hunt inadvertently recorded Bowman's most famous opus during a radio show transcription session in Nashville for Capitol Records, when the engineer informed him there was still a little space left on the disc. The arrangement was silly in places with a doo-wacka-doo chorus by the trumpets, and the questionably pitched piano used for a solo passage was at least a quarter step flat. Not intended for airplay, the recording was nonetheless broadcast by stations all over the country, ironically during a musician's strike when studio recordings other than for the radio were being boycotted. The public demand for the track was nearly immediate, and caught Capitol Records by surprise. They soon released it on a 78 RPM single, and as a result the 12th Street Rag once again became a nostalgic hit.
     Bowman reportedly bought a very nice car with his first royalty check in early 1949, but it was the only such check for that piece he would ever see. He tried to capitalize on the success of Hunt's recording by promoting himself and his other works, including making his own record of the famous piece on a private label, allegedly recorded on the same piano on which he composed it.
     Possibly newly confident that he could afford a better lifestyle, Euday married again, this time to Ruth Emma Thompson on February 6, 1949. However, he had a change of heart within a month, filing for divorce in mid-March on grounds of cruelty inflicted by his wife. To add to his troubles, Euday's health had deteriorated and the physical and financial strain proved to be too much for him. His good fortune was offset by over $2,000 in medical bills. Still, he attempted a trip to New York City to publicize his authorship and recent recording of the rag. Euday Bowman succumbed there at age 61 or 62 just as his star was rising again.
     Mary Bowman inherited the rights to 12th Street Rag and Euday's other copyrights, supposedly assuring her comfort and to possibly acknowledge her help in either writing or at least notating some of them so many years before. However, his iconic piece would not die, and would even be embroiled in legal controversy due to its new-found popularity. Shapiro-Bernstein believed that as the copyright owner of Bowman's instrumental they also allegedly owned by proxy the song version by Sumner and all versions that used the famous melody. A 1949 lawsuit was filed by them against publisher Jerry Vogel as he had acquired the rights to Sumner's 1919 version of the song with lyrics in 1947, and started distributing it. Vogel countersued saying that Shapiro-Bernstein owed him money based on the Jenkins' acquisition of the tune since Bowman's copyright renewal did not include the lyrics. The first decision in 1950 found that it was a "composite work" and that Sumner's lyrics did not constitute a right to the instrumental version.
     In 1954 an appeals court found that since Jenkins' intent was for the music and lyrics to be performed together, they were part of a cohesive single "joint work." This allowed Vogel to collect 50% of the profits from Shapiro-Bernstein for the instrumental version sales with the Sumner lyric. He then went after compensation based on sales of no less than 22 other versions of the work. The final verdict on what was or was not copyrightable in terms of changes to an original piece came in 1957, argued for Shapiro-Bernstein by music lawyer Lee Eastman (father of Linda Eastman-McCartney) and esteemed music critic Deems Taylor. Even though it was settled out of court the entire affair was considered to be precedent-setting case law by that time, and resulted in revisions to United States copyright law. Vogel gave up claim to his 50% of the royalties from 1941 to 1957 on the non-Sumner versions, but did manage to get 33% of all subsequent royalties and joint publication credit for all 12th Street Rag variations. A similar suit he had against ASCAP was also settled out of court on the same terms.
     The lasting impact of this simple Texas musician's most famous work remains with us today. Even after Bowman died and while the song was tied up in a decade-long contentious court battle, artists as diverse as the Firehouse Five Plus Two and Liberace were keeping his memory alive through that one ubiquitous tune. It is also available on an endless array of CDs, and even DVDs of old Vitaphone shorts and Disney cartoons in which it was liberally featured. All this from a piece which had been born and raised in the brothels of Texas.

     Thanks to Adam Swanson who has a rare copy of Bowman's 1948 record and gave the info on it, as well as relaying information from Mike Montgomery on the probable 1923 side for Gennett.

Sanford Brunson Campbell (March 26, 1884 to November 23, 1952)
Compositions
c.1900-1908 Barber Shop Rag Blue Rag Brun's Slow Dog Campbell Cakewalk Fragment #1 Fragment #2 Ginger Snap Rag Grandpa's Stomp Lulu White Reminiscences Rendezvous Rag Salome's Slow Drag 1 Salome's Slow Drag 2	c.1898-1908 (Cont) Short Rag Slow and Easy Tent Show Rag Unnamed Strain #1 Unnamed Strain #2 Unnamed Strain #3 Variations on a Theme by Joplin c.1942 Barrelhouse Rag <1947 Chestnut Street in the 90's Essay in Ragtime

     Brun Campbell and his personal ragtime history as narrated to the world have been at the center of everything from reverence to ridicule since after his death. Never having actually made a full living as a performer or composer, he nonetheless provided a somewhat credible link to Scott Joplin and his peers, one of the earliest or only non-Black pupils, or as often stated, disciples, of the famous composer of Maple Leaf Rag. This biography will not overtly attempt to either feed or assuage any controversy, but merely address some variances. It will try, as best as possible, to sort out the facts of Campbell's life, and be as clear as it is feasibly possible on what was relayed by Campbell as opposed to what was known about him. Note that much of what was relayed of his life exists in recordings and interviews made in the early 1940s, four decades after the fact, and that a number variances are found even between those declarations by Campbell, which can be attributed to either memory issues or some fanciful embellishment acquired over the years.
     Sanford Brunson Campbell was born in early 1884 in Oberlin, Kansas to Luther E. Campbell of Wisconsin and Lulu (Emilie) A. [Bourquin] Campbell of Indiana. A brother, Harold A. Campbell, was born in Oberlin, Kansas on July 15 of 1891. Luther (sometimes later referred to as Lou or Lew) was only 17 when his first son was born, and he did not yet have a steady trade. Life was not always easy at that time on the northwest Kansas prairie, so diversions were welcome. The family also moved often, stopping for a time in St. Joseph, Missouri, after Harold was born. Possibly looking for adventure and opportunity, Luther was one of many who attempted to secure property when the Cherokee Strip Land Run commenced in September of 1893 in what would become a part of northern Oklahoma. While he failed to secure anything, Mr. Campbell settled the family near the starting point in Arkansas City, Kansas. Between 1893 and 1900, according to various city directories and records, the family was also in Guthrie in Oklahoma Territory, as well as Oklahoma City and El Reno, before returning to Kansas and Arkansas City.
     During this time Luther tried his hand as a traveling salesman, often bringing goods into the newly settled territory. He eventually abandoned that for a steadier career, and became a barber. Luther played some guitar and appropriately sang in what would now be considered a barbershop quartet. Lulu picked at the banjo as well. It would seem obvious that during this period Sanford would develop an interest in the piano. By the mid 1890s he received some musical training, equipping him enough to grasp the fundamentals of performance and structure, and become a competent player and reader. The family is shown in both the 1895 Kansas census and the 1900 Federal census in Arkansas City, the latter with Luther employed as a barber, while Sanford and Luther were still in school. This is important because the data reported in the 1900 census is a bit at odds with Campbell's recorded recollections.
     This is Brun's story as relayed in the 1940s. It was in 1898, when Campbell would have been around 14, that he said he ran off from southern Kansas, finding his way to Oklahoma City. He then played for a while for the Armstrong-Byrd Music Company. It was possibly in that capacity that he met Otis Saunders (possibly Sanders), one of Joplin's colleagues. Saunders reportedly handed him a manuscript of Maple Leaf Rag to read through, which depending on the exact time frame was either nearing publication or had just recently been published. A manuscript would have constituted a hand written copy of Joplin's original, and some minor doubts could be cast on this possibility. Just the same, Campbell played through the copy and quickly became enamored with the soon to be famous rag. After returning home he ventured to Sedalia and became friends with Joplin and Saunders while taking lessons from the former. At the end of his time there, Saunders, or in some accounts, Scott Joplin, was supposed to have handed the teenager an 1897 silver half dollar, telling him that this was the date that the composer wrote his first "original rag." Then he went back home to Kansas, musically changed forever.
     That Sanford was listed as still in school in Kansas in early 1900 does not totally enforce the credibility of this tale, or even the less likely scenario that he returned home after this journey to Sedalia simply to attend high school. Also, if the year it happened was indeed 1898, there is the matter of a 14-year-old surviving on his own at that time, including provisions for lodging and food, although that was not unheard of. Just the same, here is a more likely scenario. Please note this is an educated opinion gathered from known facts and likely probabilities. That he traveled to Oklahoma in 1898 is likely, albeit for a short time. He and a friend of his, the son of a local doctor, went to Oklahoma City in 1898 (this was possibly the period in which the Campbell family was living there) for a celebration, probably for Oklahoma Day on September 16, 1898. He became separated from his friend and ended up at Armstrong-Byrd where he bided his time playing through music. Whether Saunders came by and heard him or not is still questionable, although he certainly may have received some complements and advice from others while he was there. It is likely that once reunited with his friend that the pair returned home.
     Instead of going to Sedalia at that time, it is more plausible that Campbell left for Missouri in the summer of 1900 at age 16, after the family was back in Arkansas City, and once school was out. Then the story would have logically progressed from there. In his autobiography Brun states, "I had been taught how to play by Scott Joplin in 1898 when I was 15 years old." As he was not fifteen until at least 1899, and that Joplin was not at all well known until after Maple Leaf Rag was published, and then only gradually, this further amplifies the plausibility that Campbell instead studied with Joplin in 1900. Another possibility suggested by They All Played Ragtime is that he may have spent the summer of 1899 in Sedalia, since it mentions his returning to Kansas after his time with Saunders and Joplin, and then returned the following summer.
     Otis Saunders/Sanders (whose true identity is currently a mystery since he does not appear in any census) was indeed involved with helping Joplin get Maple Leaf Rag heard, played and widely promoted. However, it may potentially be considered unusual, based on data from interviews and knowledge of the past, that a mulatto pianist who was at least a decade older, would approach a white youngster in a music store to have him read a manuscript. It is more likely that the interchange involved Saunders giving Campbell a published copy of the rag, hoping to have it played locally and promoted for sale. In a 1945 Record Changer article, Brun contradicts his earlier story, saying that he learned the rag personally from Joplin as it was first written, a tale which seems even less likely given other facts. To further confound things, the Maple Leaf Club for which the rag was named and dedicated would not open until late November of 1898, meaning that Saunders would have been carrying a manuscript that was either unnamed or had a working title. So we can't be sure what Campbell saw or heard.
     This time line still works with the 1900 census findings, and with Saunders going to Sedalia in mid 1900 or even early 1901 when Joplin was still there, and following him to St. Louis in 1901 as well. A further reinforcement of this contention is that Campbell became a barber like his father, a trade better learned in his mid-teens rather than at age 12 or 13, just prior to when he allegedly left home. It also indicates that he maintained better family ties than the previous scenario might suggest. The element of Campbell having seen the rag in manuscript form before it was published would indeed make for a more colorful story, but it is hard to confirm, while other known facts appear to diminish (but not eliminate) this possibility.
     There is evidence to support Campbell being in Sedalia around 1900. The extent of tutelage he received from Joplin of anybody else there is unknown. Sedalia was a fairly tolertant town in terms of race relations, so that the 16 year old might have been seen in a black neighborhood (and perhaps a bit less likely in one of the Negro clubs along the north side of Sedalia's Main Avenue near Ohio Street) would not necessarily have raised too many eyebrows. Campbell later claimed to have been Joplin's only white pupil, although there is little in the way of hard evidence to fully support even this. Given his playing style, what would he have learned from Joplin at that time? Perhaps it was the fundamentals of syncopation or composition, or even notation. Campbell's recordings reflect more of a folk ragtime style that would have been equally indigenous to central Missouri, convincingly suggesting that much of what he learned was influenced by a wide variety of players less skilled than Joplin. On Joplin's playing, he variously said that Joplin was a master at playing his own rags, which needed no embellishment, and that while Joplin was a competent pianist, his playing wasn't going to "set the world on fire."
     While in St. Louis, and later in Kansas City, Campbell was able to pick up work in saloons and sporting houses. It was there that he became familiar with the playing of Arthur Marshall, Scott Hayden, Tom Turpin, Tony Williams, Melford Alexander, Jim and Ida Hastings, Louis Chauvin and Charley Thompson, claiming to also have taken lessons with at least some of them. This is what he said of their playing in general. “None of the original pianists played ragtime the way it was written. They played their own style. Some played march time, fast time, slow time and some played ragtime blues style. But none of them lost the melody and if you knew the player and heard him a block away you could name him by his ragtime style.” Of the St. Louis crowd he claimed that Thompson was the best of them, eclipsing even the short-lived Chauvin who was known for his pianistic prowess. Campbell eventually fulfilled some of his wanderlust by traveling as an itinerant pianist throughout Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma, and points south and southwest of the region, allegedly billing himself as "The Ragtime Kid". Variations on that include "The Original Ragtime Kid," "The Dude," the curious "The Indian Kid," "Kid Campbell," and "Brunnie Campbell."
     Brun played anywhere he could find, including honky-tonks, barrelhouses (which had tables made of beer barrels), white brothels, pool halls, and riverboats. This is most likely the time that he developed his unique playing style, absorbing the influences of other pianists he encountered, and the period in which he wrote the bulk of his compositions that were recorded in the early 1940s. But there is again some question about how long he was on the road, and whether or not he maintained a home base. Among those he claims to have met, and likely did at some point, include Tony Jackson and Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton. Given that Morton was six years his junior, it was not so plausible that they met before even 1904 when Morton was fourteen and first ventured up to St. Louis. However, in the 1940s Campbell stated: “I would like to give the late 'Jelly Roll' Morton, of New Orleans, credit for his early contribution to ragtime, which was King Porter Stomp, of 1906. He named it after Porter King, a great Negro pianist of the Gulf Coast. Another great Negro pianist of New Orleans was Tony Jackson, and he could out-play the great 'Jelly Roll' Morton. The music these great Negro composers developed will live forever, and I am proud of the fact I was associated with them at the beginning.” It seems more probable that Campbell would have developed a relationship with Morton when they were both in Los Angeles in the early 1920s, but either scenario is possible.
     During his time on the road he claims to have played for many luminaries from politicians to outlaws, of which some of the claims have been considered a stretch by other historians. Among those he claimed to have performed for include President Teddy Roosevelt, Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody), Governor Thompson B. Ferguson of what was then still Indian Territory before it was Oklahoma, minstrel leader Lew Dockstader, O.K. Corral veteran and lawman Bat Masterson, and famed outlaws Frank James (Jesse's brother), Cole Younger, Emmett Dalton and Henry Starr. He stated that his greatest thrill was playing Maple Leaf Rag at the Kerfoot Hotel in El Reno, Oklahoma for Bill Cody's friend and rival, Pawnee Bill (Gordon Lillie). He and his wife, May Manning, were the proprietors of the Pawnee Bill Historical Wild West Show, which was most often held at their ranch at Pawnee, Oklahoma. In They All Played Ragtime, Campbell said that “Twenty years later I met him in Tulsa and he asked me to play it again.”
     The 1905 Kansas census showed Campbell (erroneously listed as Branson) once again living with his brother and parents in Arkansas City. It could be that he was discouraged during his travels either by a limited skill set or the popularity of the talented black performers that populated the region. There is less of a possibility that he just happened to be visiting the day that census was taken, given that he is shown to be working as a barber, not a musician. Some time around 1907 to 1908 Campbell claims he retired from the playing life (it was likely earlier), and was married to G. Ethel Campbell (little is known about her). He then settled in to his father's line of work, albeit now in Tulsa, Oklahoma where Luther and Lulu had also moved. Sanford (he was invariably listed in each Federal census as Sanford B.) and Ethel are shown there in the 1910 census living on Second Street, with Campbell working as a barber in his own shop. There is no indication that he was working as a musician by this time, although it remains a possibility.
     Brun, as he was more often referred to by this time, continued to live in Tulsa for most of the decade. However, his first marriage broke up within a couple years. On May 14, 1913 he applied for a marriage license in Tulsa, this time with Lena Louise Burrough of Fort Smith, Arkansas. She was 18-years-old to his 29 (he claimed to be 27). It is assumed they were soon married as on his 1918 draft card he lists a "Mrs. Sanford B. Campbell," although living at a different address than his. He was at 111 E. Fourth and Lena was living at 110 E. Independence. Brun was working as a barber for Hodges and Clements. Under the claims for potential disqualification due to physical issues, he claimed he was "Shot through joint of big toe in right foot." The story behind this is unclear, but given his earlier life as an itinerant pianist, it is very plausible. They were likely divorced soon after this as Campbell is next seen in Venice, California in 1920. He was now living with his parents and brother again. Luther was the sales manager for a coffee company, Harold worked as what appears to be a traveling salesman in the grocery business, and Brun had opened his own barber shop in Venice. The community had been founded just west of Los Angeles on the shore a couple of decades prior, with the gimmick of having recreated the essence of Venice, Italy, complete with canals and gondolas. Only a couple of the canals exist today, but Venice Beach is still a popular destination for locals. Brun remained there for the rest of his life.
     Campbell was married a third time, either in the mid to late 1920s to Marjorie (May) Campbell. According to the 1930 census they had three daughters, Dorothy (c.1919), Louise (c.1923) and Patricia (c.1925). Given that all three girls were born in Oklahoma where their mother was from, it is evident he had acquired them in the marriage.

Brun Campbell looks through a display of his first ragtime teacher's works.

May was also a previous acquaintance from his time in Tulsa. While both Brun and May claim to have been first married 12 years prior, this is suspect as he shows as married in the 1920 census, yet there was no wife living with him in Venice. The 1930 record also shows that the father for all three girls was born in Kansas, which, as it turns out, was an error, meaning that Campbell was clearly not their father, so he had remarried in the late 1920s. The 1940 census shows Sanford and Marjorie with Louise and Patricia, again with an Oklahoma birthplace for all of the females. His occupation was listed as the manager and barber in a barber shop, which was his own.
     Brun's shop was at 711 Venice Boulevard next to the Venice City Hall. In interviews in the 1940s when he was being "rediscovered," he claimed to have not touched a piano through the 1920s and 1930s. However, Norm Pierce, a barber supply salesman in during the depression who later owned a San Francisco record shop, said he visited Brun's shop frequently in the 1930s, and that there was a piano in the back room of the shop that Campbell played often. This kept his playing chops in good shape, which came in handy in the early 1940s. There was a revival of 1920s jazz in the works, led at this time by Lu Watters and Wally Rose in San Francisco. In 1942, just as World War Two was underway, they recorded several tracks as the Yerba Buena Jazz Band, reviving the works of Joseph "King" Oliver and others, throwing in a little ragtime for good measure. While the progression of this revival and the YBJB was interrupted by the war, jazz enthusiasts and writers started seeking out the originals from this era. Paul E. Affeldt started visiting Brun around this time, and said that when he'd visit the shop and ask the barber to tell him something about the ragtime years, the "Closed" sign would go up and the stories would come forth in great numbers. Campbell also had a number of home-recorded acetate records dating possibly back to the 1910s. Trombonist Turk Murphy, as quoted by pianist and historian Terry Waldo in This is Ragtime, said, "You could always tell the guys who were going to see him, because of their haircuts. He wasn't really that good of a barber, but he played good ragtime."
     Hoping to do some good on this new interest in old music, Brun set out to do a favor for an old friend. A bit after he had helped to author a two part article in The Record Changer magazine in 1945, he had heard that Lottie Joplin, Scott Joplin's widow, was going through hard times. So Brun recorded Maple Leaf Rag in his shop on an old $50 upright he says he refurbished, simply so the royalties would go to help her out of her situation. He recorded for Ray Avery's Echoes record company, and also did some sides for Watters' own West Coast label (eventually acquired by Lester Koenig's Good Time Jazz and then Fantasy Records). Somewhere during this time period and prior to 1947, Campbell composed and recorded Chestnut Street in the 90's, which remains his best known and most often played rag. Many of the other pieces he ended up recording around 1947 had a similar and earthy style, but there were also quotes or paraphrases of well known rags of the past. In some cases, he recorded snippets of a minute or less that are considered potential fragments of a larger piece, or perhaps just a riff that inspired him. Each of the privately recorded discs that Brunson cut were initially released on one-sided records because, as Campbell later told writer Floyd Levin, "If they want to hear two tunes, let them buy two records."
     Based on his growing fame among jazz fans and his links to Scott Joplin, it was inevitable that Campbell would be interviewed in 1949 by Rudi Blesh and Harriet Janis for their upcoming book They All Played Ragtime. Brun also penned his own autobiography which now resides at Fisk University, a largely black institution in Nashville, Tennessee. A release of his previous recordings as well as the publication of They All Played Ragtime in 1950 brought new found fame to many previously unsung composers and performers, ranging from Joseph F. Lamb and Charley Thompson to Brun Campbell. Another researcher and fan who exchanged mail with Campbell was then high school student, later historian (the late) Mike Montgomery. He was among the first of the ragtime revivalists to have learned and then spread Campbell's full name to other ragtime writers.
     However, Campbell was not able to revel in his growing fame for long. Scott Joplin's only white student passed on in late 1952, leaving behind a legacy of unique views of the ragtime era, as well as a number of still unanswered questions. Affeldt eventually acquired many of the acetates cut by Campbell, and released a pair of records on his Euphonic label, named after Affeldt's favorite Joplin Rag. It became clear to those who listened to these tracks that while other players, at least those who continued working in that capacity into the 1920s and 1930s, changed their style to fit the times, Campbell retained what he had learned in those early days of ragtime. In that regard, his 1940s performances are perhaps among the most authentic of those done during that time, giving us a good view into what some saloon piano players may have sounded like during those glory days in St. Louis. For all of those questions left behind by Campbell, the answers that we know of, including his performances, are still a treasured look into a time long past.

     In addition to the author's own research on Campbell, based largely on public records, his recorded comments and snippets of his autobiography, acknowledgement should be extended to other good sources of information on the composer. These included Richard Egan who transcribed 22 of Campbell's pieces and wrote a short biography to accompany them in Brun Campbell: The Music of the Ragtime Kid, which can still be found with a little effort. Further reviewed research was compiled by Peter Hanley, of which more can be read at Mike Meddings' extraordinary Doctor Jazz site.
     Some quotes came from an article by Campbell in the April, 1949 Jazz Journal, and his autobiography published in a 1968 edition of Jazz Report. One other article was penned by Floyd Levin in December of 1970 in Jazz Journal. An important two part article on early ragtime written by Campbell and R.J. Carew appeared in the Record Changer in the spring of 1945.
     Two recommended CDs of Campbell's work include Delmark 753, Brun Campbell: Joplin's Disciple, which includes many of his early 1940s recordings, and composer/performer David Thomas Roberts' fine recreations of Campbell's rags, The Collected Brun Campbell, on the PianoMania label.
     While it was not used as a source of any kind for this biography, author Larry Karp has to date published two books in a series about Scott Jopin featured in what will be a trilogy of historically-based mysteries involving Brun and other known ragtime artists. Brun is a main character in The Ragtime Kid, about which more can be discovered at http://larrkarp.com. Larry also uncovered the marriage certificate for Brun and Lena in 1913, which Fred Hoeptner kindly forwarded to me.
     One other helpful note for researchers, from which I have heard that the 1900 census does not have the Campbell family. It actually does have them, although the registry, and apparently the spelling on the form have it mangled as Camble. Everything else matches, however, so the listing does indeed exist and is otherwise correct.

Axel Waldemar Christensen (March 23, 1881 to August 17, 1955)
Compositions
1902 Ragtime Wedding March (Apologies to     Mendelssohn) 1908 Irmena Rag 1909 The Cauldron Rag Marching Thro' Georgia The Ragtime King Flower Song [Gustave Lange] [1] 1910 Star and Garter: Rag-time Waltz     (aka Nightie Night) 1912 The Glen Oaks Rag The Press Club Rag 1913 In My Mercer Racing Car [w/John S.     Meck] The Minnesota Rag Pathetic Rag Christensen's Picture Show Collection     for the Piano [2] 1915 Ragtime Rings the Bell Webster Grove Rag Annie Laurie [Traditional] [1] Auld Lang Syne [Traditional] [1] Home Sweet Home [Henry Bishop] [1] Believe Me, If All Those Endearing     Young Charms [Thomas Moore] [1] Massa's in the Cold, Cold Ground     [Stephen Foster] [1] The Last Rose of Summer [Thomas     Moore] [1] My Old Kentucky Home [Stephen     Foster] [1] Old Black Joe [Stephen Foster] [1]	1915 (Cont) Swanee River (Old Folks at Home)     [Stephen Foster] [1] When You and I were Young, Maggie     [George W. Johnson & James A.     Butterfield] [1] 1916 That Potatoe Bug Rag Hurry (Pursuit and Capture) [2] Moonlight [2] 1917 Pantaloon (Dance Grotesque) [2] Coronation March [2] For Introductions, Lively Scenes,     Western Pictures, Etc. [2] Quarrel or Struggle Scenes [2] Turkish [2] 1923 Nobody's Business Teasing the Klassics 1924 Axel Grease: A Slick Novelty Take it Easy Love of My Dreams Walking Blues [disputed] 1925 Syncophonic Number 1 Syncophonic Number 2 Syncophonic Number 3 Syncophonic Number 4 Syncophonic Number 5 1927 Boogie Woogie Blues 1929 Syncophonic Number 6   1. Arrangement in Ragtime   2. Silent Film Cue(s)
Instruction Books - Various Years
Christensen's Ragtime Instruction Book Number 1 (1906) Christensen's Ragtime Instruction Book (1908 ed.) Christensen's Ragtime Instruction Book (1909 ed.) Christensen's Ragtime Instruction Book (1915 ed.) Christensen's Ragtime Instruction Book (1918 ed.) Christensen's Ragtime Instruction Book (1919 ed.) Christensen's Ragtime Instruction Book No. 2 (1922) Christensen's Ragtime Instruction Book No. 2 (1924 ed.) Instruction Book for Vaudeville Playing Book 1 (1912) Instruction Book for Vaudeville Playing Book 2 (1912) Instruction Book for Vaudeville Playing Book 3 (1912) Instruction Book for Vaudeville Playing Book 4 (1912) Instruction Book for Vaudeville Playing Book 5 (1912) Christensen's Instruction Book for Playing Rag, Jazz and Popular Music on     the Tenor Banjo (1922) Axel Christensen's New Instruction Book for Rag and Jazz Piano Playing (1920) Axel Christensen's New Instruction Book for Rag, Jazz and Popular Music (1922) Axel Christensen's New Instruction Book for Rag and Jazz Piano Playing (1925 ed.) Axel Christensen's Instruction Book for Jazz and Novelty Piano Playing (1924) Axel Christensen's Instruction Book for Jazz and Novelty Piano Playing (1927) Axel Christensen's Instruction Book for Modern Music(1931) Axel Christensen's Instruction Book for Modern Swing Music(1936) Axel Christensen's Instruction Book for Modern Swing Music(1945)
Rollography
1912 Cauldron Rag La Reine Annette - Ragtime Waltz 1924 Mindin' My Bus'ness Blue Bird Blues Lonely Little Wallflower Love of My Dreams—Waltz Teasing the Klassics	Matrix and Date [QRS 100005] 07/1912 [QRS 100011] 07/1912   [U.S. Music 41878] 04/1924 [U.S. Music] 04/1924 [U.S. Music] 5/1924 [U.S. Music] 5/1924 [U.S. Music 11398] ?/1924
Discography
1921 Teasing the Klassics 1923 Old Black Joe/Auld Lang Syne Cauldron Rag/Star & Garter The Girl I Kissed on the Stairs Teasing the Klassics 1927 Axel at the Baseball Game Axel Receives a Letter Axel and the Ducks Axel Pleases and Surprises Walking Blues Syncophonic [#1]	Matrix and Date [Paramount 846] 09/1921   [Paramount 1302] 01/1923 [Paramount 1303] 01/1923 [Okeh S8500] 10/1923 [Okeh S8501] 10/1923   [Paramount 20367] 02/1927 [Paramount 20368] 02/1927 [Paramount 20369] 02/1927 [Paramount 20370] 02/1927 [Broadway 20242] 12/1927 [Broadway 20243] 12/1927

     Axel W. Christensen was an important figure in ragtime, not so much as a composer but as a promoter, trying to get the concepts of the music into the hands of the average pianist while making a nice profit at the same time. He was born to Danish immigrants Charles C. Christensen and his bride Mary Mathiasen, in Chicago, Illinois, a decade after the great fire that had leveled the city. Axel was one of seven siblings, of which four other boys and one girl survived to adulthood. They included Otto R. (12/22/1882), Ingebord (3/18/1885), Charles W. (1/24/1887) and Norman V. (10/27/1891). Given that Charles and Mary were not married until August of 1881, there is the possibility that either Axel was born out of wedlock, or that Charles was not his biological father, a determination that was difficult to confirm.
     Axel had a typical musical upbringing that included piano lessons and harmony and theory. Contemporary reports described him as only average in his ability. There was reportedly an incident in his mid teens in which after playing marches and some forms of classical music at a party he was shown up by a much better pianist playing early cakewalks or ragtime, something that the females reacted to in a very positive way. This evidently affected him deeply, and it was then that he became passionately interested in popular piano styles, including ragtime. By 1900 he was still only peripherally involved with music, as the census shows him working in mechanical engineering of some kind, the same field his father was in.
     The young entrepreneur finally managed to compose and publish a rag in 1902, The Ragtime Wedding March (Apologies to Mendelssohn). The main point of this piece was to prove that virtually anything could be syncopated into a ragtime style, a catalyst for what was to come in his career. Determined to make good with his musical education and passion, Christensen opened his first ragtime instruction school in Chicago's Fine Arts building in 1903 with the promise of "Ragtime Taught in Ten Lessons." He had developed a curriculum that consisted of exercises in various syncopated patterns on easy melodies. His goal, although not overtly stated, was to teach the person not so much how to play a piano rag, but how to rag any music that they encountered or already knew. This was akin to turning around his own bad teenage experience into something positive - taking the 98 pound weakling pianist and making them popular with syncopated muscles. With good advertising and positive results, he was able to grow the business fairly steadily. Axel soon married Reine Annette Swanson in September of 1903, and she would eventually become materially involved in the burgeoning business. They soon established Christensen's headquarters in the Kimball Building.
     Business reached a point of saturation in the Chicago area by 1908 with four school branches in various parts of the city. However, Christensen had been selling his books by mail order and in selected music stores in an effort to get to people outside of his Midwest radius. The first of these was published in 1906, Christensen's Instruction Book Number 1 for Rag-Time Piano Playing, the very title forecasting a series of such books. The basic course was updated at least five times during the ragtime era. Many of the exercises could be equated to a syncopated version of the famous Hanon exercises, repeating a syncopated pattern up and down the scale. Other focused courses also soon appeared in print, including a course on playing for vaudeville, a fairly lucrative profession at that time. Going beyond how to play, these books also outlined how to build up a well-paced set of anywhere from 20 minutes to an entire evening concert, important lessons for an entertainer to know in order to engage an audience.
     Axel was finally confident enough in the strength of his teaching methodology, which was frequently updated to include new styles as they came along, and opened a branch of his school in San Francisco in late 1908. The results encouraged him to expand to Cincinnati by 1910, and even St. Louis, a hotbed of ragtime activity for a decade by that time. He also expanded his personal repertoire of compositions with a number of fine rags and songs over the next few years. In July, 1910 the Christensens were shown living in a fairly nice area of Chicago with their recently-arrived only son, Carle Alexander, born July 27, 1909. They also had a live-in servant, so the publishing and teaching enterprise was paying off fairly well by then. He listed himself as a proprietor of music schools.
     By 1910 Christensen was truly the Czar of Ragtime, a title which would stay with him for many years and that he used often in Vaudeville. In 1915, utilizing his passion for rearranging older tunes with syncopation, Axel released a series of these arrangements that were included in some of his courses and sold separately as well. His educational reach would eventually extend to 25 different cities by 1918, near the end of the ragtime era. Axel's 1918 draft record shows him still in Chicago as the owner and manager of the Christensen School of Popular Music.
     In May 1918 in Melody Magazine, Christensen wrote a provocative article titled Can Ragtime Be Suppressed which extolled the virtues of the genre, and made clear that those who would try to prevent its continuation would ultimately fail in their endeavors due to the public thirst for more ragtime. While its origin was only a mere two decades in the past, he postulated on the mystery of that very genesis:

     The truth is that it was on the way out, and the Christensen schools would have to adapt in order to follow the national musical trend to jazz.
      It was reported in They All Played Ragtime that some 200,000 students had registered nationally with the schools by 1923. A 1923 edition of the Music Trade Review noted that Christensen had ninety-two branches around the country. Totals would eventually rise to 350,000 by the onset of the Great Depression, with another 200,000 by 1935, although the latter figure can likely be disputed given the economic climate. In any case, the school was likely responsible for a great many ragtime pianists that ranged from hobbyists to small town heroes, many of them perhaps playing either in vaudeville or for movie houses of the era.
      Much of the success of his program, beyond the frequently updated exercises and examples, was his willingness to trust other teachers to follow the program and succeed as he had with it. Many of them also had careers as performers or composers. Among those who are known are Robert Marine from New York, Bernard Brin from Seattle, Marcella Henry from Chicago and Edward J. Mellinger from St. Louis. It has been noted that at times 500 or more students would attend recitals at Mellinger's St. Louis branch, and some of them became large celebrations of playing with student/teacher duets, trios, and perhaps even more, creating good press for Christensen.
      In addition to running this enterprise, Axel continued to write rags at this time, sometimes published separately but more often included in the courses. While not quite of the same quality as some of the better selling pieces of the time, they were still carefully crafted and accessible to his students. In 1912 he reportedly became one of the first artists to record "hand-played" piano rolls for the QRS company, a claim later contradicted by ads for another company saying he had not recorded for anybody else before 1923. Nonetheless, the QRS rolls state that each piece was "Played by the Composer." Christensen also published selected rags by other composers, favoring those who taught for them.
      Another great promotional tool was his monthly Ragtime Review magazine which ran from December 1914 to late 1918, and included tricks and tips, humorous stories, articles on performers, composition reviews and reprints of rags by many publishers who licensed the pieces to him, perhaps in exchange for advertising which was prominent in most editions. Among those was John S. Stark, who allowed one of his ragtime publications or articles to be published in the magazine each month during at least the first year, and sporadically from 1915 on. The bulk of pieces that appeared subsequently were by Christensen or others who taught at his various branches in the Midwest.
     The Ragtime Review magazine's subscriber base was eventually bought by publisher Walter Jacobs around 1918, and he incorporated it into his own Melody Magazine, which was largely managed by composer George L. Cobb. The circumstances of this buyout are unclear, but it likely removed some competition for Jacobs as well as giving him a greatly increased circulation. It should also be noted that many others tried to emulate Christensen's publishing and teaching success, and some of the literature for smaller ragtime or piano schools are obviously directly derived, and in some cases plagiarized from the Czar's own work. However, his name dominated the field, particularly in cities where his schools continued to do good business. His Los Angeles branch even claimed a few movie stars in the late 1910s among their clientele.
     As ragtime languished and jazz thrived with the approaching 1920s, Christensen quickly adapted, and soon his ragtime instruction books and schools became jazz-oriented. As novelty piano became popular in the early 1920s he added novelty riffs and licks to the course, as well as some novelty compositions of his own. There were even books on how to execute piano breaks in a variety of ways, an indispensable aid to the amateur jazz band pianist. On a few occasions in the 1920s Axel recorded some sides for the Okeh and Paramount record labels. In 1923 he signed a contract with the United States Music Company to record piano rolls of his own works, as well as instruction rolls of the Christensen system. That same year he opened a music store at 526 South Western Avenue in Chicago, featuring musical merchandise, Okeh records, music rolls and radio amplifiers.
     Axel

Christensen in 1923 with Indianapolis conductor Modest Altschuler discussing his tour.

himself ventured out more in the mid 1920s as well, having long progressed beyond being an average pianist, and now even billing himself as a "Pianologist." As reported in the Music Trade Review of January 5, 1924, he announced a tour "featuring recorded numbers on piano." It goes on to say that the "popular and entertaining pianist syncopator, who records exclusively for the U.S. Music Company of Chicago, will being the first of a series of acts in a theatrical tour which calls for appearances at many of the best-known motion picture theatres. He will favor his audience with well-known and snappy piano skits, which are responsible for his popularity throughout the country." One of those was a by then famous parody of the poem "The Face on the Bar-room Floor." He had also worked up a set of "synco-symphonies" for performance.
     The tour opened at the Circle Theatre in Indianapolis, Indiana, for a two week stay in January 1924. It was presented with the cooperation of and promotion by the U.S. Music Company. As might be expected, many of the pieces he played just happened to be available on rolls in the lobby. He gave his own shows around the country in both private and public venues, and occasionally with vaudeville troupes. Axel's shows were sort of a one-man vaudeville evening with music, singing and stories (no dancing was reported). Among the advertised treats were syncopated versions of classics like the ubiquitous Poet and Peasant Overture. This is in line with his comment that "classical music is one of the finest of arts and dwells briefly upon the original narratives of some of the best-known classics." In the act he also demonstrated how some of these classics were often used as the basis for a popular tune, including his own syncopated versions of the such works. Overall, the tour was a success for both the artist and the sponsor, who reported an increase in roll sales in each city Christensen appeared in.
     The entertaining Mr. Christensen continued to tour for much of the rest of the decade. In 1925 and 1926 he was put on the popular Orpheum and Keith circuit of vaudeville theaters earning at least $1,000 per week. At that same time he appeared on many of the earliest radio stations in the country, including KYW (Philadelphia), WEBH, WGN, WMAQ, WQJ and WLS (all Chicago stations). He also recorded some of his ethnic comic monologues used on stage on the Broadway label, a subsidiary of Paramount. Axel attended or hosted many events in Chicago when he was in town. On December 7, 1926, a "stag dinner" was given in honor of the maestro by the Chicago Piano Club which he had joined several years prior. The affair was reportedly a great success, and Piano Club members awarded him with a solid gold pocket watch. In early 1927 Christensen started a series of programs on Chicago station WHT owned by the Wrigley corporation. One of the highlights of the first show was an imitation of the late Bert Williams singing Somebody Else, in addition to his usual comedy.
     Axel's regular haunt in Chicago in 1926 and 1927 was the Palace Theater, a movie house which no longer required his services after their conversion to sound in 1928. Over the next three years he continued to regale audiences everywhere on radio and in person with his humorous anecdotes, which more and more took the balance of an evening with less piano playing. A book of many of these stories, Axel Grease for Your Funny Bone, was published in 1930. Also by 1930, his son Carle had joined the act, performing at the piano more frequently on stage with his famous father.
     By the time the Great Depression set in around 1930, Axel's schools and even his publications were likely considered a frivolous expense by most consumers in light of the economic downturn, and he had to scale back the operation. It had clearly become a family business, as in 1930 Mr. Christensen, now living in the exclusive River Forest suburb of Chicago, listed himself as the proprietor of his small empire, with Reine as a manager and Carle, now 20, as an assistant manager. Many of the schools closed, although he still published courses in learning jazz, and later swing music, throughout the decade. Axel still managed to find performance work in the final days of Vaudeville and for many private functions and conventions. By this time he was promoting comedy, a much needed commodity, as a major part of his entertainments. This included promotional material with examples of his jokes and humorous stories.
     Carle Christensen married Alyce Oglozinski in Chicago on April 20, 1931. The couple subsequently moved to California soon after, perhaps to manage a Christensen school there or even pursue an additional degree (the circumstances are still under investigation). Alyce gave birth to Carlos Christensen on March 15, 1933 with David G. Christensen following within a couple of years. However, the couple was back in Chicago at some point later in the decade with Axel and Reine, as Carlos was schooled in Illinois. In the mean time, the elder Christensen switched radio stations in 1934, now performing regularly in WJJD in Chicago. The schools there remained in business throughout the 1930s and into the 1940s. Indeed, an advertisment run in Chicago papers from the summer of 1945 through the following spring promoted the Christensen School of Popular Music, urging the reader to "Learn Swing Piano the Axel Christensen Way." The ads appear to cease around June, 1946.
     At some after World War Two, the extended family relocated to Southern California. Carle and his brood returned there permanently around 1946 and Axel and Reine followed in late 1947 or early 1948. As related by Chris Christensen, Axel was a strong believer in the Baha'i faith, and there was a particularly notable temple and school in Ojai, just east of Santa Barbara. It does help to clarify why Carle had an Ojai address for many years, and indeed retired there. It also speaks clearly on the strong faith base for the Christensen family that kept them together.
     According to his grandson David, Axel not only kept on performing in Los Angeles after his move, but made a rare television appearance. He was listed as appearing on KLAC 13, October 4, 1951, on the show You're Never Too Old. Christensen performed all over the Los Angeles area for a variety of functions nearly up to his death. Many were private functions for small civic organizations, and there is at least one notice published as late as April 3, 1955, in a Long Beach, California newspaper. The music school entrepreneur died months later in Los Angeles at age 74 leaving behind a wake of happy people who somehow had managed to learn the joy of ragtime through his methodologies. His wife survived him through 1962.
     Carle continued to issue Christensen publications through the mid 1960s. He retired to Ojai and lived there until his death in 1996. Carlos, a music enthusiast by birthright who became a computer scientist in the 1960s, died in the spring of 2007 in Concord, Massachusetts, where he had been collecting memories of his youth with grandfather Axel. David G. Christensen is the sole remaining member of the family who knew Axel, and has followed the Christensen creative bent as producer of video and music projects, residing in Port Townsend, Washington.

     Many thanks to Canadian Ragtime historian Ted Tjaden who provided some of the information here to supplement my research, as well as posting many Christensen items on his site, including the entire run of the Ragtime Review. Please visit his site at www.ragtimepiano.ca. Also, Robert Perry for providing the QRS piano roll information and Andrew Barrett on a couple of the recordings. Thanks also to Chris Christensen, the family of Carlos Christensen, and David G. Christensen for some additional clarifications.
     Of particular help has been research done on the St. Louis branches of the Christensen schools by Bryan Cather of the Scott Joplin House in St. Louis, including Axel's link with publisher John Stark.
     Some additional information is provided in the book That American Rag by Dave Jasen and Gene Jones, which should be in every ragtime enthusiasts' library. The rest was uncovered by the author in public records, periodicals, and other varying sources.

George Linus Cobb (August 31, 1886 to December 25, 1942)
Compositions
1905 Dimples (March) Mr. Yankee (March) 1906 Fleetfoot Western Life (March) The Chauffeur (March) 1907 Parade of the Teddy Bears Idylia 1908 A Happy Group - Barn Dance 1909 Rubber Plant Rag Buffalo Means Business [w/Louis C. Snyder] Moonlight Makes Me Lonesome [2] 1910 Aggravation Rag Canned Corn Rag That Hindu Rag (1910/1924) The High Brows (March) I Used to Be Lonesome ('Till I Found You) [2] 1911 I'd Like to Take a Chance with You [2] 1912 Jolly Dancers Ostende Mister Melody Man Down On de Levee Every Little Note Means Love When Billy     Plays That Way Honey Lou! ('Neath The Big White     Honey-Moon) Lady Of The Lake Jolly Dancers Ostende Stunning Grenadiers Mister Melody Man Oh That Lovey, Dovey Glide When Oscar Played the Flute 1913 The Baboon Bounce Bunny Hug Rag Roll Along Old Georgia Moon The Get-A-Way: March and Two Step I Long To Be Way Down In Tennessee Take Me Back To The Days Gone By All Aboard for Dixie Land [2] Bring Me Back My Lovin' Honey Boy [2] Lonesome Moon [2] You'll Be Sorry [2] If I Find Another Boy Like You [2] On the Good Ship Nancy Lee [2] If I Only Had You Again [3] 1914 After-Glow: A Tone Picture Just For To-Night Knock Knees: One-Step On The Q.T. (March) Huskin' Time: A Rural One-Step Fleur D'Amour (Waltz) La Parisia: Hesitation Waltz Mona Lisa: Valse That Tangoing Turk: One-Step Sing Ling Ting: Chinese One-Step On The Banks of Honolulu Bay Mammy's Golden Wedding Day [2] Mammy's Little Angel Child [2] On A Summer Night [2] Listen to That Dixie Band [2] I'm Coming Back in Springtime [2] That Tantlizing Tango Tune [2] A Holiday in Dixieland [w/Lucius Pratt] Dance That Dengozo With Me: Oo-La-La     [w/W.L. Beardsly] 1915 Rabbit's Foot Golden Dawn: Tone Picture White Narcissus: Waltz Buds and Blossoms: Waltz Law And Order: March Brass Buttons: March Three Nymphs: Dance Classique Barbary: Valse Algerienne Young April: Novelette Virginia Sue Alabama Jubilee [2] That Twilight Melody [2] Are You From Dixie [2] It's All A Dream [2] On The Road To Dublin Town [2] Roses Mean Memories (Mem'ries Mean     You) [2] On Honolulu Bay [2] [w/Ted Barron] Dancing 'Round the U.S.A. [2] [w/Harry     Carroll] Dreaming [3] You Didn't Care [w/W.R. Williams] 1916 Mazie King Midnight Trot Red Rooster I'm Goin' To Hit The Trail For Alabam' Good Bye Blues Drift Wood: Novelette Cheops: Egyptian Intermezzo In The Beautiful Garden of Dreamland Frangipani: Fox-Trot There's Someone You've Forgotten Who Has     Not Forgotten You [2] Georgia Rainbow [1] See Dixie First [4] When You Dream Of Old New Hampshire,     I Dream of Tennessee [4] When You're Five Times Sixteen [4] Won't You Come and Love Me [5] I Can't Forget [w/Richard A. Whiting &     Gus Kahn 1917 Nautical Toddle aka Nautical Nonsense Blue Sunshine: Waltz Levee Land: One-Step Blue Bird: Waltz Some Shape: One Step Down Where It's Always June When the Moon was Hanging Low Ladder of Love Waltz There'll Come A Night Waiting Bone Head Blues [1] Hang Over Blues [1] You and You Waltz [1,6] The Battle Song Of Liberty [2] The Picture That The Shamrock Brings to     Me [7] All Aboard For Rock-A-Bye Bay [7] Down on Blue Bird Bay [8]	1917 (Cont) Send Me A Line (When I'm Across the     Ocean) [8] Just Keep The Roses A-Blooming [9] Mississippi Volunteers (Forward March) [9] Columbia's Call [w/Bob Wyman] 1918 Cracked Ice Rag Calcutta: Oriental Fox Trot Say When Peter Gink (Adapted from Peer Gynt) Irish Confetti Russian Rag Toy Poodles: Novelty One-Step Moonbeams: Novelette What Next!: Fox-Trot Here's How: One-Step Treat 'Em Rough: One-Step Sunshine (Spread All the Sunshine You Can) Opals: Waltz [1] My Little Pal [1,9] In the Glow of the Alamo Moon [2] When the Lilies Bloom in France Again [9] In the Old Front Parlor [9] Maori Love [w/Treve Collins] 1919 Alhambra: Spanish One Step Dixie Lullaby Feeding the Kitty: Ragtime One-Step Mother's Love and Kisses Fancies: Novelette Hawaiian Sunset: Waltzes Memoirs Water Wagon Blues Javanola: Oriental Fox-Trot Stop It!: Fox-Trot A Little Later On [9] Rose of Burgundy [9] Tokio [9] Boodiewah [w/W. Max Davis & Eddie Elliot] Four Roses [w/Aaron Neiberg] 1920 Dust 'em Off: Rag Asa's Toddy: One-Step Bohunkus: Novelty One-Step Umpah! Umpah! One-Step Oddity Peek In When You Made My Dreams Come True Over The Rockies (Down Frisco Way) [2] I've Been Living in the Land of Sunshine [8] Crystal Ball [9] Give My Love to Dixie [9] You've Been A Dear Old Pal (Mother of     Mine) [9] [w/Harold Freeman] 1921 Hop Scotch: Fox-Trot Wild Oats: One-Step The Faun (Danse) Torrid Dora (Toreador) The Faun: Danse Almond Eyes: Fox-Trot Asia Minor Across the Hot Sands: March Shivaree: One-Step Squares and Compass: March Put and Take: One-Step Love Lessons: Waltz Let's Take a Trip Back to Dixie [5] 1922 Burglar Blues: Eccentrique Fox-Trot Ghost Walk: Eccentric Novelty Carnival Revels Dance Love and Laughter: Novelette Broken China: Oriental Novelty March of the Walking Dolls Potato-bug Parade: An Aroostook Episode 1923 Dance of the Flower Girls Piano Salad Doll Days: Novelette Mist of Memory: Waltz High Brows March The New Russian Rag Morning Kisses Waltz Slumber Song A Night In India: Suite    Twilight in Reverie    The Fakirs    Dance of the Flower Girls    By the Temple of Siva    March of the Brahman Priests 1924 The American Broadcast March Puddle Ducks: March Grotesque Dance of the Satyrs Summer Furs: Paraphrase of the Scarf Dance Cortege of the Cyclops Mountain Laurel Waltz [8] [w/R.E. Hildreth] Spooks: Eccentric Novelty 1925 The Days Gone By Chromatic Capers Dementia Americana: Suite    Static and Code    Hop House Blues    Owl On The Organ    Savannah Sunset 1926 The Lion Tamer: Galop "Old Ironsides": March Patrol Of The Pelicans Hero Of The Game: March Power and Glory: Processional March 1927 Procrastination Rag Lindy: Youth With The Heart Of Gold     (w/Norman Leigh) Piano Sauce The Tipster: Eccentric March Cubistic Rag 1929 Snuggle Pup 1942 Uncle Sam Goes To Town (Mow 'em Down,     Mow 'em Down, Mow 'em Down)    1. as Leo Gordon    2. w/Jack Yellen    3. w/Phil Volz    4. w/Jack Mahoney    5. w/H.C. Weasner    6. w/Thomas S. Allen    7. w/J. Will Callahan    8. w/Irving Crocker    9. w/Robert Levenson

     A native of New York state born to Linus B. Cobb and Jeannette (Maine) Cobb (often called "Nettie"), George L. Cobb was a versatile composer who displayed inherent musical talent at a young age. He spent most of his early years in Mexico, New York. The son of a farmer, Linus started in the grocery business, but by the 1890s he was working as a merchant, real estate broker and entrepreneur. The senior Cobb also had a hand in organizing the Mexico Electric Light, Heat and Power Company in 1890 when electricity in the home was still a fairly new concept. Linus was also involved with the Mexico Military Academy from 1894 to 1895 as a trustee. For a time he even sold bicycles during the beginning of the cycling craze of the 1890s. A snippet from the Mexico Independent of April 26, 1893, reads as follows:

     After his traditional schooling George, received training from the School of Harmony and Composition at Syracuse University, attending there from 1904 to perhaps 1908. While in school he had one his first compositions, Dimples, locally published, and self-published Mr. Yankee, both at age 19. The following year Cobb started releasing pieces under the imprint of the H.C. Weasner & Company in Buffalo. One of them, Fleetfoot, was evidently a very good seller for the firm, and by 1907 Weasner claimed that over 100,000 copies were sold, a very high number for an instrumental by an unknown writer, so questionable at best.
     The first mention of Cobb in the news was located in the Buffalo Morning Express on January 20, 1907, mentioning another publisher with which he would have a long relationship. "The Express has received a march and two-step, 'Western Life,' by George L. Cobb, published by Charles I. Davis, Detroit, Mich. It has been featured by Sousa's Band and it is sure to make a hit, for it has all the elements of success - pretty melodies, good harmonies and irresistible swing."
     After graduation Cobb and his family moved to Buffalo, although his intended career track there was not readily discerned. It was most likely to work as a performer and perhaps an arranger or composer. His earlier compositions had helped him win some writing contests, and one in particular would emerge in his new locale. It was a promotional rag of sorts titled Buffalo Means Business, for which he won the prize of free publication of the promotional piece. At the very least it attracted the attention of his eventual frequent lyricist Jack Yellen (1892-1991), who was a reporter with the Buffalo Courier through at least 1914 (potentially a bit longer). They wrote their first song together in short order.
     The subsequent submission of Cobb's Rubber Plant Rag to Walter Jacobs Publishers of Boston garnered him visibility and significant exposure in the East. Cobb would end up spending several fruitful years working with and for Jacobs. His earliest rags saw moderate success and distribution, and George started to compose pieces much more intricate in nature. Jacobs had hoped he had an exclusive arrangement with Cobb for his instrumental compositions, but later found out otherwise. A number of these compositions were released in packets in the early teens and beyond as orchestrations arranged for bands or movie theater ensembles.
     As per a Music Trade Review notice from March 12, 1910, this practice was clearly already in process. Concerning an announcement by Jacobs of the premiere of his new magazine, Orchestra Monthly, they noted that "This [publication] is to be to the orchestra what his 'Cadenza' is to the banjo, mandolin and guitar fraternity. In this number [75,000 copies] is a new instrumental piece, 'The Aggravation Rag,' by George L. Cobb, composer of the popular 'Rubber Plant Rag.' This is given on orchestra-size plates for ten pieces and a similar new selection will be made a feature each month. These selections will not be printed or published in any other form and can be had only in the Orchestra Monthly." In spite of this proclamation, both pieces did appear as piano solos in short order.
     In the 1910 Census (where the family name was erroneously notated as Coff), George was living in Buffalo with his parents and his maternal grandmother. He is listed as a composer of music and the occupation for Linus appears to be mines or miner, so he may have been invested in a mine of some kind as part of his real estate business. After a scant output of pieces in 1910, including one with Yellen, there was an unexplained dearth of Cobb compositions in 1911. George's sole 1911 composition with Yellen was a song of average quality. It is probable that Yellen was in Michigan by this time for further schooling. However, the output increased substantially in 1912. It is unclear what else George was doing for income, but living with his parents obviously eased that burden considerably.
     Cobb was briefly married to Clara (or Claire) Bailey, the estimated marriage and subsequent divorce between mid-1912 and late 1915. A Clara Bailey of upstate New York was found in Census records, and was likely his first wife. She was shown to be single in 1910 and divorced in 1920, and was in the right area and time frame to have encountered Cobb.
     Sometimes overlooked by pianists are the songs that Cobb wrote or co-wrote. They had the undercurrent of piano-based ragtime with the salability of popular songs. He also had some success at writing his own lyrics from time to time. Just the same, upon his graduation in 1913 from the University of Michigan, Jack Yellen came back to Buffalo to continue to write songs with the composer he so admired. Among the most frequently performed Cobb and Yellen songs are a number of "Dixie" tunes. These include Listen to That Dixie Band, See Dixie First and their first major tune about the storied south, All Aboard for Dixie Land.
     As recounted by performer/historian Frederick Hodges, the pair had trouble selling the song during the difficult year of 1913 when publishers were fighting with discount houses, performers, and even composers wanting some equity. So they ended up selling the piece to the smaller publishing house of J. Fred Helf. In October a new show by composers Rudolf Friml and Otto Hauerbach titled High Jinks was receiving only tepid response in its trial run in upstate New York. Producer Arthur Hammerstein was looking for something to save it from total failure, making adjustments at every theater it was shown in. One of the problems was that there were no real "hit" tunes in the score for star Elizabeth Murray, a long-established energetic "coon shouter," to put over on the audience. In Chicago, Hammerstein decided to interpolate All Aboard for Dixie Land into the show, creating both a hit show and a hit song in an instant. By the time it got to Broadway in December 1913, the entire nature of the production had changed due to that piece. It helped codify Cobb and Yellen as very credible tunesmiths.
     Helf could not handle the sudden demand for the Cobb/Yellen tune, so All Aboard for Dixie Land and some others from the show were sold to the dominant firm of Jerome H. Remick for around $2,500. The song became a greater hit 1914. The play, however, barely made it into the spring. Ironically it was silent film that saved the play and made the song an even bigger hit. The decision to include two of the song numbers, albeit without sound, in a Mabel Normand film titled Our Mutual Girl, benefitted both the play and composers, and by April it was back on track. Everybody involved with the show, including the composers, made out very well in the end. Miss Murray continued to favor Cobb and Yellen pieces for some time.
     Another major Dixie song, Are You From Dixie?, became an early Al Jolson hit. It has since been frequently quoted in movies and for many years, thanks to composer Carl Stalling, had a heavy presence in Warner Brothers cartoons. One of their biggest successes was the now ubiquitous Alabama Jubilee, still a favorite of ragtime pianists and banjo players everywhere. The cover once again featured Murray, and was a blessing for her. After a contentious battle concerning issues with High Jinks she was enjoined from performing All Aboard for Dixie Land in public. Alabama Jubilee became an enormous hit for her and the composers in the fall of 1915. Yellen's down-home lyrics certainly contributed to the popularity of these songs, as they fit to Cobb's melodies so well. From that point on many of the pair's collective works became million-sellers in both printed and recorded form.
     Noting that Cobb was submitting his works to many different New York firms, and even to Will Rossiter in Chicago who had taken on his hit Just For To-Night, Jacobs finally thought to offer Cobb steady work as a staff arranger, which George soon accepted. As announced in The Music Trade Review of September 30, 1916, "Walter Jacobs, whose establishment in Bosworth street, Boston, is a busy hive of industry, has now associated with him two able men who will prove without doubt of the most valuable assistance in his work. One of these is George L. Cobb, of Buffalo, who is widely known as a composer, and, who besides writing popular compositions, will do more or less traveling. Mr. Cobb is best known for his song, 'Are You from Dixie?' which is having an enormous vogue. Another of the Dixie numbers is entitled 'See Dixie First,' and this is being put out by Jacobs." (The other staff member mentioned was the largely unknown banjoist C.V. Butterman.) However, to Jacob's regret, he did not specify exclusivity as a composer for the firm in Cobb's contract, so his employee was free to shop around for the best deal for his songs and instrumentals. Cobb pieces still appeared under the Rossiter imprint as well.
     Cobb moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts in late 1916 to facilitate this new position, bringing his parents with him. On November 20, 1916 he married his second wife, Mary Belle Barr, formerly of Buffalo and also Saxton, Pennsylvania, in Boston. As reported in The Music Trade Review of December 9, 1916: "The ceremony was performed at the parsonage of the Union Congregational Church by Rev. Ernest G. Guthrie, the pastor. Mr. Cobb and his wife are making their home in Allston, and will be at home to their friends after January 1."
     One hit that Jacobs was able to get his hands on was the 1917 patriotic war booster song The Battle Song of Liberty by Cobb and Yellen. Cleverly adapted from F.E. Bigelow's famous march Our Director, it was one of many tunes that managed a swell of popularity until George M. Cohan's Over There swept the world. He also spent some time traveling in 1916 promoting his employer, with sightings in Chicago and Michigan. While still selling his tunes to Jacobs and other publishers, George was assigned to write for the Jacobs' company newest music trade magazine, The Tuneful Yankee. He held this post for a few years starting in January of 1917. Cobb's role there was as a music critic or commentator on compositions submitted by amateurs, which he handled quite deftly, but also with brutal honesty at times. In 1918 the magazine was recast as Melody, and his column was called "Just Between You and Me," which ironically was often a not-so-private venue for the occasional evisceration of amateur composers. If he thought something submitted to the magazine for analysis was tripe, he had little trouble saying so.
     Many of Cobb's later compositions also appeared only in the magazine, and not as separate sheet music publications. There is speculation that pieces attributed to other composers might be by Cobb, with Leo Gordon being his primary pseudonym, and that some of the compositions from this time were simply not at the same level as his more notable sheet music pieces because of the rigors of contribution and editing deadlines.
     Even though he worked for Jacobs during the teens and later, Cobb still published where he could get the best deals and distribution. One of his overall biggest successes, and personal favorites, was his Russian Rag, based on Sergei Rachmaninoff's famous C# minor prelude, released by Will Rossiter of Chicago. The esteemed contemporary classical composer was reportedly nonplussed by this adaptation, but it did provide him good exposure. Russian Rag was first featured in Chicago at the Majestic Theater by Mademoiselle Rhea who was a costume dancer in Vaudeville. Even though she was featured on some of the covers of the piece as well, her endorsement was less viable, based on reviews of her act. One reviewer noted that her accompanying violinist and pianist were only average which detracted from her dancing ability. So there was a slow start for sales of Russian Rag until 1919 when it was recorded and endorsed by the famous Six Brown Brothers ragtime saxophone sextet. They were also shown on the cover of subsequent editions of the piece. As quoted below, the group's leader said that Rachmaninoff actually enjoyed their rendition. The rag ultimately became so popular that a few years later it was re-written as The New Russian Rag to reflect Cobb's more advanced Novelty Ragtime compositional style.
     Another 1918 piece of Cobb's that the Brown Brothers recorded created a stir in music circles in the United State,s and almost caused an international incident. Among those American critics was dissenter Gregor M. Mazer who in the September 1920 issue Melody magazine said: "[It is] disgraceful... the way beautiful music is being converted into vulgar, impossible jazz... When Grieg’s immortal 'Peer Gynt' is printed on a program 'Peter Gink' it is time for all music lovers to rebel against this outrageous profanity." Further criticism came from Grieg's homeland as reported in the November 24, 1920 New York Tribune:

Peer Gynt Shimmie Makes Norway Shiver With Anger Protest Sent to Washington Against Turning Grieg's Classic Into Jazz Music on Phonograph Record; "a Shame," Declares Enrico Caruso      Norway in particular and Scandinavian music lovers in general, are shocked to find that Edvard Hagerup Grieg's famous "Peer Gynt Suite" has been jazzed and is being circulated in its corrupted form on phonograph records. Representatives of high Norwegian culture, who have a sympathetic feeling for Grieg's austere compositions, have forwarded to the government authorities at Washington a memorial protesting against "such a desecration of genius."
     Composers, singers and conductors in New York who expressed their views yesterday are inclined to think that Norway is right. Tom Brown, however, who transformed Shubert's "Serenade" and Rachmannioff's "Prelude" [Cobb's Russian Rag] into the raggiest of rags and whose company played the jazzed "Suite" for records, has a different opinion.
     "Sergei Rachmaninoff heard us play the adaptation of his work." he said, "and liked it, considering this a method of popularizing real music. We play such adaptations to attract attention and we find that the public takes to adaptations better because familiar melodies appeal. That's reason enough."
     Mme. Marie Sundelius, Enrico Caruso and Albert Spalding, an American violinist, were of the opinion that Norway has just cause for indignation. Norway, it seems, learned of the desecration when an assortment of American talking machine records reached that country recently. One record, entitled "Peter Gink." composed by George L. Cobb and played by the Six Brown Brothers, was heard by Norwegian music lovers. Shocked beyond words, they began preparation of the memorial and it was forwarded with haste to Washington.
     Mme. Sundelius, soloist of the Metropolitan Opera Company, said that she had been reading of the "sacrilege" in Swedish papers. "A composer does not like people to use his melodies in that way," she said, "and it was not a nice thing to make ragtime out of Grieg. Surely there is enough popular music to adapt without going to the classics."
     Caruso, whose voice is recorded by the company which first put out the Grieg ragtime, said: "There ought to be a law against it. It is a shame."
     "An awful shame, outrageous." was the comment of Mischa Levitski, the pianist.
     Arthur Bodanzky, conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra and also with the Metropolitan Opera Company, said he had no objection to jazz, but the jazz makers should at least be original about it and have enough invention to get along without robbing the classics.
     Mr. Spalding, as an American violinist, expressed the opinion that the public, interested in good music, and also those jealous of the country's good name as to culture, should see to it that good music is not twisted into ragtime.
     "There is an element of interest in ragtime," he said, "from a rhythmic standpoint, but certainly our fine melodies should not be dished out in that form. There should be legislation to prevent it."

     It appears that Cobb, who surprisingly seems to have received very little blame, most certainly got away with the outrage, and since plagiarism was not at issue, no Federal laws were passed against such parodies. He followed Peter Gink by editing and publishing The Blacksmith Rag, a parody on the Anvil Chorus from Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore, and a clever take on the Toreador Song from Georges Bizet's opera Carmen.
     As of the 1920 Census, George was living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his wife and mother, with his father Linus listed as the head of the household. George was listed as a musical composer with his "own company," although the nature of that assertion is unclear. Linus was listed as a broker with his own office. Cobb continued his acerbic writings in Melody. Throughout the 1920s he also composed a number of great novelties both within and separate from Melody, such as Piano Salad, Snuggle Pup and Chromatic Capers. Given that only Cobb and British-born composer Richard E. Hildreth were permanent members of Jacobs' writing staff, it is likely that many of the pieces released in Melody and even as separate sheets were composed by one of them under a variety of pseudonyms. However, pinpointing which of these were used by Cobb would be a daunting forensic task, so other than the Leo Gordon pieces they are not included in his song list. He also advertised from time to time as a free-lance creator of melodies composed for lyrics, using his home address as this was evidently a moonlighting operation.
     Linus Cobb died in Boston on January 24, 1925, and was buried in Mexico, New York. At some point in the late 1920s Cobb divorced Mary and moved to Somerville, then in the 1930s to Brookline, both suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. The 1930 Census shows him as divorced and working as a publishing salesman, as he seems to have mostly retired from music composition by this time. It also shows that he his mother Jeannette was still living with him. From that point on little is known of his life in retirement. It appears, however, that he finally left the music business nearly altogether.
     As of the 1940 Census George was lodging with Mabel Hayward and her son Clyde in Brookline, Massachusetts, shown as a salesman for local Chamber of Commerce memberships. Cobb's 1942 draft registration, perhaps the final official document of his life, has him again in Brookline, still working for the Chamber of Commerce, with his "person who will always know you" reference being one Evelyn F. Eaton (b.1894) in nearby Cambridge. We do not know the nature of their relationship. His final composition, written after an absence of more than a decade, appeared in 1942, the year he joined ASCAP. Spending his last days in a convalescent home in Brookline, Massachusetts, George Linus Cobb died of coronary thrombosis complicated by a duodenal ulcer at age 56 on Christmas Day 1942 [December 27 has also been cited]. Curiously, his first wife Claire is cited on his death certificate, which does show him as divorced. His gravesite is in his home town of Mexico, New York.
     The instrumental compositions of George L. Cobb, which span over two decades, have generally been put into three categories of development. His earliest pieces are thought to be in the Popular vein, which was in part written as something for the sake of getting sold, although with a bit more aplomb in Cobb's case. By the mid 1910s he was getting much more adventurous and clever, so given the chord changes he was using and the complex trios, the rags and intermezzos from this period fall into the advanced ragtime category. Finally, he had little trouble adapting to the novelty style invented or adopted by many of his younger peers. While his novelty works never sold in large numbers, they were still very worthy entries into the collective. The strength of his many songs lies in memorably simple melodies with chord progressions that enhanced, but did not get in the way of those melodies.

     Many thanks to Canadian Ragtime historian Ted Tjaden who provided some of the information here to supplement my research, as well as rediscovery of many of the previously unknown Cobb pieces. Visit his site at www.ragtimepiano.ca.
     Special acknowledgement goes to the brilliant pianist and Cobb historian Frederick Hodges who managed to fill in some of the important details about Cobb's career and his parents.
     Thanks also to retired librarian Marilyn McClure who sent Ted and myself a copy of Cobb's second marriage license, and gave us the name of Claire (likely Clara) from his death certificate as his wife. His marriage certificate to Mary shows as his second marriage and her first, putting Claire in that time between 1912 and 1916 when he remarried.

Charles Cohen (March 26, 1878 to October 15, 1931)

Compositions

1910 Carnival Bingo Riverside Rag I Love You Still [w/Kenneth Lacey] Baby Lou [w/Kenneth Lacey] 1912 Fashion Rag - A Stylish Two-Step 1914 Only You [w/Reba Vandersloot]

     This was a tricky biography to research because there were no less than three musical Charles Cohens in the same general geographic area. With a little extra guidance and help from researcher Keith Emmons of hulapages.com, the author has settled on one, but will discuss the other two briefly and what they composed, or potentially composed. This is an unusual biography entry, but given that second and third Cohens both made contributions to music during the ragtime era their stories should be told.

     The first target is Arthur Charles Cohen in Philadelphia born in Germany in 1875 and immigrated to the United States in 1892. He was a piano teacher and self-employed musician throughout his life. That there was little ragtime published in Philadelphia would suggest the possibility that this Cohen, who could have used his middle name to avoid being confused with Arthur M. Cohen of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, might have published primarily with Vandersloot Music Publishing Company in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. However, after information uncovered on two other Cohens and the presence of a couple of popular pieces published in Cleveland, Ohio, it seems likely, in the author's estimation that this Cohen was potentially responsible only for a series of five pieces released between 1932 and 1936 attributed to a Charles Cohen. There is some possibility that that it was also the second Charles Cohen discussed below. These were five songs composed to known stories or lyrics, somewhat in the matter of Texas composer David Guion who had been resurrecting old American tunes in new arrangements. The last of the five, Rivets, was a contemporary look at American workers. All five were released as a set in New York in 1936. No further information was available on the Philadelphia Charles Cohen.

     The second Charles Cohen was born in rural Kansas to German (Prussian) immigrants Henry and Sarah Cohen. He was one of six children, four of which survived their childhood. Others include Lenah (c.1873), Ralph (c.1877), Mattie (c.1879 but deceased by 1900), and Hannah (c.1882). As of the 1880 census, the family was living in Saint Marys, Kansas, in Pottawatomie County, northwest of Topeka, with Henry working as a retail merchant in dry goods. While the family is difficult to track over the next decade, by 1894 they had moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where Henry was listed in the directories as a tailor or finisher. Charles had received some formal piano training during this period, perhaps at the fine conservatory in Cleveland. In the 1899 directory he is listed as a music teacher, living with the family on 251 Sawtell Avenue. By the following year the family had moved to 5 Ledge Avenue, where Charles was now listed as a musician. The same was true in the 1900 census, where he is shown to be a Musical Director, possibly in a theater or for a band.
     In 1903, the Cleveland Cohen was married to Pearl R. [Mayer] Cohen, a Kentucky born girl who had been working as a stenographer. Playing in local theaters as a soloist and, according to local directories and ads, in bands, he was likely doing some musical arranging, leading to composition. His first known published work was Tatters issued in Cleveland in 1906 by the dominant local house, Sam Fox Publishing. It is a pleasant two step that was easily adaptable for band. Three years later he would follow with it up with the pleasant waltz, Dream of the Flowers, also published by Fox. In 1908, Charles and Pearl had their first of two daughters, Lenore. Florence would follow in 1910. The couple is shown living in Cleveland in 1910 with Charles listed as a musician in an orchestra.
     In 1918 on his draft record, Charles was listed as employed in the Duchess Theater at 5708 Euclid Avenue, where he worked with stage plays and musicals for many years. Much of the fare at this time was comprised of Yiddish musicals and melodramas. He was likely still working there in 1920 when he listed himself as a musician playing piano. Little is known of his activities in the 1920s save for a couple of notices of him in the Duchess and one other Cleveland theater. It appears that he also played for a movie house at some point in the early to mid 1920s. In 1930 the entire Cohen family is still living together, but with hard economic times coming upon the country they had taken in a lodger as well. Charles was still working as a musician in a theater, potentially the Duchess which was still in business at that time. That he was still working suggests the possibility that he may have been the source of the New York publications of the mid 1930s, but this is hard to verify.
     The Ohio Cohen spent his remaining years in Cleveland. He is not seen in any newspaper billings after 1940 or so, and at 66 may have retired from daily work. Around 1960 he became ill (cause not made available) and was committed to long term care in nearby Parma, Ohio, where he succumbed in 1961.

     Now to the Charles Cohen who was responsible for some of the better known rags published in Pennsylvania in the 1910s. While the expectation might be that he, like the other two Cohens, was of European or Russian Jewish heritage, this is not the case. This Charles Cohen was a black composer, born in Georgia (he cites the town of Cuba which may be in error) in 1878. He was the youngest of what appeared to be a mixed family of whites, blacks and mulattos, likely dating back to the time of slavery. The family was found in Rome, Georgia in 1880, with all of the non-white members shown as servants in a house run by tobacco merchants. This includes his mother, Susan Cohen, and at least three potential siblings who were also listed as black. They included Julius (1873), Elizabeth "Lizzie" (1870) and Jacob (1868), and perhaps two more listed as mulatto, Celia (1856) and Julia (1852).
     While Susan was shown to be married, no spouse was specified in the 1880 census. Charles cites his father as having been born in England (making him potentially a mulatto) in the 1900 census, but all others cite South Carolina for his origin. Nothing definitive was found on his upbringing or musical training. However, many well-to-do families in the South at that time had a keyboard instrument of some kind in their home. At some point, Charles recieved some formal training in music as well as piano tuning and repair, as he would engage in both as a career later in life.
     Cohen was listed in the 1900 census in Montrose, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, boarding in the home of local physician Benjamin Carey, who headed a white family. While this would be unusual in many parts of the country then, there was a higher tolerance in the northeast for such living accommodations, something which would be tested by Cohen in years to come. It is likely that Charles was associated with two of the sons of his host, both musicians, including Ralph L. Carey, who was the same age as Cohen and his older brother George B. Carey.
     Working primarily as a musician in Northern Pennsylvania and Southern New York State, Charles moved to Binghamton, New York some time around late 1905. His name started appearing in Binghamton directories in 1906 as a musician, and in the Binghamton newspaper in 1907. The 1910 census taken in Binghamton showed him as boarding with Miss Parmelia Tiffany, and working as a music teacher. According to a book on Binghamton written by Ed Aswad and Suzanne Meredith, Charles found work in this southern New York town as a musician, a music teacher, and as a piano and organ technician.
     There was an amusement park in Binghamton located in town on Riverside Drive, where he likely performed, as was common in the 1900s and 1910s. It was a drawing of this park that appeared on one of his first compositions, Riverside Rag, self-published in Binghamton in 1910. A similarly themed piece titled Carnival Bingo appeared that same year, also under the moniker of the Cohen Music Company. However, Carnival Bingo was printed in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, home of two publishers at that time, so was possibly jobbed out to one of them. The most likely candidate would be Vandersloot Music, since on the Riverside Rag cover there is a reference to a song Cohen co-composed with Vandersloot manager and resident composer, Harry J. Lincoln, even though it was actually written with his Binghamton colleague Kenneth Lacey (possibly a pseudonym since an identity could not be ascertained).
     In short order, both rags would be obtained and reissued by Vandersloot, along with I Love You Still, the song that Cohen cowrote with Lacey. Riverside Rag now had a much different cover by Vandersloot resident artist Walter J. Dittmar, which while clever was also, in retrospect, one of the more offensive ones of the ragtime era. It featured two little black boys at the riverside taking a swim while two alligators (crocodiles?) discuss them as a potential meal. However, the piece itself is still popular a century later. The original cover was likely abandoned since it was specific to Binghamton. Just the same, the choice for the replacement is curious given the possibilities that would go with the name Riverside. Another Vandersloot reissue followed in 1911 with Baby Lou of 1910, lyrics also by Lacey. Then in 1912 they issued Fashion Rag, another fine piece of Cohen's that has remained popular as well. That was the last that was seen of Charles Cohen in print for some time. The pieces listed above comprise the bulk of the output of Charles Cohen number three.
     Cohen had married his wife Lillian Rosenzweig in 1911, and as she was white and Jewish theirs was a mixed marriage on many levels. However, he had obviously gained the respect of those in Binghamton and was thought of very highly. Also, miscegenation in general was better tolerated in this area of the country. During the 1910s and beyond Charles worked in one or more movie houses in the area providing music for films, as well as his other duties as an entertainer and piano expert. On his 1918 draft record he is listed as a musician working for a Mr. Gibson, probably a theater owner. His address was 38 Haendel Street, a house which he and his wife owned.
     In the 1920 census Charles was oddly enough counted as white, suggesting that he may also have been a mulatto member of the Georgia Cohens. Cohen was still working as a musician in a theater, likely the Star Theater where he was known to have been employed in the early 1920s, and the Suburban Theater where he was working later in the decade. He also played special engagements at the Binghamton Theater, including a custom score for the 1925 movie Ben Hur which hit town in 1927, requiring the temporary installation of a large "portable" console organ. Cohen's name appears often in the Binghamton Press as "Binghamton's Artist Organist."
     The 1930 census shows him still listed as a musician in a moving picture theater, but history would declare that his job there would soon evaporate, thanks in part to a stage actor named Al Jolson who sometimes ironically sang in blackface. The last notices for him playing for a movie appear in late 1930. During this period a younger white couple, Fred and Helen Merk, was boarding with the Cohens. In October of 1931 Charles Cohen died at age 53, and was buried in Floral Park Cemetery in nearby Johnson City, a section of Binghamton. Three decades later, in the early 1960s, Riverside Rag and Fashion Rag were reprinted in folios issued by Mills Music, who had obtained the Vandersloot catalog, and Cohen's name became known to a new generation of ragtime fans and players. Now hopefully who he really was may also be known.

     Many thanks go to research Keith Emmons who helped to pinpoint the harder to find Cohen in Binghamton, the one who didn't initially pop to the top in the census searches. Once his identity was made clear the rest of his story was easy to construct. The information on the first two Cohens was compiled entirely by the author.

Glover John Compton (January 6, 1884 to June 11, 1964)
Compositions
1904 The Clock of Time [w/Tony Jackson] 1911 Monkey Rag [disputed - likely Honky-Tonky Monkey Rag by Chris Smith]
Known Discography
1922 Lonesome Monday Morning Blues [1] You Can't Have it All [1] 1923 Play That Thing [2] Jazzbo Jenkins [2] 1956 Meet Glover Compton [3]    1. w/With Alberta Hunter    2. w/Ollie Powers' Harmony Syncopaters    3. w/Recorded by Birch Smith	Number and Date [Paramount 12007-B] 09/1922 [Paramount 12008-A] 09/1922   [Paramount 12059-A] 09/1923 [Paramount 12059-B] 09/1923   [Windin' Ball WB-106] 04/11/1956

     Glover Compton is one of those frustrating ragtime figures who is often mentioned and was everywhere playing with everyone, yet little concrete information can be found directly about him. His narrative was also part of the core of the 1950 book They All Played Ragtime, including parts of the extensive interviews of Glover taken by authors Rudi Blesh and Harriet Janis. Yet even that left holesracies in his story. This biography represents an attempt to fill in more than has often been seen on this beloved and often busy ragtime performer.
     Glover's mother, Laura Compton, had her first child, Maud, at just 13 or 14 years old. She is listed in the 1880 Census in Bergin Knob, Kentucky, married to 22 year old farm laborer John Compton, and as 19 herself, with Maud as 1 year old. However, all subsequent records give her birth year as 1866 or 1867, so there may have been some obvious but understandable deception in this case. When she was around 17 to 18, Laura gave birth to Glover in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, about 50 miles north from Bergin Knob. The birth year is most consistently shown as 1884 on most documents, but on his draft record in 1918 it shows as 1883. His death record shows 1884, so that is the most consistent date. Laura is shown in Harrodsburg in 1900 working as a cook and as having been widowed. In that same Census, Glover is listed as a boot black, a common occupation for black teens at that time. They also had two lodgers in their home, possibly for income reasons. Note that while his name is often shown as J. Glover Compton, he was listed consistently as Glover Compton on Census records and travel manifests, and as Glover John Compton on his 1918 draft record. The origin of the J. Glover derivation of his name is unclear, but he may have originally been John Glover Compton after his father, having changed it by his teens.
     Compton's name first appears as a pianist/entertainer in Louisville, Kentucky around 1904. The best-known pianist in town was "Piano Price" Davis, who fostered Compton to some extent and hooked him up with occasional jobs, sometimes by simply not showing up to his own gigs in favor of gambling instead. One venue mentioned was Jimmy Boyd's Cafe at 10th and Walnut where he played upstairs for $10.50 a week. Compton also says he visited the fair in St. Louis in 1904, but did not play in any venues there. It was during a 1904 musical tour to Louisville that a slightly disgruntled Tony Jackson, tired of the road, first met Compton. The two soon became friends, performing for a time at the Cosmopolitan Club. They also wrote a song together, which remains unpublished, but Compton recorded it in his later years. That piece, The Clock of Time, was reportedly repurposed in 1922 by composer J. Berni Barbour as the salacious My Daddy Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll), the song which ultimately provided the name for the genre of Rock and Roll. Jackson eventually went back to New Orleans for the next couple of years. It wasn't long before Glover was well regarded for his playing skills and reliability. But he didn't stay put for very long, choosing the life of an itinerant pianist for the next several years. In 1906 he spent time in Chicago playing at Elite Number 1 on State Street, run by Art Cardozo and Teenan Jones.
     In spite of his travels, Glover remained based in Louisville, and is listed there in 1910 in both the Kentucky and Federal Census records with his mother Laura working as a laundress, and Glover as a dance hall musician. During his travels he spent time in Wyoming, Washington, New York and Chicago, the latter where he met up with one long-time partner and one partner from the past. The long-time partner was singer Nettie Lewis who he married around 1911. Chicago became Compton's new home base, and he moved his mother Laura there as well. One of his most frequent haunts when he wasn't on the road was the Elite Club on South State Street, which also featured notable musicians like Jelly Roll Morton and Earl Hines during its 18 year life. The other partner was Tony Jackson, who had come to Chicago from New Orleans for good, and the two quickly got back together. They worked as a dual piano act from time to time over the next several years. Glover and Jackson exchanged many ideas as well, expanding the scope of how each of them played. Another occasional playing partner and friend was composer Shelton Brooks, who in 1916 dedicated his piece Walkin' the Dog to Compton and local actor Bud Joyner.
     In the mid 1910s wanderlust struck Compton again for a while. There is a story about Glover that comes from when he worked on the Barbary Coast in Northern California, as early as January of 1913 by his own reckoning. One of his favored venues there was the St. Francis club between Pacific and Broadway. According to West Coast pianist Sid Le Protti who he met there, Le Protti played one of his original tunes for Compton who quickly learned it. In 1915 Le Protti heard his tune played again, but this time it was named Canadian Capers. Evidently Compton had played it back in Chicago at the repeated request (with the lure of dollar tips) of pianist Henry Cohen, and Cohen collaborated with three of his friends to "compose" the piece Canadian Capers, which included Le Protti's melody in the B strain. At a later time when Le Protti asked Cohen about this, the latter pointed to Compton as the one who taught him the melody, and when asked if he could use it, Compton had no argument. Compton confirmed this story at some point as well.
     It is known that Compton was on the road in the latter part of the 1910s, but work in playing ragtime was not always available. He says he "palled around with Jelly Roll Morton" during the latter's visit to the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition San Francisco. Most of the local performers played at the Exposition because the Barbary Coast clubs were temporarily shut down during the event. Then he went back to Chicago for part of late 1916 through early 1917, playing with Nettie at the Panama Café until it was shut down. Another act playing there, the Panama Trio which included Florence Mills and Ada "Bricktop" Smith, helped forge a friendship with the latter that would later provide him a great European connection.
     From late 1917 to 1918 Glover and Nettie spent six months down in Los Angeles at the Waldorf Cafe while Jelly Roll played at the Cadillac.While they did perform along the Barbary Coast following that gig, Compton's September 1918 draft record shows him employed as a porter for the Southern Pacific Railroad, with the couple living in the Oakland/Alameda area.In 1919 they went up to Seattle, Washington for a while where he played at the Entertainer's Night Club on Main Street with a small combo. The Comptons are shown there as late as January of 1920 in the Census, sharing quarters with some of the other entertainers. Glover is listed as a "cabaret musician" and Nettie as a "cabaret actress." Curiously his birth state is listed there as Missouri, yet it is clearly the same person. Since the 1920 Census was not taken consistently at that same time across the country, they managed to show up in it again in February in Chicago, back with Laura, who was working as a cook, and now with Nettie's mother living there as well. It is also indicated that Glover owned his home, so it is probable Laura had been living in it while the couple had their adventures out west.
     With the jazz age in full swing in Chicago, Glover readily adapted his style, and was soon playing with musicians such as jazz and blues singer Alberta Hunter, clarinetist Jimmie Noone, and drummer Ollie Powers, both of the latter disciples of leading jazz performer Joseph "King" Oliver. For the next few years he would travel back and forth between Chicago and Seattle with small bands. Compton recorded a couple of energetic sides in 1923 with Ollie Powers' Harmony Syncopators later known as J. Glover Compton and the Syncopators. Glover's group performed for some time at the Oriental Café on South State Street, in the former location of their old haunt, the Panama Café. There he worked with both Ms. Hunter and Nettie. Another mentioned venue was the Dreamland Café where Oliver would join Compoton's band on

Glover Compton with a Seattle ensemble c.1925. From left, Leon Hutchinson, John Slocum, Compton, trumpeter Frank Waldron.

Monday afternoons for "Blue Monday" sessions. He also ventured to New York on a few occasions, cutting a couple of sides with Hunter as well (although incorrectly billed as Grover Compton). The sultry singer had also recorded with Duke Ellington and Perry Bradford during that period. Yet Compton was not able to achieve the status of many of his peers, perhaps in part because he was not writing his own material as most of them were. Even in some travels with Jelly Roll Morton he was relegated to the role of relief guy and sidekick. This frustration eventually drove him to try Europe, and starting in 1926 he spent much of the next 13 years commuting between Chicago and Paris. Compton was obviously not living full-time in Europe like some of his peers, including the notorious soprano sax player Sidney Bechet, and appears in Chicago in the 1930 Census as an accompanist, Nettie with no occupation listed, and rooming with some other vaudeville actors.
     Compton settled in at a cafe started by Chicago expatriate, Ada "Bricktop" Smith who he had reconnect with. It was the famous Chez Bricktop in Paris. Ada had first invited Compton over to France in 1926 after her pianist was killed by his girlfriend in a dare situation that he finally lost. Glover played there with the existing group, The Palm Beach Six. Compton is described during this period as an early version of Willie "The Lion" Smith, a consummate entertainer, complete with the cigar hanging out of his mouth, the large repertoire, and his direct engagement with the audience. Another place he frequented was the Royal Box in Paris owned by Joe Zelli. While in Paris seemed to be good for Glover's career and finances, it did not help his status in the U.S. as many simply forgot who he was. But the French knew who he was, particularly after the famous shooting incident of December 20, 1928. Many of the transplanted musicians were gathered at Bricktop's early that morning when an argument broke out between Sidney Bechet and banjoist Gilbert McKendrick. The cause was evidently a dispute about chord changes of all things, which Bechet found offensive to his musical intellect. Another story had to do with who had failed to buy a round of drinks. Whatever the cause, Compton, who already had an ambiguous relationship with Bechet going back several years, evidently tried to intervene. As McKendrick emerged from the bar, Bechet, who had gone to fetch his firearm, started shooting. McKendrick was completely missed, but two witnesses were wounded, and Compton was shot in the leg. Both men got 15 months but served a year. Compton spent several months in the hospital, and says that Bechet and McKendrick had promised to pay his bill, but they were never able to. When released in 1929, Bechet found out that Compton was planning on suing him for compensation for the wound. Bechet quickly got word to Compton to watch out for his other leg, and the suit idea quickly evaporated. Even though Bechet and McKendrick became friends to some degree, Compton remained on Bechet's bad side from that point on. Fortunately for Glover, Bechet and McKendrick were asked to depart France permanently soon after their sentence was served. Compton continued to play at Bricktop's, eventually favoring a long-term gig at Harry's New York Bar owned by jockey Ted Sloane, also in Paris.
     Glover and his wife continued to cross the Atlantic into the late 1930s, with one final voyage documented in October of 1939. He came back to New York City this time, forced in part by the onset of war in Europe, playing in a jazz piano joint, reportedly the type where people are there to drink and talk, not to listen to music. Within a couple of years the Comptons returned to Chicago, and he reassociated himself with Noone for many years. Author Rudi Blesh found him there in 1949, and interviewed him at length for his upcoming book They All Played Ragtime, getting a wealth of information (although not entirely accurate) about various ragtime players in the Windy City. In the early 1950s he opened his own bar in Chicago, a place where he could have some control over the playing environment. It was here that he spent his last few years, and seems likely that it's where his 1956 taped interview set with archivist Birch Smith took place, Compton's only true recorded piano solos. Another artist that spent considerable time with Compton and befriended him was rising star Johnny Maddox from Gallatin, Tennessee. Johnny has a considerable number of memories and interesting stories about Compton from talking with him in Chicago.
     Glover Compton suffered a debilitating stroke in 1957, and finally succumbed in 1964 at age 80. We have only one piano rag - which may or may not actually be his (he claimed he wrote the music to Chris Smith's Honky-Tonky Monkey Rag) - and a handful of recordings to remember him by, but we also have great stories and his evident influence on some of his peers as part of the makeup of the collective of ragtime performance.

     Thanks to Adam Swanson who provided a couple of extra elements on Compton, and Australian historian Bill Egan who came up with more of his association with Ada Smith. Some of the narrative comes from They All Played Ragtime by Rudi Blesh and Harriet Janis, and from unpublished notes by Rudi Blesh, but the bulk was pieced together by the author from recordings and public and private archival records.

Thomas R. Confare (October 29, 1866 to January 6, 1943)
Compositions
1895 Don't Leave Your Dear Old Southern     Home [1] 1904 I Was Only Fooling (A Song Oddity) [2] Fighting for the Cause of Old Japan [2] The Burning of the Iroquois [2] South Haven's the Place for Me [2] They are Sleeping in the Land of Love     Tonight [2] 1905 Not for Love [2] Come Home Soldier Boy in Blue [2] Carolina Dinah (I'se a-Waitin' Fo'     You) [2,3]	1905 (Cont) Love Me [2] A Sail in the Summertime (Sailing) [2] 1908 Sunbeam (Good-bye, Good-bye) [2] 1909 Bomb Shell: Characteristic Rag [2] 1929 Dreams, Just Dreams [4]    1. w/Barry Gray    2. w/Morris Silver    3. w/Joseph C. Northup    4. w/Don Fina
Arrangements
The March of Union Labor [J.C. Maloney] (1901) Minnehaha: Dance Grotesque [Paul Loering] (1903) Cannon Ball - A Characteristic Novelty [Joseph C. Northup] (1905) Just for Fun: Band Arr. [Hampton Durand & Morris Manley] (1905) Sunlight: An Indian Intermezzo [Harry L. Newman] (1908) That Tuneful Rag [Buel B. Risinger] (1911) That Dahm Rag [Phil J. Dahm] (1912) The Camel Walk [Sam L. Rosenbaum & Joseph M. Verges] (1916) I Didn't Mean Goodbye [N.J. Clesi & Arthur Le Clerq] (1916) I'm From Chicago [Leo Edwards & Blanche Merrill] (1917) Tallahassee [Frank Bannister, Sam Gold & Dave Waters] (1924) Bobbed Head [Hampton Durand, Evans Lloyd, Herman Kahn] (1924) Roll Up Your Sleeves, Buddy Boy, and Let 'Em Have It [Morris Silver] (1942)

     Thomas R. Confare was born to carpenter John M. Confare and his British wife Rosetta R. (Each) Confare in Union (possibly Debuque), Iowa, just a short while after the Civil War had ended. He was the middle child of three, including his older sister Kate (1865) and younger brother John (1870). How much musical training Tom had while in school is uncertain. He was still in school as of 1880, but also working in a railroad office in Sabula, Iowa. George was now a wagon maker during a time of great expansion in the area. As of the 1885 Iowa Census he appears in the family business as a carpenter, just short of 18 years old.
     In October 1890 Thomas married his first wife, Dorathie (Dorothy) Rosenstiel, and moved to the Boston, Massachusetts area for a while, perhaps to try and get a start in music as it was just a bit more active at that time than Chicago. On May 8, 1892 Dorothy gave birth to Thomas Newell Confare. The couple had moved back to Chicago by 1895, where Confare's first published song appeared. In the 1900 Census Confare is shown living in Chicago with his wife and child, and is listed as a musician, albeit unemployed for two months at that time. So life was likely a bit hard, even in that bustling city.
     That was the point when Thomas likely decided to start working for publishers as a free-lance arranger, and as an orchestra and band director/arranger as well. One of his first credited arrangements was a union song released in 1901. As was likely the case, many of the arrangements, some of them perhaps just preparing a piece for typesetting, were not credited, so there are likely more. A second credit appears on a 1903 intermezzo, Minnehaha, part of the early surge of Indian-themed pieces.
     Tom was either divorced or widowed around this time (confirmation was difficult to come by), and 1904 he remarried to Clara E. Hensey. Then Confare met Morris S. Silver, and the two started to click as a songwriting team in 1904. His work with Silver got Tom employed by publisher Victor Kremer at a time when Kremer's ragtime catalog was starting an impressive build-up. So in addition to Confare/Silver songs, Tom's name appeared on other pieces as well. One of those was among the most famous and best-selling of the Kremer rags, Cannon Ball: A Characteristic Novelty, by Joseph C. Northup. The research on Northup shows that he was at least a fairly competent working musician, but apparently had minimal notation skills. So it is probable that there was as much Confare in the rag arrangement as there was Northup. The end result was a moderately difficult but very pianistic score that was fun to both play and listen to. It also spread Confare's name prominently as it had Northup's.
     Confare was shown to have created some band arrangements for Kremer from 1905 to 1908, but only a couple can be verified. He continued to write sporadically with Silver, but soon their output diminished to almost nothing. Two fine pieces appeared in 1908 - Sunbeam composed by Confare and Silver, and Sunlight: An Indian Intermezzo arranged by him. That same year saw the birth of his daughter Clara R. Confare, named after her mother.
     In addition to composition and solo performance, Thomas was working for the 25 piece De Baugh band as their director. This was mentioned in a Chicago Tribune notice of February 1, 1908, which painted an unfortunate picture of bad behavior by a married man. Evidently Confare had forced his intentions on Miss Agnes Lang, a cashier in Arnold Brothers, a State Street restaurant, and after a brief chase by the police was arrested and charged. A follow up on the disposition of this was not found. Then a strange item appeared in The Music Trade Review of November 28, 1908. "Thomas Confare, the well-known musician, who has been doing the arranging for Harry Newmann, western representative of Harry Von Tilzer, passed away suddenly on Thursday of this week at his home in this city [Chicago]." Reports of his demise were obviously quite exaggerated, but the cause of this mistake is unknown.
     In 1909 Confare teamed once again with Silver to bring out Bomb Shell, more than just an obvious sequel to Cannon Ball. The similarity between the two rags, plus other examples of Confare’s work, again suggests that he had a heavy hand in Cannon Ball. Bomb Shell did not sell anywhere nearly as well, but is still a very fine rag in its own right. While that was his last rag, two more arrangements with a Confare sound appeared in 1911 and 1912, That Tuneful Rag and That Dahm Rag. He was also working more steadily in Chicago theaters with the De Baugh Band and independently, and in the 1910 Census appears in Chicago with wife Clara and daughter Clara, listed as a musician and director. His son, Thomas N. Confare, was also living with the family, and is listed as a music arranger in his own right. Kremer sold his catalog around this time to engage in other business, so Thomas had to search for employment elsewhere.
     The credited arrangements appear to have ceased for a while after 1912, but Tom was still working in theaters according to some Chicago sources. His third and last child, Edith, was born in 1912. There is not much available on him in the 1910s, but he moved west to the Chicago suburb of Winfield around the middle of the decade. Thomas N. shows up in the 1917 draft as a self-employed music printer, working in the famous Schiller Building above the Garrick Theater on West Randolph Street. A couple of arrangements by the elder Confare appeared under the Triangle Publishing moniker in New Orleans in 1916, but it seems unlikely he had moved there for even a short while, as a 1917 New York publication ironically titled I'm From Chicago also featured his name as arranger. Thomas was still established as a self-employed music director as of the 1920 Census, living in Winfield with Clara E., and daughters Clara R. and Edith.
     The 1920s were busy with music directing, but at least two more arrangements and one song appeared, with a few more likely not credited. Attempts to ascertain if Confare was with a group that was recorded at any point turned up empty, but even in Chicago with its many studios, this was not unusual. One final song composed with Buddy Fina appeared just at the cusp of the depression. As of 1930, the Confare family was still living at the same Winfield address, but 63-year-old Tom now listed himself as a music arranger, not a director, possibly because a number of steady hotel and theater gigs started to dry up around this time, and possibly because he was looking to retire. A decade later, still in at the same Chicago address, Thomas, widowed and living with his daughters Clara and Edith, indeed showed no occupation. Interestingly, the last known piece released with Confare's name on it was a 1942 war song with attitude, Roll Up Your Sleeves, Buddy Boy, and Let 'Em Have It, composed by his old friend Silver and arranged (perhaps even enhanced) by Thomas. He passed away the following year at age 76, just a few years short of the ragtime revival in which Cannon Ball would play a starring role, and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Worth, Illinois.

Cecil Duane Crabb (May 23, 1890 to April 27, 1953)

Compositions

1907 Fluffy Ruffles 1909 Orinoco Trouble [w/Will Morrison] 1911 The Klassicle Rag

     Cecil Duane Crabb, or "Cece" as some of his peers called him, was part of the Indianapolis group of young composer friends who contributed just a few but still significant pieces into the ragtime collective. He was the youngest of four childre born in Indiana to James Newton Crabb and his wife Sarah Elizabeth Myers, the others being Viola (1874), Nora (1875) and Earl (1/1884). After several years of struggling to get by in Centerville, the family had moved westward to Indianapolis by 1900 where Cecil's older brother Earl, now 16, worked as a clerk in a phonograph store, and their father was a canvasser or poll taker and a travel agent. James was also an inventor with several interesting patents issued to him dating back to the 1870s. By the age of 18 Cece was evidently not living with his parents in Indianapolis.
     After a roller skating accident Cece was taken in for a time by Mr. E.D. Staley and his wife. The Staleys discovered in short order his propensity for both piano and graphic arts. In an effort to provide stability and a positive direction for Crabb, Mr. Staley set him up in a sign making shop, producing outdoor and on door signs for businesses.
     During this time Cece befriended May Aufderheide, fresh out of finishing school, and quickly helped her to get her Dusty Rag into print, something she was trying to do over her father's objections. Another new acquaintance, composer Paul Pratt, arranged the piece and Cecil did the cover art. It was the only piece published by the Duane Crabb Publishing Company. Because of May's determination to have her work in print, her father, John Henry Aufderheide, admired the efforts of the teenaged trio to the point where he started J.H. Aufderheide & Company just to publish their works, and Cece was also rewarded for his efforts in helping her.
     Although Crabb was retained for cover art work, possibly even having designed the distinctive logo, he also published a few pieces with the firm. The first of these was Fluffy Ruffles, one of a number of ragtime era pieces with this name. He had composed it in 1907 and another Indianapolis composer, Will Morrison, helped him publish it. It was quickly picked up by J.H. Aufderheide for his new company, but was preceded by Crabb's latest rag in 1909, Orinoco. That same year Cecil co-wrote the piece Trouble with Morrison. He also contributed artwork for some of the Aufderheide rags, including Candle-Stick by Abe Olman and A Totally Different Rag by May. Pratt, who like Cecil was not yet 20, was hired as the manager and arranger for the Aufderheide company, as shown in the 1910 census.
     By that time, Cecil was once again living with his parents, his occupation listed as sign painter, music being a sideline to work which brought in needed income. Pratt later recalled that even though there had been no historical confirmation of contracts for those published by Aufderheide, he received a 1.5 cent per copy royalty for this piece, so the same was likely true for Cecil. This would also include his Klassicle Rag, perhaps a nod or even a swipe at the genre of "Classic Ragtime" which was fairly well known by 1911.
     The success of the firm from publicity, as well as additional composers in the stable like Morrison, Olman, Gladys Yelvington and Julia Lee Niebergall, allowed John Aufderheide to expand his enterprise with a second location in a better distribution hub; Chicago, Illinois. He sent Pratt there to manage the new branch, with Niebergall taking over some of the arranging duties in Indianapolis. Unfortunately for all involved in the expanding company, fortunes quickly dried up. May lost her desire to continue on track with her well-crafted rags, and with sales suddenly slowing, her father also lost interest in continuing the company. His sale of the J.H. Aufderheide catalog to the Mentel Brothers in Cincinnati left the Pratt in Chicago without a job and Cecil without his friends close by. His final submission, Orinoco, was published by the Mentel Brothers.
     Cecil was married to his first wife Ethelene Griffing on December 5, 1912, and welcomed their daughter Jane into the world in 1914. On his 1917 draft record, Cecil indicates his occupation again as sign painter for the Staley and Pratt Sign Company, and lists construction as well. The 1920 census shows the family living in Indianapolis, and Cecil merely as a proprietor, as he was still in business for himself. He also engaged in light graphic arts, and even starting an early outdoor advertising firm. In the early 1920s he and Ethelene went their separate ways, and he remarried to his second wife Stella Seidensticker. Together they had a daughter and two sons, Rosalyn (1925), James M. (1927) and Cecil, Jr. (1929). Business in outdoor advertising must have been fairly good as their busy household had a maid according to the 1930 enumeration.
     At some point in the subsequent decade Cece went into the florist business, owning a shop on Monument Place in Indianapolis for many years. As of the 1940 census, taken in Indianapolis, he was widowed and living with his daughter Rosalyn and sons James, plus his mother-in-law Margaret Seidensticker. His occupation was as the "executor" of a flower shop. In his later life he also enjoyed fishing, and playing ragtime for grateful friends and fans, seeming to be perfectly happy for his brief flash of fame in Indianapolis. Cecil Crabb died in Wisconsin just short of 63 years old.

Homer H. Denney (March 26, 1885 to September 20, 1975)
Compositions
1905 No-Ze 1906 The Coney Island Girl Water Queen 1908 Hot Cabbage 1909 Cheese and Crackers 1910 Chimes	1911 Monograms: Rag Two Step 1912 Ham-Bones - An Easy Picked Rag Sammy's Wigglin' Dance     [w/Ed Wolfe Gilbert] My Lovin' Yiddisha Queen     [w/Ben Rafalo] Unknown/Uncertain Tangle Fingers Rag Miss Gossip

     Homer H. Denney was part of the group of Ohio Valley composers that produced compositions steeped with folk heritage. He would consider himself as much a river man as a musician right to the end, and history spans both ragtime and the last sement of the riverboat era in Ohio. Homer was born in Gallipolis, Ohio, on the border with West Virginia, to Zachariah Denney and Emma (Pauley) Denney. He also had a brother, Raymond Denney, born in January 1887.
     Zachariah was listed as a house painter in 1900 and 1910. He was one of ten children of respected Gallipolis butcher and volunteer fireman Zachariah Denney Sr. and Mary M. (Cavin) Denney, residents of Ohio since the early 19th century. By 1900 the family had moved to Cincinnati, where Homer would spend most of his life. According to his family, one of his passions became bicycle racing, and he won several races over the years. But the two most enduring interests that would permeate his life were music and boats. That he was able to combine these was a true blessing.
     As a child Homer took piano lessons and played for dances and parties. In the 1900 Census, at age 14, he was listed as a messenger. The lad had a fascination with the calliope and wanted very much to be given an opportunity to play one to prove himself. That opportunity presented itself when the player on the original paddlewheel steamer Island Queen fell ill in 1901. He did well on his first outing for a 16-year-old, and when the other player died shortly thereafter, he was offered the position.
     The first verified fix on Denney as a musician is in 1905 when he self-published his first rag, No-Ze, in Cincinnati. By this time he was already making a name for himself as a calliope player on the Ohio River. His next piece, Coney Island Girl, refers to the Coney Island in the river at Cincinnati, which has had a long history of amusement parks and recreation since the late 19th century. The boat he spent most of his life working for during its first and second incarnations was the Island Queen. Built on the frame of the former Saint Joseph, the first Island Queen was launched in 1896, and improved in 1905. It held as many as 3,000 passengers, usually in service from the city to the amusement island, but sometimes for special excursions as far south as New Orleans during Mardi Gras. As a result of his employment on the ship, many of Denney's pieces were fairly simple yet innovative, making the best possible use of the limited yet demanding calliope keyboard. He also played piano on the ship in the interior dining area. His next composition, Water Queen was likely dedicated to the Island Queen.
     Homer was married around 1905 to Bertha Kraft, and late in 1908 their daughter June D. Denney was born. One other child had not survived infancy. By 1907 he was starting to make somewhat of a name for himself on the river. That same year, one of Homer's more notable rags, Hot Cabbage, was self-published. He followed this up with the popular Cheese and Crackers.

The Island Queen pictured in the 1910s.

Both of these first rate works were soon picked up by larger publishers. The same was the case with Chimes, perhaps his best known rag. It was inspired by the sight of a group of children at a dock and their excitement at the approach of the Island Queen and the sound of Homer's calliope. By 1910 he listed in both the Census and the Ohio Miracord as a steam boat musician living in Cincinnati. His partially obscured age appears to be 20, but it is likely 24. Homer's widowed mother-in-law, Jennie Kraft, was living with the couple by then, as she would through most of her remaining life.
     Denney did not meet the same success with his next two rags, Monograms and Ham Bones as he had with Chimes. He also co-wrote an ethnic Jewish piece with comedian Ben Rafalo, but it had a limited shelf life. Ironically, one of the pieces most associated with him was Caliope Rag, actually composed by brothers Sylvester and Charles Hartlaub. Homer was known for his nightly performances of this popular piece, and its wide distribution helped make him somewhat famous. Another such piece was The Queen Rag by Floyd Willis.
     In an article written later in his life, he clearly explained that it took more than musical acumen to play his chosen instrument. "A steam calliope is very hard to play. It takes strength to press the keys down. A calliope is a set of thirty-two [sometimes more] whistles tuned to a definte pitch. The ranges is from 'C' to 'F', a little over two octaves. There are 200 pounds of steam coming up through the valve which makes eight pounds of pressure on each note. Every finger has to push down eight pounds of steam to make a sound, and to keep the note on pitch the finger has to hold down the note with that eight pounds of steam pressure, otherwise it will be off pitch when even slightly released. Everyone cannot sustain notes against the steam pressure which accounts for its sound out of tune. I had strong fingers and it was not hard for me."
     The Island Queen was a well-known ship, running between Cincinnati and Coney Island, with various entertainers on board, but Denney reportedly being the star. Given the sheer decibel volume of a typically steam calliope, he was hard to avoid in any event. The ship carried some 4,000 passengers at a time, and was covered with around 7,000 electric lights. For longer excursions there was a 20,000 square foot dance floor, for which Denney often led the ship's dance orchestra. Homer continued to work on it for some time, and in an additional capacity in 1914 as the tuner of new steam calliopes built at the Thomas J. Nichol factory,

Homer Denney playing the Island Queen's Nichol Calliope in 1946.

most of them built by Nichol himself. But either Homer's personal fortunes started to sag or that of the steamer's ownership, affected by World War I in part.
     By 1917 Denney had long since ceased composing, and his frequency on the ship is uncertain. He was instead primarily employed at the Universal Car Company as an inspector and motor tester, as listed on his draft record, and shows the same position as of the 1920 Census. On April 27, 1922, the roof and some of the decks collapsed on the Island Queen, putting it out of commission for a few months. After it was repaired, on November 4, 1922 the Island Queen burned along with other ships at the Cincinnati docks. As it turns out, the backup employment option was a good plan for the Denney family. During the gap and well beyond, Denney continued to play a Tangley air pressure calliope in the Shrine Circus, being an active member of the Shriners. In the interim the G.W. Hill was pressed into service, and Denney managed to get some work on it until the new ship was ready. He also kept busy with his own small orchestra that played both in town and later on the replacement sidewheeler.
     The new oil powered steamer Island Queen built on a steel hull was launched in 1925, and with it, a resurrection of Denney's career as a dedicated calliope player. He was able to salvage the original calliope after the fire 1922, as it had miraculously stayed above the water line. Homer rebuilt it so it could be sold to the new ship. His newly resurrected instrument was made on a substantial iron frame, and the echoes of nostalgia for riverboats made them popular again, in part due to Edna Furber's novel Showboat, soon to become a Jerome Kern stage musical. Denney rode this wave for many more years, right on through the Great Depression. The 1930 Census lists him as a musician on the ship. As of the late 1930s he was an employee of the waterworks for City of Norwood where the family had moved years before.
     Around that same time, after a bout with pneumonia, doctors had advised him to move out west to boost his survival chances. Denney responded by staying in Ohio, but taking a hiatus from the ship, and he took up farming for a while. He bought his own tractor and used it not only to work his farm properties, but by the early 1940s was also keeping the weeds and grass in check around Norwood. The 1940 Census lists him as an autombile inspector for the safety check lane for the county. Having obviously recovered from his illness, he continued to play on the Island Queen literally through the last gasp of its second life. Homer also built his own small boats and even a houseboat which he often resided in between trips on the Island Queen.
     Many steamships during World War II had been retrofitted and repainted for military transport and war related purposes. After the war they were taken to the ship yards in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for repainting and refitting back into their civilian functions. The Island Queen was moored at Pittsburgh on September 8, 1947, when a welder's torch set off fumes from a fuel tank, causing a major explosion. The crew and a number of passengers had come up to Pittsburgh where the work was being done, including Denney, and most of them had left the ship to go into town. Denney had literally just walked off the ship with his camera when the explosion occurred, and ended up taking most of the only photographs of his beloved second home on the water going up in flames, along with 19 remaining crew members. All that was left of his beloved calliope was the steel frame and four brass keys. Homer returned to Cincinnati in a pair of borrowed overalls, as all of his belongings, except his camera, had been destroyed. Having no instrument to play on, he was forced into retirement from his riverboat days.

The fiery death of The Island Queen, 9/8/1947.

One of the end results of a career playing an instrument as loud as a jet plane was that he was mostly deaf by that time. Years of playing a mere four feet from the pipes took a permanent toll.
     In his following years Homer played his custom Tangley Calliope in parades, and electric organs in other venues. In fact, he had not played an organ before, but secured a gig only two weeks after purchasing a portable electric model. Among his regular organ haunts were the Cincinnati Gardens, home of many sporting events, and the Palace Gardens Skating Rink which had a very unique grand organ. He continued to supervise his farm properties and even dabbled in real estate. Still, Denney was ready at any time to lend his musical talents, often gratis, to the city of Cincinnati for parades, Shriners events, and even the Cincinnati Reds baseball team at Crosley Field starting in 1952. Homer said he enjoyed that venue the most since it was a place where he could "turn loose the volume, because the louder I play the better it sounds." He also took an interest in crank street organs (the type often associated with monkey grinders), not only restoring them but also creating rolls for them by hand. Denney did own one large instrument, a Wurlitzer 105. He wrote about his time on the river, and helped to leave a legacy about the golden days of steamships on the Ohio and the Mississippi.
     Denney was a guest at the first St. Louis Ragtime Festival in the 1960s, according to coordinator Trebor Tichenor and performers Mike Montgomery and John Arpin, but he did not play, perhaps due to his hearing issues. It has been said that he never talked about the rags he had composed in earlier years. When his wife passed on in the late 1960s, Homer lived with his daughter June (Rotunno) in Madeira, Ohio. His last known gig was in 1971 when the Coney Island amusement park in Cincinnati was closed. In his last few months in 1975 he lived in the Ohio Masonic Home in Springfield. Homer Denney left us in September of that year, just as a new generation of ragtime fans started discovering some of the great folk rags of the ragtime era, including those of the well-known calliopist.

     Thanks go to remaining members of the Denney family, including his granddaughter Judy Carr, who willingly provided a great deal of background information on the composer. This allowed the author to finally pinpoint his evasive and clearly misspelled 1900 Census entry. Also to performer and historian Fred Hoeptner who provided some additional information on Denney through a back issue of the Rag Times. More can be found on Denney and the Island Queen at the comprehensive www.steamboats.org. A fine series of pictures of the ship and its travails is available online from the Cincinnati Libray at wiki.cincinnatilibrary.org/index.php/Island_Queen. Also, thanks to Jeremy Stevenson who uncovered the rare Sammy's Wigglin' Dance.

William John Donaldson (April 21, 1891 to December 16, 1954)
Compositions
1915 When You Sit Beside the Fireside in     Winter [1] 1916 Cold Turkey The Original Chateau Three Step Prepare the Eagle to Protect the Dove [1] 1917 Rialto Ripples [w/George Gershwin] Are We Downhearted? No! No! No!     [w/Ray Shwerwood] 1919 Play Me That Tune (Ya-Da-De-Dum-Dum) [2] China Dragon Blues [2] Good-Bye Pal [2] Everybody's Crazy Over Dixie     [w/Rubey Cowan] All That I Know of Love (I Learned     from You) [5] 1920 Time Will Tell [5] A Trip to Hitland: Musical [3,11]    Laughing Vamp    Underneath the Skies (of Home Sweet       Home) [3,12]    I'm Tellin' You    You're Just Around the Corner from Heaven       (When You're Just Around the Corner       from Home)    We'll Still Be Together (You and I)    Scissors    Wow    Think of Me (I'll Think of You) 1921 Tell Her at Twilight [4] 1923 Oh! How She Lied to Me [13] Oh Sister, Aint' That Hot [13] I Don't Know Nobody, and Nobody Knows       Me [14] Love Ain't Blind No More [14] Won't You Be My Sweet Man [14] Rainy Nights [14] [©1972] 1924 Down in Wah-Wah Town [3,15] When You Come to the End of the Lane [6] Doo Wacka Doo [15] [w/George Horther] Come Back to Me (When they Throw You     Down) [w/Billy Rose] In the Shade of Her Parasol [13] 1926 The Cohens and Kellys Step on the Blues [w/Con Conrad &     Otto Harbach]	1927 Gold Digger [w/Duke Ellington] Rhapsody for Saxophone [w/Ross Gorman] Why Can't We Be Sweethearts All     Over Again? [w/Jan Barger & Roy Turk] 1928 The Dark Madonna [16] Danse Barbare [16] Speed Maniacs Sultan of Swat: Baseball One-Step Piggly Wiggly 1929 Hurrah for the Wonder Bakers! Yo-Ho!     Yo-Ho! Yo-Ho! [w/Frank Moulan] 1937 Black Jack March [18,19] Come to the Barn [18,19] We're On Our Way [18,19] 1938 March Moderne 1940 I Can't Resist You [17] Spellbound [17] Life is Sweet Again [17] [w/Harold Lambert] Uncertain/ASCAP Chevrons March Onions Bring Memories of You I Gave You a Rose by the River of Dreams Femmes Qui Sont Ici Les [w/Paule Emile G.     Briollet & Paul Auguste Van Trappe] Mon Coeur est a Barcelona [w/Marcel     Israel & Joseph A. Vincentelli] Ne Cherchez Pas Cest l'Amour [w/Andre     Despax Louis & Lucien Pierre Paul Rives]    1. w/Harry Bunce    2. w/Irving Caesar    3. w/Leon Flatow    4. w/Bernie Grossman    5. w/Bobby Jones    6. w/Billy Frisch    7. w/Nat Vincent    8. w/Billy Baskette    9. w/Sam Ehrlich    10. w/Al Siegel    11. w/Jimmy Brown    12. w/Ted Shapiro    13. w/Harry White    14. w/Jo Trent    15. w/Clarence Gaskill    16. arr. William Grant Still    17. w/Ned Wever    18. w/Muriel Pollock    19. w/Madge Tucker
Known Rollography
1916 Cold Turkey - One Step [Will Donaldson] - Uni-Record 202827 Adeste Fideles [Trad] Assisted by E. Bergeson "with Beautiful Chime Effects" -     Connorized 10276 1919 Everbody's Crazy Over Dixie [Jones/Donaldson/Cowan] - Rythmodik Song Roll J104393

     Will Donaldson had a hand in the start of a career of one of the great American composers, but in the end did not do too badly for himself either. Born in New York to hotel keeper John H. Donaldson and his wife Rose T. Donaldson, Will was the youngest of their three surviving children out of five. He had two older sisters, Beatrice (6/1879) and Agnes (2/1883). An older brother, Edward (10/1880), died in his early twenties. By the time of the 1900 Census, John had become a shipping clerk, a position he would remain in for the rest of his life. Will's early musical training went beyond normal New York School System classes, as he attended the Pratt Institute, and was a part of the recently formed Art Students League.
     By 1910 Will, still living with his family in Brooklyn, was working as a theater pianist, playing for the early Ziegfeld star Elizabeth Brice (no relation to Fannie Brice) and Adele Rowland among others. Within a few years he also accompanied early superstar Elsie Janis when she was in London in the mid 1910s. Will started making his way through both Vaudeville and movie houses over the next several years. He started arranging and producing piano rolls in 1915, and one of his first compositions appeared in 1916, and he soon had a job as arranger and plugger with Jerome H. Remick and J.B. Haviland, perhaps in a free-lance capacity. His 1917 draft record indicates him to be a composer with Haviland as his employer, and also indicates poor eyesight as a handicap that likely kept him out of the trenches in World War I.
     While at Remick, Donaldson met and befriended 16-year-old George Gershwin who had been hired the prior year as a song plugger. Gershwin had repeatedly been thwarted in his efforts to get his employer, or more directly manager Mose Gumble, to do anything with his own compositions. Donaldson helped him in some way with George's only rag, Rialto Ripples, making it the sole Remick publication of a Gershwin tune at that time. Will's role is unclear, whether it be as an arranger making the piece playable for the average player, or actually adding some content to the challenging work. In any case, he got co-credit for the rag, and Gershwin got the boot soon after by Gumble who made it clear he should "leave composing to the composers." Donaldson was a friend and admirer of Gershwin for many years thereafter, as noted in later correspondence between the two men.
     Having proven himself as a capable song writer, in addition to composing some interesting instrumentals, one being the well regarded syncopated waltz The Original Chateau Three Step, Donaldson was readily able to get music into print for several years. However, he was also a very capable pianist, and did some audio recordings for a couple of companies, including Edison's Diamond Disc label. Even before he was in print, at some point around 1915 Will started working with Rythmodik Music Corporation, a branch of the Aeolian Piano Roll Company. According to roll historian Robert Perry there is a good chance Will was on staff, as his name showed up on a number of "hand-played" rolls in the capacity of arranger or perhaps third hand; "Assisted by W.E.D." For his first two years this was pretty much exclusively applied to rolls recorded by Pete Wendling, but by the time Aeolian dropped their Rythmodik line in late 1920 he had appeared with other artists as well. Only one Rythmodik roll credits him as the sole artist, playing his own piece Everybody's Crazy Over Dixie in 1919. One of the people he likely met during these years was artist Muriel Pollock who would become his wife around 1926. There is no indication he was ever involved in the creation or editing of her piano roll performances.
     As of 1920 Will was still living with his mother Rose and sister Beatrice, listed simply as a composer of music. It was in this year that a number of New York songwriters, including publisher Ted Shapiro and lyricists Nat Vincent and Billy Baskette pooled their talent into a stage show called A Trip to Hitland. The sheet music shows anywhere from eight to ten names for composer credit on each piece. In spite of the title, it turned out no hits. After a couple of dry years, Will had a strong showing in 1923, the same year that he joined ASCAP, which had been founded in 1914. In addition to working with Jo Trent on pieces that would be included at one point or another in the hit musical Runnin' Wild, which introduced the Charleston into the world, he co-wrote Oh Sister, Ain't That Hot, which became a substantial jazz age hit still performed and recorded in the 21st century.
     The following year Will took a 1920s catch phrase and with a couple of lyricists turned it into another hit, Doo Wacka Do, a term that eventually became as annoying to some as "vo-de-o-do" due to its frequent usage. Around 1926, Will, who had been a movie pianist off and on, started composing some works specifically for film performance, including one for what became a series spanning silent and sound films, The Cohens and Kellys. Some of his works were spread out over a series of folios released in 1928. In 1927, and some historians speculate even earlier, he co-composed a tune with Duke Ellington called The Gold Digger, part of the Ellington play book for many years. One group that Donaldson was briefly involved with was the Edisongsters, a male trio with Will as the accompanist and arranger. They were broadcast as an Edison Radio presentation every Monday evening. The singers were Jack Parker, Frank Luther and Phil Dewey.
     The 1930 Census shows Will lodging in Manhattan, while Muriel was elsewhere when the roll was taken. At some point in the early to mid 1930s Will and Muriel moved out to the West Coast. Their son Theodore (Ted) Donaldson was born in 1934. Will, like Muriel, also traveled back and forth for a few years between Hollywood and New York. In spite of the presence of radio and the possibilities for movies, Muriel did not fare so well in the West as she had before. Still, she remained in Hollywood until her death, as did Will. In the late 1920s and later Will was working as a voice coach for radio artists, and was also involved with either writing commercial jingles or adapting them. Among them was a song for the Wonder Bread company used often on the radio. ASCAP records indicate, although it is hard to confirm for certain, that he likely adapted the popular song Mm Mm Good into the well known jingle used to this day by Campbell Soups.
     Will and Muriel remained bi-coastal for some time, as the 1940 Census, taken in Manhattan, shows the couple and their son living on West 55th, both listed musicians working in broadcasting. Muriel eventually strayed west, but Will's 1942 draft card, taken in Manhattan, shows him working for Air Features Incorporated (AFI), a clearing house and distribution arm of the American Federation of Radio Artists which would later become AFTRA. He soon joined Muriel in California and became known as a vocal coach for the Hollywood studios, as well as finding work with both movie and recording studios. With Muriel he wrote The Boys and Girls Quiz Book in 1940. Even the Donaldson's son Ted became an actor before he was ten, appearing on the radio, on stage, and in some movies as a talented child performer. His big screen debut was with Cary Grant in 1943. The family lived at 1422 N. Alta Vista Blvd. in Los Angeles throughout most of the 1940s and 1950s.
     After the war Will spent his remaining years living in Hollywood, passing on at the end of 1954. On July 1, 1955, Muriel and Ted donated the Will Donaldson Collection of Theodore Drieser Books and Manuscripts to the UCLA Special Collections Department. Muriel survived Will until 1971 when she died at age 76. Thanks to sheet music and the magic of piano rolls, records and films, the important legacy of Will and Muriel remains with us.

     Thanks go to New Zealand piano roll historian Robert Perry who contributed information on Donaldson's involvement with Rythmodik

William Eckstein (December 6, 1888 to September 23, 1963)
Compositions
1910 Royal Highlanders March and Two Step Some Rag: A Real Live One Down in the Meadow Where the Daisies     Grow [1] 1911 The Sunny Summertime [2] 1916 Beautiful Thoughts Valse Deluxe All Erin is Calling Mavourneen [3] 1917 Delerious Rag: One Step [4] Perpetual Rag [4] Good-Bye Soldier Boy [4,5] You Are My All in All [4,5] 1919 Goodbye Sunshine, Hello Moon [6] 1920 I Just Can't Help Lovin' 'Em All Oriental Fan-Ta-Si Valse Liane The Sunshine Trail Egypt [7] When I'm Dreaming of You [8] 1921 Romance of Love Rose-Land [9] Trail O' Dreams [10] 1922 Valse Inspiration [4] Valse Amoureuse [11] You've Got to Hand it to Me [12,13] Just a Memory of You (Ton Souvenir) [14] 1923 S'Nice (Naughty But It's Nice) [4] Lest You Forget [12] You, Just You [15,16] My Heart Wants Love and You [17] Lonesome Rose [12,18] Hey! You Want Any Codfish? [19] Music (Makes the World Go     Round) [12,19] My Baby Just Cares for Me [19] A Musical Massacre [20] 1924 I'm Going Back to My Home Sweet     Home 1927 I'm All A-Twitter [21] 1928 If You But Knew [22] 1929 Uptown 6303 Won't You Meet Me at Murray's	1932 The Lost Melody 1933 Where the Niagara Flows 1935 Dance to a Lovely Melody (La Saison     Du Bonneur) [23] 1939 To the King and Queen (From Over     There) [24] 1941 The Song That Leads to Victory Cheers for the C.P.C. Hats Off to Canada The "V" Song [25] 1944 Ode to Ike Tessa From Odessa 1945 Montreal, Montreal, Montreal 1948 Got a Date at the Chateau     (for Chateau St. Rose) Strollin' on the Mountain 1951 Bonsoir Chérie! [26] 1959 Queen of Canada    1. w/A.C. Guerin    2. w/T.H. Yull    3. w/Katherin Ward    4. w/Reginald Thomas Broughton as       Harry Thomas    5. w/Walter Bruce    6. w/Gene Buck    7. w/Frederick Whelan    8. w/Gilbert Draper    9. w/Frederick Groves    10. w/Armand Meerte    11. w/Beaudry    12. w/Sam Howard    13. w/Marcel Fortier    14. w/Arthur La Pierre    15. w/Maurice Zpringer    16. w/Henri Deyglun    17. w/John Anderson    18. w/Vera Guilaroff    19. w/Bill Munro    20. based on Frederic Chopin    21. w/George Whiting    22. w/Clarence Davis    23. w/J.L. Theriault    24. w/Harold Moon    25. w/Ludovic Huot    26. w/Pat di Stasio
Selected Discography
1919 Doughboy Jack and Doughgirl Jill [2] Tumbledown Shack in Athlone [1] Oh Helen [1] Burmah Moon [1] I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles [1] London Town [1] Love Will Find a Way [1] Tulip Time [1] When You Look Into the Heart     of a Rose [1] Eyes That Say I Love You [1] Mandy [1] 1921 Kitten on the Keys [3] Poor Buttermilk [3] 1922 Just a Memory of You [4] Lovely Lucerne [4] Lest You Forget [4] You Tell 'Em Ivories Greenwich Witch 1923 Knice and Knifty Coaxing the Piano A Musical Massacre Kitten on the Keys Chimes Turkey in the Straw Love Sends a Little Gift of Roses Mellow Moon Nickel in the Slot Chansonette Maple Leaf Rag Broken-Hearted Melody Where the Niagra Flows Kiss in the Dark Fine Feathers 1924 Dizzy Fingers Dansopation Puttin' on the Dog A Kiss in the Dark 1926 Soliloquy Valse Primrose 1927 Ain't She Sweet So Blue 1928 My Ohio Home Mississippi Mud Nola Sweetheart of Sigma Chi Valse Exquisite Popular Melody Pickin' Cotton Jumping Jack 1929 Where the Shy Little Violets Grow My Old Girl's My New Girl Now I'm All A-Twitter The Wedding of the Painted Doll Moanin' Low Love Me I'm in the Market for You The Woman in the Shoe 1930 My Baby Just Cares for Me Here Comes the Sun Today I Feel So Happy Live, Laugh and Love    1. w/The Strand Trio    2. accmp. Geoffrey O'Hara    3. as Vi Palmer    4. w/Willie Eckstein Trio	Matrix and Date [HMV 216059-B] [HMV 216060-A] [HMV 216060-B] [HMV 216061-A] [HMV 216061-B] [HMV 21606?] [HMV 21606?] [HMV 21606?] [HMV 21606?]   [HMV 216064-A] [HMV 216064-B]   [Regal 41996] 10/??/1921 [Regal 41997] 10/??/1921   [Apex 583-A] 08/12/1922 [Apex 583-B] 08/12/1922 [Apex 585-A] 09/22/1922 [Regal 42202] 02/??/1922 [Regal 42203] 02/??/1922   [Apex 597-A] 01/23/1923 [Apex 597-B] 01/26/1923 [Apex 605-A] 02/20/1925 [Apex 605-B] 02/20/1925 [Okeh 71483] 04/??/1923 [Apex 71484] 04/??/1923 [Okeh 71485] 04/??/1923 [Apex 71501] 04/??/1925 [Okeh 72024] 11/09/1923 [Okeh 72025] 11/09/1923 [Okeh 72026] 11/09/1923 [Okeh 72027] 11/09/1923 [Okeh 72030] 11/09/1923 [Okeh 72031] 11/09/1923 [Okeh 72032] 11/09/1923   [Okeh 72379] 03/??/1924 [Okeh 72380] 03/??/1924 [Okeh 72442] 04/15/1924 [Starr 655-B]   [Famous Artists 802-A] [Famous Artists 802-B]   [Apex E2933] [Apex E2934]   [Apex 3213] 03/06/1928 [Apex 3214] 03/06/1928 [Apex 26108-A] [Apex 26108-B] [Apex 26115-A] [Apex 26115-B] [Apex 3498] 10/22/1928 [Apex 3499] 10/22/1928   [HMV 216539-A] 02/??/1929 [HMV 216539-B] 02/??/1929 [HMV 216541-A] 05/??/1929 [HMV 216541-B] 05/??/1929 [HMV 216546-A] 06/??/1929 [HMV 216546-B] 06/??/1929 [HMV 216552-A] 06/??/1929 [HMV 216552-B] 06/??/1929   [HMV 216557-A] 03/??/1930 [HMV 216557-B] 03/??/1930 [HMV 216573-A] 04/??/1930 [HMV 216573-B] 04/??/1930

     Known in his youth as "The Boy Paderewski", Willie Eckstein would never let up from his enormous drive and amazing abilities, becoming Eastern Canada's premier pianist even before the death of fellow musician Jean-Baptiste Lafrenière in 1912. Short only in height, but not in talent, Willie's path was evident before he was even in school. He was the youngest of what was reportedly fourteen children (only nine were confirmed) born to Swedish immigrant George Hugo Eckstein (shows as Eckstine in 1881) and his German wife Wilhelmina (Hidebrandt) Eckstein in Pointe St. Charles, a mostly Irish district of Montréal, Quebec, where they were shown in the 1891 Census. His musically trained parents had come original from Sweden to New York City, then Hamilton, Ontario, and had moved to Montréal just a year before Willie's birth. Among his siblings were August (1872), George Hugo Jr. (1874), Wilhelmina (Mina) (1876), Henry (1878), Emily (1880 - died in childhood), Augusta Bianca (1882), Clara Henrietta (1883), John Ion Adolphe [or Jack] (1886) who would also enjoy a somewhat successful musical career. William was baptised in early December 1889 along with many of his siblings at the Presbytarian Church of Saint Mathew in Pointe St. Charles.
      Willie must have known where his heart was early on, because it is said his first demonstration at the piano was at age three, when he plucked out the melody of Home Sweet Home just after a visitor had played the same piece a day before. Obviously the Ecksteins knew from their own musical passions that they should have the toddler trained to make the best use of his inherent abilities. The earliest lessons may have been given at home, but it was clear that a career teacher was necessary to handle the child prodigy. At some point in the mid 1890s the family moved to the Hochelaga area of Montréal where they were shown in the 1901 Census. George is listed as a furrier, George Jr. as a bookkeeper, Mina as a machine operator, Clara worked in a paper box factory, and John, only 15, was already a clerk.
      Eventually Willie was put under the tutelage of music teacher Moretzky Upton of McGill University, along with assorted other instructors who taught him piano, theory and harmony. He studied constantly from late 1894 to around 1900. One issue that Eckstein had to overcome was a paralyzed finger, which was either a birth defect or became disabled at a very early age. Another was his diminutive size and therefore slightly smaller hands. As an adult he came in at only 4'10" (reports vary, but that is the average height), shorter even than famed American pianists Eubie Blake and Charles "Luckey" Roberts. It seems in the end that neither problem held him back, and perhaps encouraged him to achieve more. During these years Willie also worked to earn money for his training, dressed up to attract attention while playing at a store near his home. Billed as the "Swedish Boy Wonder," he was employed by the Bell Piano Company as a salesman for two years running at the Canadian National Exhibition.
      Around 1900 the boy prodigy was offered a scholarship in music to attend a local conservatory (McGill Conservatory has been cited, but it was likely McGill University as the Conservatory did not open until 1904). He achieved this goal by memorizing 47 pages of Mendelssohn's Concerto in D Minor. But the money was not enough to address the concerns of his large family and keep him in school. He was heard by someone who was in effect a talent scout while playing in Montréal and offered a job playing in New York City for a time.
      It is said he was performing in a storefront in New York when he was heard by yet another agent and quickly offered a $15,000 per year contract on the Keith/Albee, Proctor and Orpheum vaudeville circuits. Hoping to have obtained regular recitals for his living instead, Willie knew how much his family needed the funds, so reluctantly accepted with his father's prompting. Eckstein was billed as the "Boy Paderewski" and was routinely dressed in little boy's clothing, taking advantage of his diminutive height to make him appear much younger than his actual age. The great Paderewski came to see him as well, fully approving of the use of his name in regards to the talents of the amazing youth. Willie toured most of the population centers of the United States and Canada from coast to coast during his vaudeville tenure. While performing in Washington D.C. in 1905, he was offered a performance at the White House for President Theodore Roosevelt. He was often billed over other well known stars on the same program, including Harry Houdini and the husband and wife team of Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth. Around 1905 (some sources cite 1901, so this is uncertain) Willie traveled to hie parent's home country of Sweden, where he spent time there and in Germany receiving musical training while earning money performing, even giving a royal command performance along the way. Eckstein was on his way to the top, or so it seemed.
      Nature can't be stopped, and neither could the onset of puberty. Willie's voice deepened and his facial hair growth accelerated to the point where he reportedly needed to shave twice daily in order to maintain the illusion of being a pre-teen. Suspicions grew, and eventually bookings started to diminish as he seemed more adult and less child-like. At the end of one of the tours Eckstein was back in New York City struggling to make ends meet while playing in storefronts and restaurants. So in late 1906 the 18-year-old boy wonder returned to Montréal to find steady work. This he did at the Lyric Music Hall on St. Catherine Street, similar to many of the vaudeville venues he had been through over the last several years. He spent much of the next six years there, evolving from a theater accompanist for live singers to an accompanist for actors on screen. It was said he was among the first accompanists for a teen-aged Beatrice Lillie who graced the stage there. It was also where he was working when he composed and published his first compositions in 1910, including his first piano rag, Some Rag: A Real Live One. He is shown living in St. Jacques, Montréal, still with his family in the 1911 Census, and listed as a musician.
      By 1910 films started to draw audiences more so than live performers. So progress came to downtown Montréal in 1912 when the 1,000 seat Strand Theater, intended primarily for movie exhibition, was opened by George Ganetakos. Willie was offered a job there even as the theater was under construction and he was still plugging away at the Lyric. From opening day on it was evident that the former child prodigy had a gift for fitting the proper musical settings to otherwise silent films,

Montreal's Strand Theater pictured
in the 1920s

enhancing not only the story for those in attendance, but the overall ambience of the theater as well. He was also somewhat of a celebrity piano demonstrator for the J.W. Shaw Piano Company.
      During his 18 year tenure at the Strand, Willie enjoyed great celebrity not only in Montréal but far outside of it as well. In his compositions and publicity he used many variations on his name, including Billy and Billie, and occasionally Wm. for William, but the theater publicity machine further dubbed "Mr. Fingers," and ultimately "The World's Foremost Motion Picture Interpreter," a claim that was likely very valid. In fact, it has been said that many who attended the Strand, including a bevy of musicians, paid more attention to Eckstein's varied scores for the film than they did to what was on the large screen. Among the notables who expressed amazement at the big sound coming from the little guy were Eubie Blake, Joseph Hoffman, Vladimir de Pachmann, and even the brilliant pianist and composer Sergei Rachmaninoff who reportedly expressed utter amazement at what he was hearing, stating "I don't believe it." For many years he worked with percussionist Armand Meerte, who provided both rhythm and some of the sound effects. One future starlet of note, Miss Norma Shearer, remembered attending matinees instead of high school in order to hear Willie play his own composition Beautiful Thoughts and other favorites. And while the stars of the pictures got their names on the marquee, Eckstein had a two-story wall all to himself with a painting depicting him at his craft.
      Willie started putting more of his own works into print after a few years at the Strand, and even took on at least one young protégé during his tenure, someone who could fill in when the maestro wasn't around. He was Reginald Thomas Broughton, a British import, whot would soon take on the stage name of Harry Thomas. Harry had enough of a foundation as a performer to go to Chicago in 1916 and record two of their as yet unpublished collaborations, Delirious Rag and Perpetual Rag, to piano roll for QRS. He later went to New York City to record Delirious Rag and his own Classical Spasm for Victor, making him the first Canadian musician to record ragtime piano. In spite of their sometimes difficult but fruitful time together, Thomas ended up with little traction in the performance world beyond the mid 1920s, and tragically died from the ravages of alcoholism in 1941. But he did help to spread Willie's name further into the United States. One other young British protégé, Miss Vera Guillarof, would have much more success as his substitute and later as a replacement for Thomas. She would occasionally work with Eckstein on the radio, and in nightclubs in later years.
      Willie continued to write, often providing lyrics for somebody else's tune, and working as his own lyricist as well. His command of most music forms was impressive, but his ragtime skills were stellar, in part because of the types of music that ragtime was culled from. However, even before the term was coined, Eckstein was adding tricks to his playing which equated to the genre of "Novelty Ragtime," something that would become very much in vogue by the 1920s. But in doing so his improvisation was more or less laid out rather than spur of the moment, which kept him perhaps an arms length from being a full-fledged jazz musician, even though he would embrace and play jazz well once it made the rounds in Quebec. During the First World War he collaborated on a couple of patriotic numbers. Due to his height he was excluded from serving in the Canadian Armed Forces, even though he did try to enlist. So he fought by playing at rallies to help sell war bonds. In 1919 Eckstein was teamed up for a one-shot song with American composer/artist Gene Buck. Goodbye Sunshine, Hello Moon was featured in the Ziegfeld Follies of that year as well as comedian Ed Wynn's Carnival, providing him with something of a hit. In the end, however, the demand for his tunes on Broadway never panned out. But it was also the same year he was first heard on radio station XWA (later CFCF), accompanying singer Gus Hill and playing some on his own, making him the first Canadian to play ragtime piano over the air, and history records that it was likely the first live broadcast ever in North America.
      The next step starting around 1919 was to get Willie's playing archived on recordings. His first forays onto record were as part of the Strand Trio with his brother Jack on the violin and Armand Meerte (or so it seems likely) on the xylophone. These were released on the Canadian subsidiary of HMV (His Master's Voice) records, the British equivalent of the Victor label. Jack would also start his own jazz band, the first in Montréal, which often featured Willie at the piano both on records and for occasional live performances. Willie also recorded (often as Billy Eckstein) with the Melody Kings, of which another song collaborator, Billy Munro, was a member. They were more of an improvisational "hot jazz" group than Jack's band. Most of the tunes were covers of current popular jazz hits.
      In 1923, Herbert Berliner, son of the pioneer phonograph inventor Emile Berliner, started the Compo company in Canada, being one of the first to use the electronic recording process in North America, a clear advantage over the acoustic horn recording that had been common at the time. Willie did his first solo recordings for Compo, choosing Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag for his first cut. While it is not the first known recording of the piece, it is the oldest surviving acoustic recording of the well known rag. These early records saw good distribution on the Okeh, Apex and Starr labels of Compo in North America. Another notable recording done that same year was his A Musical Massacre, a ragtime take on Frederic Chopin's Revolutionary Etude. It would not be in print until the late 1990s when Canadian pianist Mimi Blais, one of the only other performers of the piece who could fully capture Eckstein's ferocity and whimsy, would supervise its publication. Willie would be very supportive of Berliner over the next several years, sometimes recording as Vi Palmer. He would later also record for the Victor label from around 1929-1932.
      But after almost two decades as one of the biggest celebrities in Eastern Canada, Willie Eckstein was upstaged by no less than one of the top celebrities of the United States, Al Jolson. The arrival of The Jazz Singer signaled an obvious end to movies without sound, meaning movies that would no longer need accompaniment. When The Strand finally made the latent conversion in 1930 (most Montréal theaters had already been fitted for sound) there were very few movies coming in that required Eckstein's soundtrack. So he finally left the lucrative position and struck out for new venues.
     It didn't take the popular pianist long to find new spots. Given how popular Canada had become over the previous decade for those south of the border who were suffering through a national prohibition, Toronto and Montréal were definitely hotspots for visitors looking for the nightlife and the alcohol that went with it. "Mr. Fingers" found work in The Clover Cafe and the Lido Club. However, once he reached the Château Ste. Rose in Laval, a northern suburb of Montréal, he found his new home. Along with pianist Robert Langlois, who he often played duets with, and Langlois' house orchestra, Willie started a two decade and more stint at the club. He also did regular performance with occasional radio and early television appearances during this time. He often performed broadcasts with Vera Guillarof, billed together as The Piano Ramblers. Willie continued to compose as well, writing To the King and Queen in honor of a 1939 visit from the residents of Buckingham Palace, who in turn sent him letters of appreciation.
     As with World Was One, the Second World War was not a place for short soldiers. But Willie still did his bit for King and country, writing more patriotic tunes and performing to raise bond money, once even taking to the streets on the back of a flatbed truck. Remaining ever popular through the end of the decade, Eckstein started slowing down a bit as the 1950s approached. Still, he was able to reunite with Beatrice Lillie as her accompanist once again in a 1954 show honoring the singer. He also scored again with royalty in 1959 with Queen of Canada, composed for a visit by Queen Elizabeth II to open the St. Lawrence Seaway. But years of performance and moderate drinking took their toll, and before the decade was out, Eckstein had difficulty performing due to the pain of arthritis. He finally had to retire from even occasional performance in his early seventies after he broke an arm.
     Willie Eckstein was not forgotten by his legions of fans and countrymen. On May 27th, 1963, a special Eckstein Night was held for the 74-year-old entertainer at His Majesty's Theater in Montréal. Unable to perform, he simply enjoyed the tribute and accepted an award, saying that the whole experience had given him the will to recover from his ailments to make a comeback. "I'll be back with bells on." Sadly, the bells never rang. The strain of the evening may have contributed to a major stroke the pianist suffered hours after the tribute. Eckstein reportedly remained in a coma over the next four months, finally losing the battle. One his favorite spots was Mount Royal, for which he wrote a song to benefit the Kiwanis Club day camp situated there. His ashes were spread there for him to enjoy the view perpetually. Through recordings by Willie and his protégés, as well as those he inspired, including (the late) Oscar Peterson, (the late) John Arpin, and the incomparable Mimi Blais, his music still lives on nearly a half century later.

     Among those who have done the best research on Eckstein are Jack Hutton, who wrote an article in The Ragtimer (Nov/Dec 1986) and John Gilmore in Swinging in Paradise (1988). Additional information and music resources can be found on historian Ted Tjaden's site at www.ragtimepiano.ca, and another site run by Eckstein's family, williameckstein.com/. Additional information and Census data was researched by the author.

Hans Engelmann (June 16, 1872 - May 5, 1914)
Compositions
1896 Marine Band March - Opus 73 Variety King On the Pier 1897 Love Letter Waltzes - Opus 228 The Four Leaf Clover: Waltz March of the Guards - Opus 252 Consuela: March - Opus 262 Hawaii: Dance Characteristic - Opus 267 Over Hill and Dale - Opus 270 1898 The City Troop: March Rosebud Schottische Rough Riders: Military March Dance of the Snowflakes - Opus 356 1899 The Night Before Christmas The Arrival of Santa Claus (or St. Nicholas)     Opus 360 The Whirling Dervish: Tarantella - Opus 370 The Chapel In The Valley - Opus 371 A Happy Return - Opus 372 #3 Restless - Opus 372 #5 To the Dance - Opus 372 #6 Piff-Paff By Request: March I Think of Thee, of Thee Alone 1900 Parade Review: Marche - Opus 307 Concert Polonaise - Opus 308 No. 4 Ideal Waltzes: Rondo A Joyful Departure: Rondo The Start-Up: Waltz Curly Locks: Polka - Opus 408 No. 2 Little Boy Blue: March - Opus 408 No. 5 1901 Day Dreams Playtime and Pastime: Easy Piano Solos The Pixie's Carnival Little Home Pets: Four Pieces - Opus 469    Waltz    Redowa    Schottische    Polka On the Home Stretch: March - Opus 505 Medallion Waltzes 1902 Revel of the Goblins Mountain Elves - Opus 592 Think Not This Heart Can Alter The Little Hostess Characteristic Pieces for Piano    The Whirlwind: Tarantella    The Wave-Maiden: Barcarolle    The Bridge of Dreams: Cradle Song    In Jolly Mood: Polonaise Six Easy Dances    Waltz in G    Polka in F    Redowa in B    Schottische in G    March in C    Galop in G 1903 Cinderella: March Gavotte - Opus 562, No. 4 Robinson Crusoe Impressions of the Heart The Bride's Kiss: Waltzes Opus 588 Album of Twenty Four Pieces for Small Hands The Little Truants: Tarantella - Opus 591 #12 Melody of Love - Opus 600 In the Arena: March - Opus 608 Awakening - Opus 620 Laughing Waters: Intermezzo - Opus 640 Dolly Varden: Waltz Song [w/Richard     Dillmore] Mathushka: Polish Dance - Opus 2 #1 [1] Castello: Spanish Dance - Opus 2 #3 [1] Flying Sparks: Galop - Opus 2 #6 [1] Jack O'Lantern: Polka - Opus 3 #2 [1] The Spanish Gypsy: Mazurka - Opus 3 #3 [1] Cradle Song: Berceuse - Opus 4 #4 [1] Lolita: Spanish Dance - Opus 4 #6 [1] Pleasures of Youth: Waltz [2] Little Foreign Beauty: Mazurka [2] Morning Glory: Polka [2] Six Instructive Pieces for Piano    Reverie in G    Scherzo in G    Nocturne in B    Gavotte in C    Polonaise in G    Tarantella in Am 1904 Melody Of Spring Mother Hubbard: Waltz Old King Cole's March Humpty Dumpty Hungarian Rhapsody: Opus 602 Forget-me-nots: Idyl Frolic of the Lambs The Young Marshal With Flying Colors: March Nocturne Romantique Shell Dance The Coming of the Band Queen of Morn: Waltz - Opus 705 No. 1 King's Delight: Mazurka - Opus 705 No. 2 Queen of Twilight: Mazurka - Op. 705 No. 4 Tender Avowal - Opus 706 Venetian Boat Song Cherry Blossoms - Opus 733 Three Easy Dances    Softly Gliding: Valse    With Graceful Steps: Mazurka    With Coquettish Swing: Schottische Three Piano Pieces Grades Two and Three    Gavotte in B    Nocturne in F    Reverie in G Six Easy Dances    Waltz in F    Polka in G    Schottische in F    Maruka in G    March in C    Galop in G 1905 Merriment: Tarantelle Caprice Grand Valse Caprice Two Roses Youthful Pride: Petite Poloniase Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining [w/Harry M.     Kramer] Restful Moments Bees and Flowers Dreamland In Festal Array Valsette Berceuse in A Zenita: Petite Gavotte With Heart and Hand: March In the Alhambra: Danse Espagnole Message of Peace: Reverie Dancing Shadows Love's Message (Liebesbotschaft Come, My Dearest: Serenade Love and Art: Waltzes I Love Thee (Ich Liebe Dich) Shadow Dance - Opus 740 Apple Blossoms: A Springtime Idyl Serenade Coquette: Opus 4 [2] Six Melodious Little Pieces in Dance Form    Dashing Troopers    Dear Little Dollie    A Lively Time    Little Sweetheart    Foxes and Hounds    Across the Fields Six Merry Moments for Piano    Idylle    Gavotte    Petit Impromptu    Rondo    Scherzo    Tarantelle 1906 Russian Dance - Opus 753 Valse Impromptu At Vespers: Meditation Presto a la Tarantella Forget-me-nots (Song) [w/M.V. Freese] A Prayer Toodles: A Humoristic Episode 'Neath Weeping Willows: Reverie Nanette: Dance Gracieuse Dandelions: Intermezzo Cord and Tassel Dance Heart's Beloved (Herz-Liebchen) Impromptu Nocturne Episode Oriental Ball Scenes: Caprice La Flora: Intermezzo When the Lights are Low: Reverie The Swan: Reverie The Minute Men's Parade Marcia España March Hongroise Rose of Normandy: Valse Caprice Lover's Lane: Waltzes The Journal The Flower's Greeting The Philadelphia Record March Stray Thoughts for Piano    In Summer Fields    Chasing Butterflies    On the Dreamy Hudson    The Brooklet and the Willow    Dance Grotesque Six Lively Dances for Piano    Merry Sailors    Song of the Hammock    Sunny Hours    Village Holiday    Holly Blossoms    Clown Dance Three Miniatures for the Pianoforte    Bohemian Dance    Raillery    Gipsy Life 1907 Cupid's Appeal Cupid's Wooing The Sea-Gull What the Moon Told: Waltzes Eternal Spring: Reverie Troubadour's Farewell Concert Polonaise Father in Heaven A Star-Lit Night Blue Anchor Love's Amulet: Meditation Flight of the Gipsies: Caprice The Bachelor Maid: March The Maid and the Wheel: Spinning Song Puss in Boots: Schottische A Mountain Idyl To the Front: March The Debutante's Dream: Waltzes Sparkling Dew Drops: Caprice Ever of Thee Bitter Sweets The New Beauty: Waltzes Only You Golden Tresses: Dance Gracieuse The Fairest Rose Moonlight in the Forest: Tone Poem The American School March The Rising Moon: Nocturne Echoes of the Fatherland: German March     Melodies Days Of Yore The Wasp: Dance Characteristique In A Moorish Garden Twining Garlands: Schottische The Adventuress: March The Dream Boat: Lullaby Suwanee River [Foster] Blue Eyes, True Eyes: Waltzes Parting Vows: Reverie Romantique Valse Novelette Hallowe'en Pranks [2] Three Easy Piano Pieces    Swing Song    Bijou March    Melody Eight Little Piano Pieces    Little Bolero    Little Hungarian Piece    Little March    Little Minuet    Little Polka    Little Schottische    Little Tarantella    Little Waltz Four Characteristic Dances for Pianoforte    Hungarian Dance    Bohemian Dance    Polish Dance    Spanish Dance 1908 Rustic Dance Our Gallant Officers: Polka Militaire Polka Militaire - Opus 475 (as above?) Wild Ride: Petite Galop After the Charge Poppy Buds Heart's Melody Ever Faithful: Romance The Trumpeter: Polka As You Like It: Valse Daughters of the Revolution Sunset in the Valley Spanish Serenade Arcadia Sweet Dreams of Home: Meditation Kaleidoscope: Charcteristic Dance Mid Palms and Roses: Intermezzo Darkie's Secret: Dance Caprice Flowers of Love: Reverie Dialogue: Valse Impromptu The Toreador's Sweetheart: Waltzes Hallowe'en Dance Garden of Roses: Reverie Loretta: Caprice Six Melodic Studies of Medium Difficulty At a Children's Concert: Four Pieces Love Story [2] Iris: Intermezzo [2] Seven Second Grade Piano Pieces    Bagatelle    Bijou Schottische    Little Alpine Piece    Petite Gavotte    Rondo-Scherzo    Rustic Dance    Spanish Dance Holidays Diversion: Six Pieces    Athletic Sports    Under the Mistletoe    Mirthful Momenets    Fairest    Love Tales    At the Regatta In the Holidays: Five Dances    The Coming Year: March    Christmas Dance: Waltz    Facing the Wind: Polka    Dancing Snow: Schottische    Winter Fun: Caprice 1909 Rainbow Dance Reflected Beauty: Waltzes Valse Arabesque Valse Fantastique	1909 (Cont) Sunset at Sea Meditation: Reverie The Caged Coquette: Valse Boots and Saddles: March Wiegenliedchen (Cradle Song) School Comrades Wistaria: Intermezzo On the Alert: March The Toy Ark Bear Dance In the Barn Ducklings The Elephant The Lion The Ostrich Turtle Doves Snow Flurries Frolic of the Fairies Call of Spring: Waltzes Loyal Hearts Love and Sunshine Behind the Scenes: Intermezzo Valse Caprice in E Serenata Diablo Wedding March Belles and Beaux (after Melody of Love) Valse Caprice Elegante West Point Cadets: March - Opus 803 Autumn: Idyl [2] Love Story [3] 1910 Dreaming Ocean Bells En-Route: March - From The Little Tourist Tender Thoughts The Shah: Persian Intermezzo Romance of Youth: Waltz Don Quioxte: Marche Grotesque Sonatina in G Danse Antique Spanish Dance Fair Maid of Spain A Lone Flower: Reverie Blue Ribbon: Danse Gracieuse Pure and True On Escort Duty Dreaming of Thee Glittering Jewels: Mazurka Caprice Remembrance Birds of the Sea: Tarantella Confiding Hearts The Thoroughbred Seven Piano Etchings In Dance Form: Four Pieces    On the Stage    Pretty Little Dolly    Two's Company    Marathon Storiettes: Four Piano Pieces    In the Fair Grounds: March    College Girls: Schottische    In the Willow's Shade: Waltz    Going for a Spin: Polka In Lively Rhythm: Six Dances    Naval Cadets    On the Pier    On Tip-Toe    Happy Anticipation    Celebration Festival    Hop! Skip! Jump! Six Amusements for the Pianoforte    Exhibition Drill: March    Poetry of Motion: Waltz    Best of Friends: Polka    From Russia: Mazurka    From the Orient: Caprice    At the Horse Show: Galop 1911 Twilight Strains Thoughts Of Thee - Souvenir Polka Through Field and Meadow: Waltz Echoes of Fairy Land Return from Victory: March Colonial Times The Heart's Answer: Reverie d'Amour Between Friends In Days of Chivalry Step by Step: March A Little Story Sylvan Sprites: Valse Bianca: Barcarolle Barcarolle in F Truants: Rondo Scherzo In Camp: Waltz The Jolly Captain A Jolly Yachting Party Ma Lady Old English Dance Love's Devotion Petite Romance Dance of the Goblins Momento Capriccioso Roly-Poly: Waltz Reverie At Vesper Hour Autumn Leaves Bright Eyes Bunny Carmencita Dainty Orchids First Attempt For Home and Country: March Spring Blossoms: Gavotte Gently Drifting Golden Dawn: Waltz In Spring In Springtime (Same?) Little Corporal: March New Lesson Off and Away Summer Frolics In Full Chase: Caprice [1] Flight of Time: Galop [1] Dancer's Delight: Schottische [1] Day of Joy [1] Gaiety: Rondo [1] In the Whirl of Joy [1] Invitation [1] Light and Bright [1] Military Drill [1] Perfect Contentment [1] Spanish Dance [1] Starry Emblem [1] Summertime Song [1] Treasured Keepsake [1] Seven Instructive Pieces for Piano    Fleurette Polka    Happy Fay    Just for Instance    La Tyrienne    Purple Heather    Rosalie Galop    Tarantella In Fragrant Bower: Four Dances    In Lilac Time    Under the Orange Blossoms    Wreath of Honeysuckle    Climbing Roses 1912 Clover Blossoms Nature's Awakening (When Nature Wakes):     Waltzes Corals: Caprice In a Gondola Melodie d'Amour Hopes and Fears-Reverie Merry Clowns: Mazurka Spirit of Progress German-American Festival March April Violets Haunting Strains: Waltz Fe'te Joyeuse In the Balkans Moon Shadows: Nocturne Daphne: Valse Caprice Fond Memories: Meditation At the Carnival: Five Dances    The Gallant Cavalier    A Soubrette    The King's Jester    The Merry Clown    The Gentle Sheperdess In Cheerful Vein: Six Dances    When Duty Calls    Blissful Moments    Bright Days    Ardent Hopes    Graceful Steps    Fox Hunters In The Bass Clef    Easter Morning    Hansel and Gretel    March of the Pilgrims    Jolly Elves    Song of the Forge 1913 At the Window: Reverie In Bohemia: Polka A Flower Message Idylle Marche Militaire A Delightful Dance: Mazurka Sweethearts Ever Brave Hearts: Polish Mazurka [3] Sunny Days: Spanish Waltz [3] Random Thoughts: Four Dances for Piano    Follow the Flag    Rose Land    Joy and Sunshine    Jolly School Girls Fun at Home: Four Dances    Parade of the Dolls    Parlor Games    Ready for the Ball    Fido's Pranks Pierrot and Columbine: Four Dances    Jolly Revelers    Charming Columbine    Pierrot's Pranks    Pierrot and Columbine 1914 On the Links: March The Winning Jockey: Galop Taps!: Military March Token of Love The Debutante: Four Second Grade Pieces    The First Ball - Waltz    To the Banquet - March    In the Moonlit Garden - Reverie    In Quaint Costume - Old English Dance Posthumous The Gondolier's Serenade: Barcarolle [1] Drooping Eyelids: Lullaby [2] (1914) Soldiers Marching By [2] (1914) Wandering Gipsies: Lullaby [2] (1914) Happy Birthday: Polka [2] (1914) Our First Waltz [2] (1914) A Wild Chase: Galop [2] (1914) Lords and Ladies: Schottische [2] (1914) Tribute of Praise: March [2] (1914) Dreamily Floating: Waltz [2] (1914) Joy of Youth (1915) Album Leaf [1] (1915) Wood Fairies: Waltz [2] (1915) Dance and Play: Waltz [2] (1915) Flitting Feet: Gavotte [2] (1915) Oriental Fantasy: Intermezzo [2] (1915) March of the Cadets (1916) Festival Overture (1916) Return of the Volunteers (1916) Approach of Spring [3] (1916) Autumn Days [3] (1916) Ysmita: Japanese Seranade (1917) Glorious Morn: Waltz (1917) The Betrothal March [3] (1917) Class Reception March [3] (1916) At the Wayside Shrine: Idyl (1918) Young Sentinel (Petite Marche) (1918) The Little Admiral: March (1918) The Birth of Spring [w/N. Weir] (1924) True Love (may be Melodie d'Amour) (1928) March of the Animals (1931) Melody of Love (aka Whisper That You Love     Me) [w/John Klenner] (1942) Melody of Love [w/Tom Glazer] (1954) Unknown or Uncertain Bagatelle A la Mazurka Berecuse in Ab Butterflies and Daisies Butterfly Schottische Cathedral Chimes at Christmas Eve Colonial Sonatina A Coquettish Smile Cosey Corner: A Poem of Love Dance Mystic: Characteristic Danse Burlesque Encore: Intermezzo Escamillo: Spanish Dance Farewell My Dear Old Home: Reverie Frances: Minuet Game Of Tennis: Three Step Glistening Pearls: Danse Caprice The Golden Road: Reverie Grand Festival March Holiday Spirits In the Springtime In The Surf: Schottische In Time and Trim Intermezzo Pizzicato Joyful Sounds: Polka La Bohème: Bohemian Dance The Last Train Little Drummer Boy Little Miss Pride Love's Sigh: Intermezzo Loved and Adored Lover's Nook: Three Step May Day Festival Mercedes: Caprice Espagnola Merry-Go-Round The Mischievous Child ('L'enfant Terrible) Moonlight Dance Mountain Romance My Blue Eyed Dolly 'Neath Twinkling Stars New Life, New Spirit O, Lord with Weary Hearts We are Yearning On the Drive On The Ranch: Polka On Yonder Rock Outdoor Sports Outward Bound: March Preparing For The Ball Promenade Gavotte Puck's Story: Polka Scherzo Purity: Reverie The Return of the Heroes Ring Out The Old, Ring In The New Rowing Slavic Caprice Song to the Stars Souvenir d'Amour Spinning Wheel The Tennis Party Those Loving Eyes: Petite Valse Caprice Under the Nation's Colors The Village Church When Love is Young The Zither Player Of Annenthal    1. as Heinrich Engel    2. as Pierre Renard    3. as Charles Lindsay

     Hans Englemann provides a fascinating look, at least what we can see on the surface, at what could be considered somewhat of a musical enigma, given the time, place and volume of output from his hand as opposed to what we can actually find out about him. His is not another ragtime story, but a story of survival in the ragtime era when popular music was starting to make inroads into classical studies and composition. Virtually any pile of large format sheet music from the 1890s to the 1910s is sure to have some H. Engelmann compositions in there. While he was a household name in that regard, particularly among collectors who often encounter his pieces, finding out who he really was is quite a different matter. Here is the best information to date that the author has been able to assemble.
     Engelmann was born in Berlin, Germany in 1872, the son of a top German military officer. He eventually became a private secretary under Emperor William I. Virtually all male children went through some type of musical training during this period, which was the time of Johannes Brahms, and the up and coming Richard Strauss. The main Western European forms in Germany at that time were the waltz, march, and similar genres that would become the parent of the oft-maligned intermezzo or the reverie. As a result, Englemann likely had little or no exposure to indigenous American forms such as folk melodies or spirituals. He clearly was enamored with music, however, so his father saw to it that he got a proper musical education.
     According to an obituary published in the June 1914 issue of Etude Magazin, the original plan for Hans was that music was to be a sideline so that he could enter the medical profession. But the youth had other ideas and rejected that notion. His father placed him in a mercantile office to occupy his time and perhaps sway his son's thinking. It did nothing but strengthen his resolve to be a professional pianist and composer. So it was that Hans immigrated to America on his own in January of 1891, not yet 20, and soon found himself established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
     Given the scope of his later output, it may be ascertained that Engelmann continued some of his musical training there with the goal of concertizing first, then perhaps composing and teaching. Among those who supported him was fellow German and Philadelphia composer and choral director Hermann Mohr, who had relocated to the United States just two years prior. The maestro had mentored many other musicians and took Engelmann under his wing in the early 1890s, and may have taken him in at the Zweckwers Academy of Music. For next few years Hermann promoted Hans as a brilliant pianist and involved him with many concert appearances in Philadelphia and beyond.
     Hans was married to his Pennsylvania-born wife Marie C. Engelmann in early 1895, and by November their only daughter Frances joined the family. In 1896 Morh, his mentor and greatest supporter, died, leaving Hans on his own in many respects. Engelmann had already acquired some reputation as a concert pianist, and had also taken on some students. However it wasn't quite enough for survival in a highly competitive area. So he started submitting compositions for publication. While the first published pieces from his hand show up in 1896, including one composition and one arranged piece for Philadelphia publisher M.D. Swisher, and his Marine Band March which established him with the house of Theodore Presser. There are strong indications that the youth had been composing and cataloging his works for some time, since as early as the following year many of them have opus numbers attached ranging from the 70s to the 200s.
     One early work, Love Letters, published in 1897 by Joseph Morris, was "affectionately dedicated to my wife" on the cover. For the next several years, Englemann would free-lance, most likely from his home, sending in classically-structured works to Philadelphia publishers Eclipse Music (specializing in re-arrangements of older works), Hatch Music, Orpheus Music Company and Joseph Morris. Some of these contributions, particularly those for Eclipse, were reworked piano arrangements of operatic numbers. By the middle of the decade Hans seems to have settled in with the Presser organization as a staff composer and arranger. There are also a couple of advertisements in Philadelphia newspapers and directories indicating that he was working as a piano teacher, which makes sense considering what his future output would be comprised of.
     Hans had already gained some notoriety in the performance and composing worlds by the early 1900s. In a February 1, 1902 pseudo-advertisment in The Music Trade Review, he was quoted as speaking highly of the Steck brand of piano: "The following voluntary testimonial from H. Engelmann, a bright young composer, whose compositions have become quite popular, is one of many letters which are being received from time to time by Geo. Steck & Co., and their representatives in all sections of the coutnry, expressing the same sentiments regarding the 'old reliable' Steck. It speaks for itself: Engelmann's Studio of Music, Philadelphia, Pa. Gentlemen: - I desire to express my appreciation of the Geo. Steck & Co. pianos. The piano I purchased from you last year, 'Elite' grand, I find to be more than satisfactory. The Steck piano has been a familiar instrument to me for years, and this is one reason for selecting it. In my professional work I have seen almost every piano of note, home and abroad, and I an conscientious in saying that I consider the pianos manufactured by Geo. Steck & Co. the best in tone, action and general workmanship. Yours as ever, H. Englemann." That Hans was quoted this liberally in a trade magazine gives credence to his stature as a composer in a time when those writing piano rags were looked upon with a wary eye.
     While a look at his list of compositions seem to make Engelmann a veritable composing machine, in reality less than half of that output is intended for anything other than the parlor, and rarely the concert hall. Most of the rest is comprised of a number of first through third grade teaching aids. A study of many of these works indicates that the German trained musician in his guise as a teacher was not only trying to present a wide scope of dance forms to young students, but make them sound like their more difficult counterparts, encouraging the youngsters to grow in their desire to improve. There are several suites that demonstrate dance or classical themes, and some could be played as a sonata of sorts as well. Engelmann's best known tune was Melody of Love in 1903, which did not take long to find a wide overseas market.
     Engelmann was not loyal to any one publisher, as the variety of his pieces fit different needs from teaching to parlor melodies. While many of his early works originated in Philadelphia, he eventually had a considerable presence in the catalogs of M. Witmark and Sons in New York and The Oliver Ditson Company in Boston. He was also published by Shattinger Music in St. Louis, and many of his works went to Carl Fischer Music. One popular Philadelphia publication was the 1906 piece The Philadelphia Record March, of which arrangements were created for bands and piano rolls in short order. It remains a favorite band march into the 21st Century.
     While it appears that Hans never actually recorded, a handful of his pieces did make it to piano rolls. To complicate matters concerning an accounting of all of his works, but also demonstrating that he was following a common dispersal practice, the amazingly prolific composer also wrote under the pseudonyms Heinrich Engel, Charles Lindsay and Pierre Renard, further increasing the scope of his known output.
In the 1910 Census, Engelmann, Marie and Frances are shown living near downtown Philadelphia, and he lists in a crowded space the occupations of musician, composer and piano teacher. In February 1914, just weeks before his demise, Hans Engelmann became a charter member of ASCAP at the Hotel Claridge in New York City.
     Hans Engelmann died in 1914 at just 42. Attempts to find a definitive cause of death have fallen short of an answer to date. A notice appeared in The Music Trade Review of May 16, 1914, stating that "Hans Engelmann, composer of much meritorious music which has won a large vogue with teachers, died late last week in Philadelphia." The most effusive praise for Engelmann came from a very logical source, Etude Magazine, a monthly periodical that was largely about keeping classic forms of music alive. While in the past they had only reported on his latest compositions or who was playing what in recitals, in June, then in August, there were several tributes to the prematurely deceased composer, starting with this one in the June 1914 issue:

      There never has been in America such a prolific and melodious composer as the late Hans Engelmann. some years past, when our native writers began to show what they could do, the first item they seemed studiously to avoid was melody. To speak from my personal experience I attended all the yearly meetings of the National and State Music Teachers' Associations to hear the works of American composers performed, the impression was that all the old forms should be thrown over board, and that no such commonplace as tune and rhythm should be employed. Those of us who have watched the outcome of the effort well know when it ended. Some composers have at once reached the hearts of the people by the simplicity of their melodies, others by the constant performance of them and the popularity of certain artists. In the last finality what one needs to express his deepest feelings is not technique, or scientific contrapuntal examples and exercises, written by learned doctors or professors of music, but real inspirational melody; no matter who wrote it, whether it be a Schubert, Schumann or Engelmann. I have used and played many of Hans Engelmann's writings. About two years ago I purchased several of them for a large publishing house, and one of the numbers being too difficult, we asked him for an easier arrangement, or something of a different style. It was only a few days until we received quite a bundle of new pieces and were requested to take our choice. The musical world has been uplifted and made to feel more keenly the tender and sympathetic qualities of the art in the works of Hans Engelmann. Time and use will put the stamp of approval on those writings of his which are to last, but among them will be "Melody of Love", and "When the Lights are Low". -- W. D. [composer William Dawson] Armstrong

     I was very much grieved to learn of the death of Hans Engelmann. We will miss him and the hopes of anticipating his new compositions. We have scores of his beautiful melodies left us, and we should all dig into his extensive writings and find numerous gems that the public know little of. We all know him for his Melody of Love, little thinking that he has written dozens of "Melodies of Love". Let us do him honor and investigate his writings, as they are the living part of this beloved countryman. -- [popular composer] Thurlow Lieruance

     Careful arranging, and grading the compositions of Hans Engelmann according to their difficulty of execution, their ever tuneful originality reminds me of the beautiful musical allegory of the Tiny Little Rill; "Trickling from the tip top of the tall mountain, it goes on its mission of mercy; joins in the merry song of the rivulet; dancing a duet over moss covered rocks; playing hide and seek among pretty white pebbles, till they reach the evergreen plain below; there a trio is sung with the voice of the brooklet, as it murmurs through the meadows where the wild flowers grow; thirsty cattle politely bow their heads in gratitude for the cool, freshing drink furnished them by the babbling brook, as it hurries on to the river and thence into the might choral ocean. The genial rays of the tropic sun kiss the waters up into fleecy clouds, which the south wind waft back up to the old mountain peak where they fall in gentle tear drops of rain, singing their song of Sweet Home Again."
     True lovers of music, and lovers of true music will gratefully keep the memory of Hans Engelmann ever green. -- [composer] Frank L Bristow

James Reese Europe (February 22, 1880 to May 9, 1919)
Compositions
1904 Zola (Jungle Song) [w/John Larkins] My Heart Goes Thumping and     Bumping for You Blue-Eyed Sue Nubiana 1905 Obadiah (You Took Advantage of Me) The Coon Band Parade 1906 On the Gay Luneta [1] 1907 When I Rule the Town A Royal Coon Likin' Ain't Like Lovin' 1908 Sambo [1] Ada, My Sweet Potater! [1] I Ain't Had No Lovin' in a Long Time 1910 Pliney Come Out in the Moonlight Sweet Suzanne [w/Henry Troy] That Minor Strain [2] Breezy Rag [Unpublished] (c.1910) 1911 The Clef Club: Grand March Droop Dem Eyes [3] 1912 I've Got the Finest Man [3] 1913 Someone is Waiting Down in     Tennessee [w/Cecil Mack] 1914 Enticement: An Argentine Idyl [2]     [as Eporue and Yenbad]	1914 (Cont) Congratulations Valse (aka Castle Lame      Duck Waltz) [2] Castle House Rag Castle's Half and Half [2] Castles in Europe: The Innovation Trot The Castle Walk [2] Castle Innovation Tango [2] The Castle Combination [2] Castle Maxixe [2] Castle Perfect Trot [2] What it Takes to Make Me Love You -     You've Got It [w/James Weldon     Johnson] Ballin' the Jack (Instrumental) [w/Chris     Smith] 1915 The Castle Doggy [2] Monkey-Doodle Syncopated Minuet [3] Father's Gone to the War [3] 1916 Hilo (Hawaiian Waltz) 1918 I've Got the Lovin'es' Love for You [4] On Patrol in No Man's Land [4] Mirandy (That Gal o' Mine) [4] 1919 All of No Man's Land is Ours [4] Goodnight Angeline [4]    1. w/Bob Cole    2. w/Ford Dabney    3. w/Henry Creamer    4. w/Noble Sissle & Eubie Blake

     Born in the deep south in Mobile, Alabama, James Reese Europe would eventually become a major influence on the role of black music in ragtime-era America through both his compositions and his efforts to bring respect to the race. He was one of six children of musical parents Henry and Lorraine Europe, including older sisters Minnie and Ida, older brother John, and younger sister, Mary L. Europe. While 1881 is often cited as his birth date, James appears quite clearly in the June, 1880 Census taken in Mobile, showing as 2 months old (only off a little bit), making his birth year clearly 1880.
     Raised in the post-slavery era, James was likely exposed to both classical and black forms of music from an early age. His father had multiple jobs, working as a barber, newspaper reporter, school teacher, and finally with the Mobile Post Office. When James was nine the family moved to Washington, D.C. as his father got a job with the National Postal Service. It was there that James received formal training in the violin from the master Enrico Hurlei, who was at the time the assistant director of the Marine Corps Band under John Philip Sousa. He also started composing in his teens, and even entered a composition contest at one point, earning a second place award to his younger sister Mary. James received training as well in the M Street High School drill company, serving as the color sergeant. By the time the 1900 Census was taken, James' father Henry had passed away.
     Europe ventured to New York City in 1904 where he would be based for the remainder of his life, save for war service, to help earn money for his family. He immediately became involved with the musical scene, playing in cabarets, and also composing for groups like the Memphis Students run by Ernest Hogan. By 1907 he also became involved with the growing Musical Theater movement in New York, started in 1902 with the ground-breaking In Dahomey. Europe composed for Cole and Johnson's Shoo-Fly that year, and later for Bert William's Lode of Coal, perhaps the play that influenced famed showman Florenz Ziegfeld to hire both of them. It was during this period that he also became associated with another Washington, D.C. Composer, Ford Dabney. The were soon both playing for Ziegfeld's secondary show, Ziegfeld's Midnight Frolic, staged on the roof of the New Amsterdam Theater in Manhattan.
     At this time there were only a few loosely formed black musician organizations, but no coherent force that was truly looking out for their collective best interests and employment. Around 1910 Europe founded the legendary "Clef Club," New York City's all black musician's union, along with Dabney and composer/arranger Will Tyers. His goal was to create a coherent high-quality musical force in the city that could earn equitable fees for its members and garner better treatment from white employers, both private and public. In turn, he demanded the very best from all musician members, including the ability to sight read in several genres, and owning the best possible formal wear for engagements. For some time after, Europe and his Society Orchestra were the leading purveyors of dance music for New York's elite. A band for any occasion could quickly be formed from its formidable membership. It was Ford Dabney who introduced blues writer W.C. Handy to the Clef Club and Europe, with whom Handy became fast friends. Europe held Clef Club members to the highest standards of performance, demeanor, attitude, professionalism and overall appearance. While the Clef Club did not outwardly discourage ragtime performance, they did try to emphasize the member's skills in classical and popular song forms, particularly for society gatherings. It wasn't long before his organization, bolstered by some extraordinary public concerts, were not only commanding the best jobs in New York and surrounding areas, but many white musicians petitioned to join the formidable union as well so they might also find work.
     There is some confusion that still exists about Reese's role in one of the big hits of 1913, Ballin' the Jack. The most consistent story is that it was one of those rare pieces in which the instrumental version came out of the song version, instead of the other way around which was a common practice during that time. Reese may or may not have been involved with the original song by Chris Smith and James Burris, but he evidently did help fill out the instrumental version of the piece in 1914 by tacking on a bouncy chorus from his song What it Takes to Make Me Love You - You've Got It at the end. Subsequent recordings and performances, including by Reese's own band, created a sensation, and the piece is still viable and performed often in the 21st century.
     Among the best-known of Europe's pieces were eight that were co-composed with Dabney specifically for the famed husband and wife dance time of Vernon and Irene Castle, plus two others by Europe alone, one that would become his signature. The Castles found Europe's Society Orchestra among the best they had worked with, and hired Europe late in 1913 as their preferred band leader with Dabney as their arranger. He was intuitive and in tune with the duties of a dance conductor that Irene Castle later wrote, "[Europe's] was the only music that completely made me forget the effort of the dance." One of the eight pieces by Dabney and Europe, the Castle Half and Half, was written in 3/4+2/4, or actually 5/4 time, over 4 decades before that time signature would become popular through the efforts of Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond. All of these were issued within a two month period in 1914, an extraordinary output for the quality of work the two invested into the project. It was Europe's brisk Castle House Rag, however, that became the best known of the compositions associated with both the composer and the Castles themselves. Soon after this time, Europe left the Clef Club owing to disputes with some of the other members, and Dabney took on many of his responsibilities until he eventually formed his own orchestra.
     Europe formed the Tempo Club with Dabney and Tyers after leaving Clef Club, and by the end of 1915 had left the Castles (now tended to by Dabney and Tyers alternately) to pursue other musical interests and composition. In 1917 he enlisted in the United States Army as a private and took officer training. After successful completion of the courses he was asked about the possibility of forming a band for both performance and combat duties. It was Europe's formidable tenacity and reputation and allowed him to convince a number of musicians to join him in this endeavor. They became the 369th U.S. Infantry "Hell Fighters" Band, and their reputation as both musicians and soldiers was second to none. Lieutenant Europe's troop was the first all-black unit to enter France in 1918, where he stayed for the remainder of the war and beyond entertaining both troops and the local citizens. It was Europe who largely introduced what was becoming known as Jazz to France, where it took hold and has never left.
     Early in 1919, with his reputation preceding him, Europe received a warm welcome back to the U.S. He saw to publishing some of his songs about the travails of war, followed by time with the Infantry band in the recording studio. He then took the band on tour, where they ended up in Boston on May 9. The legend goes that it was there at Mechanic's Hall where one of his two drummers suddenly decided he had experienced enough of Europe's allegedly overbearing direction, and stabbed the leader during intermission, fatally cutting into his jugular vein. The truth, according to the account by Noble Sissle who witnessed the incident, is that Europe was likely breaking up a fight and was accidentally nicked in his jugular, dying later at a hospital from desanguination. The outcry in the papers against this perceived murder, along with the clear public mourning underscored his acceptance and his clear ability to bypass the racial barriers that were so prevalent at the time. Europe was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. His grave can be found in Section E Div Site 3576.
     Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake often attributed their success on Broadway in the 1920s and 1930s to the foundation of respect for black musicians that was laid by Europe. One of the best belated tributes to James Reese Europe was the prominent recognition of his work in the 1943 all-black film Stormy Weather, which chronicled black musicians of New York, including Europe and W.C. Handy, through the first decades of the 20th century. Ford Dabney was reportedly a consultant for the project. Europe was further recognized and commended for his contributions in the 2001 Ken Burns documentary Jazz.