Lewis John Fuiks (aka Victor Arden) (March 8, 1893 - July 31, 1962)
Compositions
1909 Safety Pin Catch [1] 1918 Just Blue [2] 1919 Lucille [2] Marilynn [2] Honeymoon: Waltz 1920 Dolly, I Love You [2] [w/Dick Long] Hy n' Dry Who Wants a Baby? [3] Rose of the Orient [2,3] Dottie Dimples [3]	1921 Round the Town Hand Painted Doll [3] Lonesome Land [3] 1922 After A While (You're Goin' to Feel Blue)     [3] [w/Walter Hirsch] My Sweet Gal (Girl) [3] I'm Happy: Fox Trot [3] 1941 We'd Rather Die Upon Our Feet (Than     Live Upon Our Knees)    1. as Lewis J. Fuiks    2. w/F. Wheeler Wadsworth    3. w/George Hamilton Green

     Victor Arden was born, in theory and in name, a lot later than the man who actually created him as a pseudonym, Lewis John Fuiks. The son of Samuel and Vallie Fuiks, both Illinois natives, he was born and raised, for a time, in Wenona, Illinois, not far from Peoria. His father is listed in 1900 in "general merchandise," likely managing or owning a general store of some kind. Not much has been reported about his early musical training, but there was probably some piano instruction involved, along with harmony and theory. As evidence of this, Fuiks was able to publish a rag at age 16 in Chicago with the unusual title of Safety Pin Catch. Around 1910 to 1911 Lewis was enrolled in the University of Chicago, and he emerged with a degree in music in short order. This was followed by training at the American Conservatory of Music, also in the "windy city." There is some possibility that Fuiks was producing piano rolls as early as 1915, likely in Chicago. There are some roll titles that were released by Imperial, a Chicago company, in the mid to late 1910s. It is not known for certain when he moved to New York City, but given that his first output from there came in 1917, and he is known to have contributed to the Chicago Blackfriars annual musical in May of 1916, he likely left for Manhattan in the summer or fall of that year, along with his new wife Ilse Fuiks.
     One of Fuiks' first jobs was probably as an accompanist for the movies and, given his training, for hire by singers as well. However he was soon arranging and recording piano rolls as his primary job. There may have been some output from the Rhythmodik roll company. The bulk of Fuiks' early works were on the Ampico label, a sibling to Rhythmodik, turning out "hand-played" expression rolls of popular dance tunes, tangos, and operettas. While about two dozen of these were released under his given name of Lewis J. Fuiks, this may have proved problematic to either Lewis or Ampico management for obvious reasons (this has not been officially established in fact), and he was soon rechristened as Victor Arden. Even though Lewis still used his given name for legal purposes, Arden would be the name he was professionally known as for the rest of his life. His 1917 draft record, taken in New York City, shows him working for the American Piano Company (Ampico) as a musician, with an address north of the city in Yonkers.
     Starting around 1918, Victor formed a group called the All Star Trio, with George Hamilton Green on saxophone and F. Wheeler Wadsworth on the newly-minted vibraphone and other tuned percussion. They recorded for the next two years on the Edison label initially, turning out recordings for Victor, Brunswick, Pathe, Okeh, Paramount, Emerson, and for the Vocalian label of Aeolian, a subsidiary of the American Piano Company. It has been indicated that fellow pianist and roll arranger Max Kortlander stepped in for Arden on occasion. The group expanded from 1921 to 1922 as the All Star Trio with Orchestra, featuring the distinctive Billy Murray on vocals. Arden also continued to turn out great rolls of popular tunes during this time, earning him the title of King of the Piano Roll. The bulk of Arden's compositions were from this period. He is listed in the 1920 Census as a "musician recorder" in Yonkers with Ilse, and a new addition, Lewis John Fuiks Jr., born in July of 1919. Some time in late 1920 or early 1921 Arden shifted gears and started arranging and playing for QRS, the dominant standard roll manufacturer.
     It was at QRS that Victor first met pianist Fillmore (Phil) Ohman, who had been there for a couple of years. They found they had similar backgrounds, abilities and points of view concerning performance, and neither lacked the energy to explore new ways to play things. The duo quickly found they could produce some amazing roll arrangements with little effort, and were soon inseparable. Ohman sketched out the general direction of what they would play without full notation, then they would record with Arden in the bass and Ohman in the treble. One critic who observed them up close found Ohman to be the "wag and clown of the pair," calling Arden the "serious minded, painstaking musician." While a slightly imbalanced point of view, Ohman's humor was more likely to come out in his playing, even during serious classical recitals that he accompanied. While they continued to make rolls both together and separately, Ohman, through his public performances, was offered a job in the fast-rising orchestra of Paul Whiteman, the so-called "King of Jazz." Not able to keep all his positions, Ohman had to quit QRS and break up the duo for a while.
     While the job with Whiteman was both good for his exposure as well as making connections, Ohman realized, as did Arden, that it was less fulfilling than their duo performances. So after a year or so he quite Whiteman's orchestra and concentrated on local gigs with Arden. They built their repertoire playing in clubs in midtown Manhattan, particularly on 52nd Street, and finally went into the studio late in 1923 to record live as a duo. Among their eclectic choices were the 1888 galop Dance of the Demons by multi-piano composer Eduard Holst and the popular rag turned song Canadian Capers. The performances were a sensation, and Broadway soon discovered them as well, knowing that they would be an additional draw to certain shows. The use of dual pianists or pianos was not new on Broadway, but their reputation was about as solid as their first Broadway employer/collaborator, Gershwin himself. So it was that they co-led the pit orchestra for Lady Be Good in 1924, which would be followed by more Gershwin shows such as Tip Toes in 1925, Oh, Kay in 1926, and Funny Face in 1927. Other shows included Treasure Girl in 1928, both Spring is Here and Heads Up in 1929. In between the Broadway shoes they recorded and performed on the road on the vaudeville circuits. Among the labels Ohman and Arden appeared on were Columbia, Victor (soon to be RCA Victor) and Gramophone.
     It should be noted that when they were billed in any venue that the order of their names did not matter to them, the sign of a solid partnership. They were also sought out in the late 1920s, as many New York acts were, by Warner Brothers for a few Vitaphone sound shorts, one of the first being The Piano Dualists in 1927. Arden also turned out many interesting arrangements during the 1920s of dance tunes on record, many sold very cheaply in Woolworths and similar outlets, making his name perhaps even better known than Ohman's. One of their contemporary critics, Gay Stevens, said the following concerning this formidable duo: "There is not a piano player in the land who, after hearing Ohman and Arden interpret a piece of jazz music on their two pianos, has not wanted to throw his piano out of the window. The keyboard magic of this duo-team has been the inspiration and despair of every real American youngster who sedulously practiced his Czerny with a secret desire to win excited gasps of admiration from the fair young things in his circle by his jazz piano playing."
     While they often performed just with the piano, the Arden-Ohman orchestra was started in 1925, initially for recording but later for both live performance and radio work. It was the latter that gave them their best overall exposure in the late 1920s through the first part of the Great Depression. In addition to this live duo, Arden went back to work for Ampico in the spring of 1928, turning out new popular roll arrangements, but also duets with roll artist Adam Carroll. Also around this time, Carroll briefly joined Arden and Ohman to create a piano trio for a few performances on radio and for special functions. From 1928 to the mid 1930s, the Arden and Carroll turned out over 60 rolls with their names on it. However, while some may have been arranged initially by Arden, many were filled in (and some created) by Frank Milne at the factory (often edited with colored pencils on Milne's kitchen table). They are still often considered to at least be in the style of Arden and Carroll, even if not entirely played by them. Both turned out rolls separately as well, but the player piano business faded fairly quickly as the Great Depression set in and free entertainment was available via radio. When Ampico failed in the late 1930s many of these rolls were re-coded for Duo-Art performances, making them among the rarer rolls that were available for both reproducing systems.
     On the radio, the most effective medium of the 1930s, Arden and Ohman had no issue finding good sponsorship, playing for everything from news programs to two or three numbers advertising toothpaste or fine watches. Some of their musical shows included The Bayer Music Review, The Buick Program, and the landmark American Album of Familiar Music. But the stresses of performance partnership eventually interfered, more on the professional level than on the personal level, and in 1934 Arden and Ohman split to go different directions, remaining friends. The duo reunited for one more recording session on Brunswick in 1935.
     While Ohman went on to some fame in Hollywood, Arden chose to stay back east where radio was still the predominant form of entertainment during the waning days of the Great Depression. He was able to secure work as both pianist and conductor on NBC (National Broadcasting System), including such shows as Kings of Melody, Sweetest Love Songs Ever and Broadway Varieties. Arden also worked and recorded with his own dance band, but with all the other engagements he had to keep it fizzled out before too long. He also filled in for leader Abe Lyman on many occasions, conducting for his popular Waltz Time shows. Arden enjoyed one last stretch on Broadway playing for the revue George White's Scandals of 1939. In the 1940s during World War II, he continued to make records with various orchestras, and was featured on the Manhattan Merry-Go-Round for a while in 1947, eventually landing steady spot on The American Melody Hour near the end of the decade. In the 1950s Arden again led an orchestra, this time behind the charismatic Dick Powell, the singing star of many MGM movies. One of his last projects was a reincarnation of his first group, the All Star Trio, after which he went into retirement. Victor Arden died at age 69 leaving behind a wealth of recordings allowing us a look into some of the most exciting music of the 1920s and 1930s.

     Thanks to New Zealand piano roll historian Robert Perry for additional information and clarification on Arden's career with various piano roll companies, and for the Gay Stevens quote. For more on piano roll artists, please visit him at www.pianola.co.nz.

Felix G. Arndt (May 20, 1889 to October 16, 1918)
Compositions
1908 71st Regiment Waltz 1911 As Long As the Band Will Play [w/Harold Atteridge] Snow Time [w/Bert Fitzgibbon] If That Ain't Love Wot Is? [1] 1913 When You Know Why [1] Ev'ry Rose Reminds Me of You [1] 1914 A Symphonic Nightmare: Desecration     Rag #1 From Soup to Nuts	1914 (Cont) Marionette Kakuda 1915 Nola Toots 1916 An Operatic Nightmare: Desecration     Rag #2 1918 In the Shade of the Mango Tree [1] My Gal's Another Gal Like Galli-Curci [1] Clover Club    1. w/Louis Weslyn

     Felix Arndt, regarded by some as the earliest proponent of the novelty piano style, was born to royalty, at least in a sense. His mother, Carolyn, was the Countess Fevrier of France (although she was born in Spain), who was reportedly related to Napoleon III. His father, Hugo, was a carpenter. He also had a younger sister named Charlotte. Born in the U.S., Felix was educated in the New York City public school system, greatly improved as the influence of Tammany Hall was waning, and usually fostering those who wanted to play instruments in the requisite school band. He took up the piano on his own, but later sought out advanced training in harmony and theory. Once out of school, his talent for arranging was quickly recognized by publishers, and he got a job composing special material on demand for several years, including for vaudeville stars such as the husband and wife team of Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth, and often with fellow composer Gus Edwards. He was also a charter member of ASCAP, founded by several musicians in an effort to provide a focal registration point for protecting copyrights and distributing royalties. His steady gig for a time was as the organist for New York’s famed Trinity Church, right on Wall Street and a focal point in the days following the WTC disaster of 2001. He was shown in 1910 as still living with his family, and as a musician working for a publisher.
     One of his more fortuitous breaks came in 1913 when he started at QRS during the advent of "hand-played" piano rolls. Being a fine arranger and pianist, it allowed him the opportunity to advance his skills when applied to other composer's works, and helped him in his first compositions as well the following year. Arndt also became a staff musician for Aeolian Hall, creating Duo-Art reproducing rolls in the Popular Music genre. In his three years for the two companies he reportedly created over 3,000 rolls, equating to four or five on an average work day. It was also during this period that he produced his first composition that is now considered a classic novelty, A Symphonic Nightmare: Desecration Rag (#1), an amusing send up of well known symphonic pieces in a complex syncopated format. It was followed by the unusual From Soup to Nuts, and a piece that would be the harbinger of genius yet to come, Marionette.
     It was also during this period in 1915 that he met his famous muse, Nola Locke, a professional singer with the St. Louis symphony, and a vocal teacher as well. Soon after they were engaged, he wrote his signature piece, Nola - A Silhouette for the Piano. A lilting tune made up largely of interesting patterns, and melodic lines that utilize both hands and span pretty much the entire keyboard, it was a much admired template for what would become the genre of novelty piano in the 1920s. Ten months after the piece was composed they were happily wed. A later attempt to turn it into an unsingable song was met with lukewarm response, but Nola managed to remain in print throughout the 20th century, selling millions of copies to hopeful pianists who wanted to try and catch that unique style. In the 1930s, orchestra leader Vincent Lopez made it his theme, giving it radio exposure as well. Guitarist Les Paul even had a top-ten with it in the 1950s using his revolutionary multi-tracking guitar recording technique.
     It was over the next two years that Felix really started to find his niche. There was a second Descration, An Operatic Nightmare: Desecration Rag #2 (the first was renumbered at this time), and a nice dance piece titled Clover Club. This was also the time when young George Gershwin looked briefly to Arndt as a mentor of sorts, with Felix likely getting him a job with Aeolian Hall in early 1916 (which Felix soon left), and potentially inspiring or even contributing a bit to the single rag that Gershwin wrote, Rialto Ripples. He also may have introduced George to Irving Caesar, with which Gershwin would later pen his first and biggest hit, Swanee. His 1917 draft card shows him as an employee of Aeolian, and the sole support for Nola and his mother. Then the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic struck the world, and New York City was hard hit. The flu deprived the world of Felix Arndt shortly before WWI had ended. Nola went on, and interestingly enough was known to have lived for a time with their mutual friend Caesar. But his music and style were most certainly influential on a number of composers of the 1920s, and they help provide us a continuation of his legacy and the potential he possessed.

Marvin E. Ashbaugh (October 4, 1914 - August 21, 1974)

Selected Compositions

Pearl House Rag (1947) The Little New Yorker (1949) T 5 Blues (1951) Cajon Lament (w/Gus Call) (1955) Du a Ferdinand (1955)

Collective Discography

10" 78s (Some released on 7" 45s) Big Leg Mama/Last Call for Alcohol (w/Wingy Manone)     [Gilt Edge 535] (1946) Sensation Rag/Sweet Lorraine [Jump J62] (1947) Lonesome Lovesick Blues/Sister Kate [Jump J66] (1947) South Rampart Street Parade/Mama Inez [Capitol] (1947) Cannon Ball/Maple Leaf Rag [Capitol] (1949) 10"/12" LPs Honky-Tonk Piano [Capitol T-188] (1950) Marvin Ash [Jazz Man] (1954) New Orleans at Midnight [Decca] (1955)

     Marvin Ash was a remarkable and under-recorded New Orleans style pianist who actually spent much of his life wanting to visit the Crescent City, making him all that much more remarkable for his playing gifts. Born in Lamar, Colorado, the only child to barber Roy Ashbaugh and his wife Nora, Marvin grew up in Junction City, Kansas (as shown in the 1920 Census) and Emporia, Kansas, playing with a number of bands as early as his high school years. Among the known musicians he worked with from the town that produced the legendary Count Basie include Wallie Stoeffer, composer Con Conrad, Herman Waldman and Jack Crawford. He was greatly inspired while visiting Abilene one day in 1931 and heard "Fatha" Earl Hines perform in his capacious style. There was also an encounter one day at Jenkin's Music when seated at one of three grand pianos was Joe Sullivan teaching Thomas "Fats" Waller and Arthur Schutt, sitting at the other two, his own Little Rock Getaway. It set a desire in Ash to be able to play like all three of them at one time.
     When Marvin was 22 he moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma to expand his musical horizons and do some work in radio as a studio pianist, musical director and sometimes announcer of station KVOO. With so much exposure to recordings from all around the country he was able to further hone his skills while absorbing a variety of piano styles. Among his favorites influences were James P. Johnson and Waller, masters of stride, boogie man Pete Johnson, for whom he played the relief shift at the Sunset Cafe in Kansas City, jazz players Hines, Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, and long-time friend and traveling roommate Bob Zurke.On November 20, 1941, Marvin married Wavel Davis, a Creek/Cherokee American Indian-descendant of one of Tulsa's pioneer families. This may have been a second marriage since his enlistment card status indicates he had been divorced.
     After a few years in Tulsa, Ash enlisted in the Army for World War II service on January 16, 1942, assigned initially to Fort Sill in Oklahoma. The terms indicated an enlistment "for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law." His civil occupation was listed as "Blacksmith or Band or Orchestra Leader... or Musician." It is hard to determine for certain, but Marvin likely spent at least some of his Army service in entertainment, something that head General Dwight D. Eisenhower in particular felt was essential for morale on the front lines. The army was true to their word and indeed kept him nearly six months after the end of the European segment of the war.
     Following his four year stint (Marvin claims it was five in one source) Ash was let loose in Los Angeles and quickly found a place with the band of trumpeter Wingy Manone, resulting in some of his earliest ensemble recordings in 1946. He also played in many of the clubs around the greater Los Angeles area. In 1947, jazz guitarist/banjoist Nappy Lamare and associates opened Club 47 (named for Musician's Union #47, not the year) on famed Ventura Blvd. in Studio City, an active music strip in the burgeoning San Fernando Valley. Ash was a regular there for the five years Lamare ran the club, and it led to his initial sessions with Clive Acker's Jump Records as a soloist in late 1947 and with Rosy McHargue's Memphis Five. With a national musician's strike against the record companies looming in 1948, recording studios were very crowded in November and December of 1947 trying to get in last minute sessions, and Marvin was kept busy during that two month period. His work with McHargue also resulted in sessions with Lamare and others at Capitol Records (both companies used Radio Recorders, the best Hollywood studio at that time), recording as Nappy Lamare's Levee Loungers and Marvin Ash and his Mason Dixon Music. He also kept regular broadcast performance stints on radio at KRKD and Television on KHJ, as well as the aptly named Hangover Club in Hollywood.
     Ash's accurate no-nonsense jazz playing and his propensity for ragtime caught the ear of Capitol's producer and A&R man Lou Busch (who would later gain fame as Joe "Fingers" Carr), and he invited Ash to record a few more sides in 1949 with a small ensemble. Most of these would be incorporated into the groundbreaking 10" and later 12" Honky Tonk Piano LPs. His jazz interpretations of Maple Leaf Rag, Cannon Ball and Fidgety Feet were a nice contrast to Busch's arranged honky-tonk style and colleague Ray Turner's brilliant novelty recordings. Still, there would be no further work with Capitol.
     Ash spent much of the 1950s playing in various lounges in the Los Angeles area, but had few recording dates under his name, instead working on many undocumented studio dates. Some include recording or live sessions with trombonist Jack Teagarden, clarinet player Matty Matlock, New Orleans' sax player Pud Brown and cornetist Pete Daily, a favorite of Dragnet creator Jack Webb. Marvin's most significant sessions resulted in a continuous suite of an album for Decca titled New Orleans at Midnight, a virtual pastiche of elegant jazz and even a Scott Joplin rag. He also found some steady employment in the Walt Disney Studios music department playing for movie and television soundtracks, acting as the resident arranger and pianist for the Mickey Mouse Club Show, and performing with sometimes-Firehouse Five Plus Two member George Bruns and his aptly-named Wonderland Jazz Band. He was often sighted with this group or with his own small ensemble playing for events at Disneyland as well.
     After his retirement from Disney in the mid-1960s, Ash spent his last few years playing older jazz, stride and (sometimes allegedly grudgingly) ragtime in the cocktail lounge of a large Los Angeles area bowling alley. He had a steady stream of regular customers and admirers, and was reportedly very happy with the situation, although he was still called on for special gigs and appearances up through his death. He passed on in 1974 at age 59 largely as a result of overindulgence in alcohol combined with a heart problem caused by Rheumatic Fever as a child, survived by Wavel, his wife of 33 years. Marvin left many jazz and ragtime fans wanting for more in terms of recorded legacy, but also sadly forgotten by all but a few hard-core fans. His ability to merge styles, and also to approach the same piece in many different ways made him versatile and listenable, and his "always-on" smiling demeanor made him a popular friend to all who crossed paths with him. His approach to ragtime was successful in showing that piano rags were the root of jazz, and therefore could fuse well into the genre, creating a fresh look at older material while still respecting that material.

Roy Frederick Bargy (July 31, 1894 - January 16, 1974)
Compositions
1920 * Slipova * Justin-Tyme * Sunshine Capers * Pianoflage * Jim Jams * Behave Yourself Omeomy Ditto (I'll Have the Same) 1921 It Must Be Someone Like You [1]     [w/Harold G. Frost] When You Come to the End of a     Sometime [1] Blue Streak Rickety Stairs [1] [w/George Moriarty] 1922 * Knice and Knifty [2] (1918/1922) * Rufenreddy [2] (1918/1922)	1922 (Cont) Little Thoughts [1] [w/Hal Billings] Lonely [1] [w/Moriarity] Tee-pee Blues [w/Roger Lewis &     Ernie Erdman] Broken Hearted Blues [w/Frank Henri     Klickmann & Dave Ringle] 1923 Sweet and Tender Foolish Child [w/McPhail/Nelson] 1924 Get Lucky (Chicago Stomp) Feedin' the Kitty    * From 8 Piano Syncopations    1. w/Charley Straight    2. Both likely composed by       Charley Straight around 1918,       but listed as collaborations.

     Roy Bargy was born in Newaygo, Michigan, to Fred and Jessie Bargy, the youngest of two children including his sister Myrtle. However, he grew up mostly in Toledo, Ohio. He began to study piano at age five and proved to be a child prodigy at the instrument. He continued taking lessons for 12 years and developed as a very competent classical pianist. Roy had aspirations of becoming a concert artist, but the thinking of the time was that serious pianists needed to study in Europe in order to be seriously regarded within classical music circles, a practice that continued into the 1940s. Family economics made this dream impossible to achieve at that time, as his father was just a market superintendent in Toledo. Discouraged but not daunted, he began to hang around the growing Toledo jazz community and, still in his teens, found work playing piano and organ in silent movie houses. Roy also organized his own pickup orchestra, which played for school dances. His 1917 draft card shows him listed as a musician playing for a Toledo country club. Roy ended up enlisted for five months of 1918, serving in the Army in Central Officer's Training School in Georgia, and honorably discharged at the end of November.
     In 1919, Bargy auditioned for pianist Charley Straight, manager of the Imperial Player Rolls company. He was asked to arrange a pop tune for roll. The initial cut was so good that Bargy was quickly hired and the tune was put into their catalog. Straight cultivated Roy's arranging abilities as he was assigned to record novelties and popular songs. He soon challenged Bargy to compose some of his own novelties in an effort to compete with rising star Zez Confrey of QRS. Bargy came back with six of the Eight Piano Syncopations that were every bit as innovative as Confrey's (with whom he became a long-time friend), but his pieces were not quite as accessible to the average pianist. The six were committed to piano rolls in 1920 and published as sheet music from the rolls two years later. Two others were most likely written by Straight in 1918 or so, but Bargy got collaboration credit when they went to sheet form. It was Straight that introduced Bargy to booking agent, Edgar Benson, who had just formed a dance orchestra which was slated to record for Victor. Benson was impressed by Bargy's skills and took him on as both pianist and musical director. The Victor recordings of The Benson Orchestra, which were very progressive for the time, helped secure many other bookings for Bargy as a pianist and arranger for other recording bands such as Isham Jones.
     After creative conflicts with Benson in late 1921, Bargy left to launch his own orchestra, taking many members of Benson's group with him. It disbanded after only a couple of years, and he joined Isham Jones for a while. Bargy then migrated to Paul Whiteman's orchestra in 1928, quickly becoming Whiteman's musical assistant. Whiteman had been looking for a sound beyond the conventional dance band, and Bargy's arrangements provided much of that sound, some of them commissioned even before he joined the orchestra. Roy's piano was the featured attraction in Whiteman's film debut of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue in King of Jazz, released in 1930. He was also utilized on some of the early recordings made by Whiteman's star singer, Bing Crosby.
     In 1940, Bargy left Whiteman after a twelve year stint to arrange and conduct radio orchestras and bands. These included gigs with Lanny Ross, Gerry Moore, and famed Latin bandleader Xavier Cugat. Comedian Jimmy Durante, himself a competent pianist, hired Bargy as musical director, and it was in this capacity that he remained until both of them retired from show business in 1963. Playing became more difficult in the 1950s due to the onset of arthritis, so appearances by Bargy and Durante diminished throughout the decade. He spent the remainder of his years in the California sunshine playing golf for enjoyment, but also helping his wife Virginia with the Country Day School she founded in Vista, CA. Students have memories of him as both the cook for lunch time, as well as the entertainer from time to time for assemblies or casual afternoons. Roy finally died in his home after a fruitful career in music and helping with the school. It is reported that Virginia (20 years younger), who moved in with their daughter after his death, likely disposed of some additional compositions or arrangements that he had kept around their house. Mrs. Bargy survived Roy until April, 2005. Although Bargy left behind only a few compositions, his contributions to recorded jazz are considerable but hard to measure because he left his imprint in so many places.

Louis Ferdinand Busch (July 18, 1910 - September 19, 1979)
Selected Compositions
1950 Ivory Rag [w/Jack Elliot] Two Dollar Rag That Everlovin' Rag [w/Bernard Adler] Fourth Man Rag [as Hamilton/Leland] 1951 Carr's Hop Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! [1] Tom's Tune [1] Round and Round [1] Bar Room Boogie Waltz in Ragtime 1952 Boogie Woogie Rag Lou's Blues Finicky Fingers Raggedy-Ann Rag Rattlesnake Rag [Ethwell Hansen      arr. Busch] (1917/1952) Rapscallion Rag Tin Pan Rag Minute Waltz Boogie [w/Frederic     Chopin] 1953 Picadilly Rag Zag-A-Zig [1] Spanish Main [1] 1954 Hook and Ladder Rag	1955 My Birthday Comes On Christmas [1] Barky-Roll Stomp [w/Jacques Offenbach] 1956 Doo Wacky Rag 1958 Hot Potatoes Fingers Medley Looney Louie 1959 Baked Alaska Down Under 1960 Ironfingers Rag [w/Alvino Rey] 1962 Cap D'Antibes 1966 Piano Picker Rag The Young Bulls of Pamplona Nocturne for Honky Tonk Piano 1979 Oh! Play That Anti-Establishment Rag Moon Child Unpublished c.1950s Am I Wrong? [1] It's A Lot of Fun to Share [1] Lemme Go [1] You Get What You Pay For [1] The Party Song [1]    1. w/Leon Pober
Selected Discography
Capitol Records 7" 45s & EPs (Some released on 10" 78s) Ragtime Cowboy Joe/The Last Mile Home (w/Jo Stafford) [F-710] Ivory Rag/Sam's Song [F-962] Rootie Tootie/Snooky Ookums [F-438/F-1074] Let's Do It Again/(Friendly Star) [F-1132] Cincinatti Dancing Pig/The Red We Want is the Red We Got [F-1182] Rocky's Rag/Lovebug Itch [F-1311] Tailor Made Woman/Stack-O-Lee (w/Tennessee Ernie Ford) [F-1349] Chicken Song/If You Want Some Loving (w/Dottie O'Brien) [F-1409] Bye Bye Blues/Tom's Tune [F-1484] Ballin' the Jack/It Must Be True [F-1558] I Love A Piano/Ventura Blvd. Boogie (w/The Ewing Sisters) [F-1733] Ivory Rag/Down Yonder [F-1777] Cecelia/Snuggle Bug (w/Candy Candido) [F-1847] Ragtime Melody/Snow Deer Rag [F-1876] Music Makin' Mama From Memphis/When You're Smiling [F-1974] Noodlin' Rag/Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! [F-2009] That Ever-Lovin' Rag/Goodtime Charlie [F-2081] Stumbling/Boogie Woogie Rag [F-2187] Rattlesnake Rag/Headin' for Home [F-2257] Aloha Oe/Doo-Wacky Rag [F-2359] Mexican Joe/Here Comes My Daddy, Now! [F-2463] Doodle Doo Doo/San Antonio Rose [F-2557] Collegiate/The One Called Reilly [F-2581] Istanbul (Not Constantinople)/Maple Leaf Rag [F-2665] Until Sunrise/Humoresque [F-2730] Too Bad/Fiddle-A-Delphia [F-2812] Riviera Rag/Piccadilly Rag [F-2834] Put Another Roll on the Player Piano/Mister and Missus Cocynut [F-2883] My Birthday Comes on Christmas/Jingle O! the Brownie (w/Dallas Frazier)     [F-2956] Ragtime Cowboy Joe/Let Me Be Your Honey, Honey [F-3152] Deep in the Heart of Texas/The Barky-Roll Stomp [F-3201] Give Me a Band and My Baby/Zig-a-Zag [F-3231] Zambezi/Rainbow's End (as Lou Busch) [F-3272] Memories of You/Henderson Stomp [F-3304] 11th Hour Medley/The Charming Mademoiselle From Paris France     (as Lou Busch) [F-3349] Portuguese Washerwomen/Lucky Pierre [F-3418] Tango Afrique/Jato (as Lou Busch) [F-3432] Portofino/Friendly Persuasion (as Lou Busch) [F-3520] I'm a Little Echo/La La Collette [F-3541] How You Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm/Swingin' Down the Lane     (w/Pee Wee Hunt) [F-3642] The Wild Ones/Midnight Melody (as Lou Busch) [F-3667] Loco-motion/Brazilian Hobo [F-3681] Cayo Coco/Hot Cappucchino (as Lou Busch) [F-3735] Band of Angels/How About That?     (as Lou Busch w/The Four Preps) [F-3775] Sea Breeze/Sophia [F-3791] Kitty/Always Fall in Love (w/Pee Wee Hunt) [F-3831] Street Scene '58/Cool (as Lou Busch) [F-3837] Fingers Medley/Dominque [F-3883] March to the Blues/Lazy Train [F-3996] Ladies Please Remove Your Hats/Young Enough to Dream     (as Lou Busch) [F-4019] 12th Street Ha Cha Cha/Fan Tan Fanny [F-4163] Ivory Rag/Down Yonder/Sam's Song/Snow Deer Rag [EAP 1-417] Rattlesnake Rag/Stumbling/Boogie Woogie Rag/When You're Smiling     [EAP 1-497] My Birthday Comes on Christmas/Jingle O! The Brownie/Up on the Housetop/     Jingle Bells (w/Dallas Frazier) [EAP 1-789] Capitol Records 10"/12" LPs Honky Tonk Piano [H-188/T-188]  (1950) Bar Room Piano [H-280/T-280]  (1951) Rough House Piano [H-345/T-345]  (1952) Joe "Fingers" Carr & his Ragtime Band [H-443/T-443]  (1953) Fireman's Ball [H-527/T-527]  (1954) Capitol Records 12" LPs Joe "Fingers" Carr Plays the Classics [T-649]  (1955) Parlor Piano [T698]  (1955) Mister Ragtime [T-760]  (1956) Pee Wee and "Fingers" [T-783]  (1956) Honky-Tonk Street Parade [T-809]  (1956) Joe "Fingers" Carr and Pee Wee Hunt - Class of '25 [T-935]  (1957) Joe "Fingers" Carr Goes Continental [T-1000]  (1957) Lazy Rhapsody (as Lou Busch) [ST-1042]  (1957) "Fingers" and the Flapper [ST-1151]  (1958) Joe "Fingers" Carr and his Swingin' String Band [ST-1217]  (1958) The Hits of Joe "Fingers" Carr [ST-2019]  (1963) The Black & White Rag (1899-1918) [ST-11303]  (1974) Later 12" LPs The World's Greatest Ragtime Piano Player [Warner WBS-1386]  (1960)     Also as Mr. Ragtime Globetrotter [DICO 1302] Joe "Fingers" Carr With Ira Ironstrings - Together for the Last Time     [Warner WBS-1389]  (1960) Giant Hits of the Small Combos [Warner WBS-1406]  (1960) The Riotous Raucous Red-Hot 20's [Warner WBS-1423]  (1961)     Also as Joe "Fingers" Carr [Point Records 271] Brassy Piano [Warner WBS-1456]  (1962) Oh You Kid (with Dorothy Provine) [Warner WBS-1466]  (1962) Mr. Ragtime Meets Mr. Honky Tonk [Coral CRL 757444] "Zambezi" and "The Young Bulls of Pamplona" [Dot DLP3705]  (1966) Hits of the '60s [Dot DLP 25715] (1966) Joe "Fingers" Carr and The Bluegrass Jug Band [Dot DLP 25767] (1966) The Happy Sound Piano & Orchestra [Pickwick SPC-3060] (1970s)     Also on Sears [SPS-438] (1970s)     Both compiled from Capitol Ragtime Band albums/singles

     Lou Busch was born to laundry salesman William H. Bush and Irene A. Bush in Louisville, Kentucky in the midst of the ragtime era and the jazz age. He had an older brother, Richard H. Bush, born in late 1908. Even though the family name was Bush, he later added the c for Busch largely for the uniqueness it provided. The change was likely for stage purposes and not completed legally. One of his California death records indicates Busch while another one plus his Social Security and Army enlistment records indicate Bush. Truly blessed with an inherent music talent, he was already leading a ragtime and jazz band by the time he was 12 years old. At 16 he left school and home for a career as a professional musician, playing with the likes of "Hot Lips" Henry Busse, Clyde McCoy and George Olson. One travel manifest shows him working with a band on a cruise to the Bahamas in 1929. Louisville was still considered his home base, as he was listed there in the 1930 Census as an orchestra musician. After a few years on the road, his desire to learn more about music theory led him to study at the Cincinnati Music Conservatory in Ohio in the early 1930s.
     Following his music education break, Busch became the pianist for Hal Kemp's "sweet music" band for the remainder of the 1930s. It was there he met and married his first wife, the band's singer, Janet Blair. Lou also honed his arranging skills, being offered an arranging position when arranger John Scott Trotter left the band in 1936. This position was shared with another key arranger, Hal Mooney, and was invaluable experience for both of them. After Kemp died in a car crash in 1940 and the group disbanded, Busch and Mooney made their way to California to work as studio musicians and whatever gigs they could find. This was interrupted by World War Two, where Lou spent three years in the Army, utilizing his musical talents from time to time during the war as part of the Army's Radio Production Group. He enlisted on July 27, 1942, in Los Angeles, considered immediately for entertaiment duty, as his Civil Occupation is shown as a musician and the branch is shown as "Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers, USA." Busch, as many others, were considered highly valuable for morale in their entertainment roles, so many groups of musicians were assigned to play behind stars, and some were also involved with set traveling shows, often performing near the front when not on broadcast duty.
     After his tour of duty, Busch decided to dive back into the music business, but desired a more stable position than just a musician. It was around this time that singer Johnny Mercer was recruiting artists and employees for his recently formed label, Capitol Records, so Busch was hired for the radio transcription service in 1946. He was in charge of production of promotional radio shows featuring Capitol artists for distribution to stations around the country. By 1949 he had been promoted to A&R (Artist and Repertoire) man given his considerable talent and contacts. During this time he also served as a pianist for studio groups backing singers such as Peggy Lee, "Tennessee" Ernie Ford and Jo Stafford. During this period he married a second time to Capitol singer Margaret Whiting, both of them the parents of his only child, Debbi Whiting.
     Three events from this time, all having to do with Capitol Records, helped spur the ragtime revival of the 1950s. Interest in the music of the late 1910s through the 1920s had been growing out of San Francisco for nearly a decade, particularly through Lu Watters, Wally Rose and the Yerba Buena Jazz Band, so the seed had been planted. The first event was bandleader Pee Wee Hunt's surprise hit with Twelfth Street Rag, something recorded simply to use up time at the end of a broadcast transcription in 1948 as a bit of a joke. Since Busch was involved with radio transcriptions as part of his job at the time, he may have been responsible for editing or distributing this particular session. The cut was requested by listeners so often upon broadcast that the demand warranted a single release, and it soon became a runaway hit. The following summer, Busch backed singer Jo Stafford and conductor Paul Weston on the hit record, Ragtime Cowboy Joe. The success encouraged both him and the label to release his own original single, Ivory Rag, early in 1950. Over the spring it became a bigger hit than the previous two in both the U.S. and overseas. It was also the first piece incorporated into the Crazy Otto Medley by German pianist Fritz Schulz-Reichel, which was later associated with Johnny Maddox in the U.S.
     These events coupled with the 1950 release of the book They All Played Ragtime by Rudi Blesh and Harriet Janis, gave indications that ragtime might yet live again. Busch decided to produce one of the new Capitol 10" long play (LP) records of the music, and recorded pieces by himself, Ray Turner and Marvin Ash for Honky Tonk Piano, released in June of 1950. The Honky-Tonk reference, more often identified as a Country Music term, is likely in conjunction with the type of "joint" the music was played, but the sound of the piano might also apply, as they sometimes used hardened hammers or detuning to alter the tone. However, instead of just piano, Busch and company followed the lead of the traditional jazz revivalists of the late 1940s and added percussion and bass. The whimsical style coupled with clever arrangements made the records accessible to a public craving nostalgia, and Capitol's distribution helped make Honky Tonk Piano a big hit for many years.
     Taking on the persona of Joe "Fingers" Carr, Busch released a succession of ragtime albums and singles throughout the 1950s that remained popular well into the mid 1960s. He later admitted that the early recordings were filled with some gimmicks (particularly the Ragtime Band releases), but eventually settled down to record the music more authentically, albeit with his easily recognizable licks and playing style. It was Capitol that pushed the nostalgic Carr image with the derby and the cigar more so than Busch, so he worked hard to keep his records from becoming mere whimsical fluff, choosing the best music and sidemen for each session. His biggest hits from the 1950s include Portuguese Washerwomen, Sam's Song, a cover of Del Wood's version of Down Yonder (a hit for many other pianists as well), and the international hit Zambezi, later covered in 1982 by the British group, The Piranhas. Some of the singles include his vocal backup group, the cleverly-named Carr Hopps. Often overlooked are several mainstream and jazz sides he recorded as Lou Busch, featuring exciting band or orchestral arrangements.
     Busch eventually left Capitol for Warner Brothers Records where he took on the same general responsibilities. When the ragtime revival died down he focused more on arranging and conducting responsibilities again, one of the most notable being the musical force behind comic singer Allan Sherman. It was Lou's talents that helped bring out the best comical aspects of Sherman, and gave his tunes, and lyrics, the great comic punch that fit so well with Sherman's delivery. A few later albums were released on the ragtime-centric DOT label, and in the late 1970s he produced one more effort with friend and jazz pianist Lincoln Mayorga, complete with a couple of new tunes, The Brinkerhoff Piano Company. His influence in ragtime remained for many years, affecting notable performer/composers such as Dave Jasen, Trebor Tichenor and Dick Zimmerman, as well as a young "Perfessor" Bill. Busch never fully retired from music, and married a third time to Nita Archambeau, a music clearance specialist. They were both good friends of Capitol artist Stan Kenton and his wife Audrey. This last marriage could have driven his desire to work since he once noted to a friend that he was "trying to keep up with alimony for three wives," (which may have been a misheard since he and Nita remained married for over 14 years until his death).
     Although it has been reported that Lou rarely performed ragtime publicly, his daughter Debbi notes that he did some tours for Capitol in the 1950s, including a substantial one to Australia, and that he was generally a "big ham" when it came to being on stage. The Allan Sherman albums, although live, were generally recorded for invited guests in a Warner Brothers studio. He was persuaded by Dave Jasen to participate in a ragtime concert on Long Island in 1975 in his guise as Joe "Fingers" Carr. In the late 1970s he did some live performances with Mayorga and others in Southern California. Lou Busch met a tragic end in an automobile accident in October 1979. He was interred in the Westwood Village Mortuary near UCLA. Fortunately for all of us he left behind an exciting and well documented musical legacy and a lot of smiling faces and tapping toes.

     I would like to add a personal note of thanks to Debbi Whiting, daughter of Lou and Margaret, who along with me has been championing the legacy of her father and collecting information for his biography and perhaps more exciting future developments to honor Lou. Note also that he has been officially well-regarded by his home town of Louisville, KY, and was the finest left-handed (piano) slugger to ever emerge from there.

Edward Elzear "Zez" Confrey (April 3, 1895 to November 22, 1971)
Novelty Compositions
c.Late 1910s On the Banks of Dear Old Illinois Over the Top 1921 My Pet Kitten On The Keys You Tell 'Em Ivories Greenwich Witch Poor Buttermilk 1922 Stumbling Stumbling (Paraphrase) Coaxing The Piano Tricks Dumbell Dizzy Fingers Kitten On The Keys Song [w/Sam     Coslow] 1923 Three Little Oddities    I. Impromptu    II. Romanza    III. Novelette Nickel In The Slot Anticipation Zez Confrey's Modern Course in     Novelty Piano Playing 1924 African Suite    I. Hi Hattin'    II. Kinda Careless    III. Mississippi Shivers Who Do You Suppose? 1925 Charleston Chuckles Träumerei [Schumann] Spring Song Melody In F [Mendelsohnn] Flower Song [Lange] Home Sweet Home Humorestless There's No One Can Love Me Like You Zez Confrey's Conception of Six Old     Masterpieces for Piano 1926 Fantasy (Classical) Fantasy (Jazz) Jack In The Box 1927 Jay Walk Valse Mirage 1928 Sparkling Waters 1929 Concert Etude 1931 Buffoon Heaven's Garden 1932 Wistfulness Champagne Moods of a New Yorker (Suite)    I. At Dusk    II. Movie Ballet    III. Relaxation    IV. After Theater (Tango) Indian Prayer Desert Dance In The South Of France Phantom Cadets	1933 Grandfather's Clock Smart Alec 1934 Sittin' On a Log, Pettin' My Dog     [w/Byron Gay] 1935 Arabian Maid Blue Tornado Giddy Ditty Lullaby From Mars Mouse's Hooves Rag Doll Dimples Rhythm Venture A Heart Like The Ocean Tin Pan Symphony 1936 Audacity Motif Du Concert Midsummer's Nightmare Tap Dance Of The Chimes Meandering Ultra-Ultra Wise Cracker Suite    I. Yokel Opus    II. Mighty Lackawana    III. The Sheriff's Lament Home-Run On The Keys Sugar Dance Sunshine From The Fingers 1937 Sport Model Encore 1939 The Hobble De Hoy 1943 Forgive Me, Silent Soldier 1944 Dancing Shadow Parade Of The Jumping Beans Pickle Peppper Polka Elihu's Harmonica 1945 Tune For Mademoiselle Amazonia Flutter By Butterfly Rag Doll Carnival 1949 Four Candy Pieces    (A Suite for Children)    I. Captain Butterscotch    II. Chocolate Bunny    III. Marshmellow Minstrels    IV. Peppermint Drum Major 1951 Thanksgiving: A Miniature Opera 1951    Song Of Thanksgiving 1959 Piano Sketch Of A Symphony Orchestra     (based on Tschaikovsky themes) Fourth Dimension Four Circus Pieces    I. The Cannon Ball Man    II. Parade Of The Bears    III. Trapeze Lady    IV. Barnaby The Clown Unknown/Posth Jap-a-lac-ee [w/Alex Gerber] Piano Concerto No. 1 Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Major

     "Zez" Confrey has long been known as one of the most popular progenitors of the Novelty Piano style that was born out of the desire for piano roll arrangers to give their works more bite. Born the youngest of five children of Thomas J. and Margaret Confrey in rural Peru, Illinois at the dawn of the ragtime era, Edward (who may have just as often been called Elzear as he was shown on some official records) displayed his propensity for music at the age of four. Just after his talented older brother Jim had completed a piece during a piano lesson, the youngest Confrey stood at the piano and picked out the melody of the same piece he had been listening to Jim play. So lessons for him started quite early, and by he time he was in high school in La Salle, Illinois (near Peru), and conducting his own orchestra, "Zez" (as he was now known) had progressed well beyond what most local teachers could offer him. So he soon attended the fairly close by Chicago Musical College (run by Florenz Ziegfeld Sr., father of the famous Ziegfeld Follies founder) for better grounding in all musical forms ranging from classical music to contemporary composers Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, and others. It was the influence of the French impressionist composers that showed up in his later compositions.
     In an effort to support himself during college, Zez logically chose performance, and his older brother Jim stepped in to help him out. They formed an orchestra, then even opened a hotel to feature it, as well as engaging in occasional short performance tours. This was interrupted by The Great War (WWI). His 1917 draft card lists him as a music teacher living in La Salle. Zez ultimately joined the Navy, where he ended up entertaining the sailors more than serving with them. One of his performing partners during his stint in the show Leave It To Sailors was a talented violinist from Waukegan, Illinois named Benjamin Kubelsky. He later started telling jokes between tunes and changed his name to Jack Benny. When Zez was fresh out of the Navy he sought to expand his exposure by successfully auditioning for the QRS Piano Roll Company, making it clear that he felt his arranging skills would help their rolls sell better. During his six-plus years there he proved that contention to be accurate. In all he made at least one hundred twenty rolls for QRS, and perhaps several more that have not been positively identified as they were released under pseudonyms. It was a natural progression that his next step would be composition.
     After a few interesting pieces, Zez pulled My Pet out of his hat in 1921 (possibly a couple of years earlier). Where Felix Arndt's Nola had broken some new ground six years earlier in the use of seemingly complex sounding patterns, My Pet threw in a impressionistic harmonic progressions and previously implausible syncopated patterns to define his own brilliant take on the novelty piano genre. It was followed almost immediately by his wildly popular mega-hit Kitten on the Keys, and both were quickly packaged on a Brunswick record, as well as arranged for piano roll. Kitten was recorded for two other labels before the year was out. In the midst of a barrage of interesting solos that would follow, he penned Stumbling, his most popular vocal song. Publisher Jack Mills was thrilled to have Confrey as one of his prime composers. Confrey had experienced rejection by many publishers who thought his pieces were outlandishly difficult for the average pianist, and was reluctant to even present them to the adventurous entrepreneur. However, Mills saw the sales potential by promoting their musicality as well as making sure they were available on phonograph records. This created a successful paradox where even hack amateurs were so sure they could play what they heard on those recordings that they bought Confrey tunes by the thousands, only to discover their own limitations as represented by the apparent complexity. In truth, Zez Confrey novelties mostly consisted of simple patterns, and had they taken the time to master those patterns the learning curve would have been greatly lowered. A very successful folio of Zez Confrey's Modern Course in Novelty Piano Playing was created to address this issue, and indeed remained in print for four decades. Still, in the end, it was the complexity of novelty piano that soured sheet music sales for Mills and other companies in the genre, but money was still to be made in the record business.
     Perhaps the highlight of Confrey's performance career, and indeed a benchmark for jazz music that announced it was here to stay, was the legendary concert that bandleader Paul Whiteman arranged at Aeolian Hall in New York City on February 12, 1924. While most may remember that event as the premiere of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue as arranged by Ferdé Grofé, it should also be noted that some of Confrey's compositions were featured as well, and the composer himself rolled out his newest piece, the classically structured Three Little Oddities, along with the bombastic Dizzy Fingers and famous Kitten on the Keys. After the event he accepted a position creating rolls for Ampico reproducing pianos, and turned out forty-four over the next three years. But as the 1930s approached, Zez turned more to composition than to performance.
     The onset of the Great Depression may have hit him hard as it did much of the music business not involved with radio, as the 1930 census shows him living once again with his parents and two of his brothers back in La Salle. His 1942 draft card shows him listed as a "free lance composer" living in Queens, NY, so a decade later perhaps well enough off from his royalties in addition to any playing appearances he might have made during this time that things had been looking up. He sought out ways to expand genres within his repertoire of pieces. This ambition was mostly realized, but hindered by the onset of Parkinson's Disease in the mid to late 1940s. Just same, Confrey left behind a staggering variety of memorable pieces that are still continually rediscovered by a new generation and are actively performed in the 21st century.

Byron Sturges Gay (August 28, 1886 to December 23, 1945)
Compositions
1914 The Little Ford Rambled Right Along     [w/C.R. Forster] 1915 Happy Tom O'Day Shoot Me Back to California-Land Gasoline Gus and His Jitney Bus     [w/Charley Brown] 1916 The Dragon's Eye (Chinese Waddle) Somewhere on the Rio Grande 1917 I'm Always Happy Sunday [w/Al Dubin] It's a Rambling Flivver When the Fields are White with Daisies     I'll Come Back To You Sons of Liberty 1918 A Soldier's Dream My Angel of the Flaming Cross 1919 The Vamp Sand Dunes (My Desert Rose) Oh! (or O!) There's Everything Waiting For You [1] Fast Asleep in Poppyland Western Land Wonderful Night With You [1] Cleopatra Had a Little Song (Or-Ya-da-     da-da-pum-pum) [1] Snuggle, Snuggle, Snuggle [1] My Buddy [2] 1920 Susan Doozan [w/Frank L. Baum] To Love in Vain I Like to Do It Murder 1921 The Navy Goat (A Song of the Navy) 1922 Fate (It Was Fate When I First Met You) Vamp Me Two Little Eyes 1923 Catalina [3] The Soul of a Rose [3]	1924 Radio I Lost My Pal Keep A-Going 1925 Just a Little Drink (A Song with a Kick) 1926 Horses (Crazy over Horses) [4] No! [4] Fire! (an Alarming Novelty Song) [4] Westward! [4] Someday You'll Be Sorry (Pal O' Mine) [4]     [w/W.C. Polla] The First Time You Kissed Me (I     Belonged to You) 1927 Rose of Monterey [2] Moonlight on the Danube Wide Open Spaces [4] [w/Paul Whiteman] Four or Five Times [w/Marco H. Hellman] When Shadows Creep [w/Bertram     Hargrave] 1928 Your Good-bye Kiss Chicago Butterfly 1929 Who in the 'L' are You (Shriner's     Convention Song) 1930 To Make a Long Story Short (I Love You) 1933 Sittin on a Log Pettin' My Dog     [w/Zez Confrey] 1935 Somebody's Birthday [w/Cliff Gordon &     Jimmie Grier] 1939 Swaying [w/Chick Johnson & Ole Olson] 1942 Navigator's Holiday (contributions)    1. w/Will Hough    2. w/Charles N. Daniels aka Neil Morét    3. w/Marian Gillespie    4. w/Richard Whiting

     Byron Gay was a multi-faceted individual who was a composer, lyricist, performing musician, author, and even an explorer at one point. Born in Chicago, Illinois, to C.M. and Julia J. Gay, his large family had moved to Winfield, Kansas in the 1890s, with his father following the factory mill work. Byron had at least six siblings, including brothers Norman, Ira and C.M. Jr., and sisters Edith, Bertha and Julia. In 1907 he went to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, for his post-secondary education, graduating in 1909. This left him suited for a later adventure in his life.
     After the academy Gay moved to Los Angeles where he started his musical career working as a piano salesman. In the mid 1910s he began getting his works published, the first pieces focusing largely on comic transportation. He was then married to Mildred L. Ashley, ten years his junior. By 1917 he is listed as a professional songwriter and musician on his draft card, something that would be echoed on the 1920 and 1930 census records. Late in 1917, the couple moved to New York for a time so he could concentrate on a potential Broadway writing career. His first contribution was to Furs and Frills. While there he also penned out his biggest hits, The Vamp and Oh!. In 1919 he turned out one musical with Will Hough entitled Honeymoon Town with at least four tunes contributed. Another tune was composed with Wizard of Oz author Frank L. Baum, perhaps for a musical or stage show. After one last attempt with the number Fate placed in Greenwich Village Follies, he joined ASCAP, and then moved back to California with Mildred in 1923. There he continued his writing with west coast notables like Richard Whiting and Charles N. Daniels (aka Neil Morét) and she also worked as a musician, although in what capacity is not clear. Gay did some work on occasion with studios writing a theme song or two for movies, and sometimes recording in bands, often unaccredited. By 1930, when the depression was underway, he was still living in Los Angeles in the Lido Apartment Hotel, but even though he was listed as married, his wife Mildred was residing elsewhere in Los Angeles with her parents and the Gays' daughter Carol at that time.
     Byron had been a fan of Admiral Richard E. Byrd (USN Ret) who he may have known during his time at Annapolis, and followed Byrd's first expedition in the late 1920s down to Antarctica. When the opportunity arose to participate in the second expedition in 1933, as it was a volunteer mission scantly funded during the depression, he jumped on one of the ships that left Boston in October 1933, waited out a repair stop in Newport News after some hurricane damage, then through the Panama Canal to New Zealand where the group proceeded to the Ross Ice Shelf. This was an expedition with many firsts, including custom automotive transportation provided by Edsel Ford and the Citroen corporation, voice radio broadcasts, self-contained electrical generators (one of which contributed to serious carbon monoxide poisoning of Byrd), an autogyro (early helicopter), and seismic investigation of the shelf. Gay likely went as far as the Mile 155 outpost and stayed through the Antarctic summer, finally leaving for Auckland, New Zealand, then home on the Mariposa ocean liner, arriving back in Los Angeles on April 21, 1934.
     From this point on there is little found on Gay until 1939 when he wrote the music Swaying with lyrics by the vaudeville comedy team of Olsen and Johnson who had been fairly successful in films throughout the decade. In the early 1940s Gay contributed to a wartime musical score for Navigator's Holiday for the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida, which ran throughout much of World War II. Gay died in Los Angeles just before Christmas 1945. In 1953, Pee Wee Hunt would revive popularity in Gay and his song Oh!, which was a fairly good seller for Capitol throughout the 1950s.

David Wendel Guion (December 15, 1892 to October 17, 1981)
Compositions
1915/1917 Texas Fox Trot 1917 Hopi Indian Cradle Song [w/Louis     Untermeyer] 1918 Old Maid Blues [w/Web Maddox] Embers [1] The Ghostly Galley [2] Jubilee 1919 Prayer [w/Hermann Hagedorn] Little Pickaninny Kid [2] 1920 Return [1] 1921 Resurrection [2] 1922 Mary Alone: Mother of Christ [w/ Lucile Isbell     Stall] Southern Nights Waltzes Pickaninny Dance for Piano 1924 Waltz of Sorrow Li'l' Black Rose [2] 1923 Minuet for Pianoforte Crucifixion: At the Cry of the First Bird Howdy Do, Mis' Springtime [w/Ben     Gordon] Rag Crazy (Jazz Scherzo) 1925 Sail Away for the Rio Grande 1926 Alley Tunes: Three Scenes from     the South    Brudder Sinkiller and his Flock     of Sheep    The Lonesome Whistler    The Harmonica Player 1927 Valse Arabesque 1929 Five Imaginary Early Louisiana Songs     of Slavery [2] Cowboy's Meditation [w/Charle J.     Finger] Lonesome Song of the Plains [3] Shingandi (Ballet Primitive) Suzanne: Folk Opera [2]    In Galam    Mam'selle Marie    De Massus and' de Missus    To the Sun    Voodoo    De Voodo Man    De Voodo Gal 1930 The Scissors Grinder Please Shake Dem 'Simmons Down Negro Lament 1931 When You Go [1] The Bell Buoy [1] Wild Geese [3] 1932 Barcarolle Espanol Prairie Dusk 1933 Little Joe, the Wrangler	1934 Creole Juanita [2] Waltzing with You in My Arms [2] Mistah Jay-Bird 1936 Cavalcade of Texas My Cowboy Love Song [2] Texas, May I Never Wander [w/C.C.     Birchard] Country Jig 1937 Prairie Night Song [2] 1938 Sea Demons [w/Mars] 1939 This Night Can Never Come Again Spanish Boat 1940 One Day I Talked to God Last Night [4] 1942 Dark Rivers [2] At Close of Day Go Then Song of the Wind Nocturne in Blue The Voice of America [4] 1944 Song of Mexico [5] [w/Dave     Jillson] 1945 All of a Sudden [5] Too Deep for Tears 1946 God's Golden West 1947 And God Was There Patoral for the Piano 1948 Pinto [2] My Eternity [1] Unveil Your Eyes [w/Clark Harrington] 1952 Texas Suite The Hawk [w/Eric von der Goltz] 1955 Mary [2] 1959 As We, O Lord, Have Joined Our Hands:     Wedding Song [w/Arthur V. Boand] Unknown or Uncertain Creole-Creola A Heartbreak Life and Love Loss Love is Lord of All Mother Goose Suite My Own Laddie Praise God and I'm Satisfied Prayer During Battle Rabbit's Foot (Gettin' Over the Blues) Stacatto Concert Etude Wrong Livin'    1. w/Jessie B. Rittenhouse    2. w/Marie Wardall/Lussi    3. w/Grace Noll Crowell    4. w/John W. Bratton    5. w/Rusk Smith
Folk/Americana Arrangements
Two Darkey Songs (1918)    De Ol' Ark's a-Moverin    Greatest Miracle of All Darkey Spirituals (1918)    Some O' These Days    Poor Sinner    Jubilee    My Little Soul's Gwine A-Shine    Nobody Knows de Trouble I Sess    Swing Low, Sweet Chariot    Sinner, Don't Let Dis Harves' Pass    I Sees Lawd Jesus A-Comin'    Holy Bible    Little David    John de Bap-a-tist    You Jest Well Git Ready, You Gwine       A-Die    Satan's a Liar an' a Conjur Too    Hark, From de Tombs    Run, Mary, Run    Ol' Marse Adam Turkey in the Straw Concert     Transcription (1919) Shout Yo' Glory (1919) The Bold Vaquero (1920) Sheep and Goat Walkin' to the Pasture     (1922) Oh My Lawd, What Shall I Do? (1924)	Arkansas Traveler: Old Fiddler's     Breakdown (1929) Home on the Range (1908/1930) Texas Tunes (1930)    Roy Bean    All Day on the Prairie    McCaffie's Confession When the Work's All Done This Fall     (1931) O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie     (1931) Ol' Paint (1933) What Shall We Do with a Drunken     Sailor? (1933) The Cowboy's Dream (1933) Ride, Cowboy, Ride (1934) Yellow Rose of Texas (1936) Chloe (Negro Wail) (1936) The Brazos Boat Song (1936) Carry Me Home to the Lone Prairie     [For Will Rogers] (1937) Lef' Away (Negro Wail) (1939) My Son (1940) Short'nin Bread (1941) Cross-Bearer (1942) Hand in Hand, Beloved (1944) Roll Along, Little Dogies (1947)

     David Guion (commonly pronounced guy-on) was born into a very large Texas family (five older siblings, two younger, and one deceased) when Texas was still very much the domain of cowboys, and not yet for oil and other commerce. His exposure to music early on came in part from African American servants employed by the family, and included a great body of spiritual works as well as American folk songs and cowboy tunes of Texas that were brought to him via the cowboys who worked for his father. John Isaac Guion II is listed as a lawyer in 1900 (his father was a governor of Mississippi at one point), but was later a judge, and a long-time rancher as well. David's mother, Matilda Armour Fentress Guion (some sources cite "Wendel Fentress" as Guion's middle names), was an accomplished singer and pianist. With a piano and pianist in the home, it did not take long for the parents to discover young David's musical propensity at age five. So they saw to it that he received an extensive musical education. In his teens, and perhaps before, David studied in San Angelo, Texas, with future musical and literary author Charles Finger. Starting at 14 he attended the Whipple Academy in Jacksonville, Illinois, then back to Texas at the Polytechnic College (now Texas Wesleyan University) in Fort Worth. After the 1912 death of his primary instructor at TPC, Wilbur MacDonald, Guion departed at age 19 to study in Vienna with Leopold Godowski at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Vienna, Austria. After a mere two years there, the political climate brought on by the beginning of The Great War (WWI) forced him to return home to Texas, where he started his musical career.
     Guion's first position was teaching piano and music at the Daniel Baker College (now Howard Payne University) in Brownwood, Texas. He also worked on composition as a sideline. In spite of his classical training, he knew that selling a viable composition at that time meant working in one of the popular idioms of the time. One of David's first publications was also one of the only ones in the ragtime idiom, although many of his later arrangements had the same roots that also gave birth to ragtime. Texas Fox Trot was radically different and more advanced than virtually any Texas ragtime for 1915 when it was composed, and actually most commercial ragtime from that time. With gentle yet percussive melodies it has stood on its own for a long time, and seen many recordings of it, including a fine piano roll by artist Muriel Pollock the year after the piece was published in 1917. His next composition was a fine song. Old Maid Blues, which saw proper service with singer Nora Bayes.
     It was also in 1918 that Guion turned to arrangements of tunes he had learned from the servants as a boy, but now in a studied and very musical manner. The introduction to a series of Darkey Spirituals for voice and piano reads, in part: "Darkey 'spirituals' are plantation-songs which had their origin for the most part in the camp-meetings and revivals of other days. Spontaneous in their birth, they were never conceived with any direct plan or form, and not until lately have they been perpetuated in a way that enables them to appeal directly to lovers of folk-songs." It goes on to explain Guion's qualifications as having grown up with these tunes and the folklore around them. Published by the respected G. Schirmer Company, these soon became the standard baseline arrangements by which the tunes were known. Guion added to this library with many fine religious and spiritual tunes of his own, starting a long song-writing collaboration with Marie Wardall, who married in the 1920s becoming Marie Lussi. Perhaps the most important early adaptation of all for Guion came in 1919 when he penned a challenging concert arrangement of the Zip Coon tune, known by fiddlers as Turkey in the Straw. In spite of a long-known rag arrangement by Otto Bonnell, Guion's arrangement made the tune quite popular again, and set a new standard for revitalizing older material.
     In 1920 Judge John Guion died. Having been on the board of directors at A&M College (now Texas A&M University) a hall was built and named in his honor. David is still listed as living in his parent's home in Ballinger, Texas. With the freedom of the income from his composing and arranging, he started pursuing broader interests, soon teaching at Southern University and other Dallas schools, then later at Chicago Musical College and in Estes Park, Colorado at a school there. While in Dallas he was married for a short period to Marian Ayers of Dallas in the 1920s. Among his more interesting but logical side interests was the rodeo. He was a fine rider, winning prizes at rodeos in Colorado and at the home of rodeo and frontier celebrations, Cheyenne, Wyoming. This may have worked as a two-way enhancement with his study and release of arrangements of cowboy songs as well.
     In 1929 Guion decided to move to the center of the publishing world, New York, where he formed a stronger association with the Schirmer organization. He soon found himself on stage at the Roxy Theater starring (as pianist) in a cowboy music show of his own concoction titled Prairie Echoes. In this show he was able to (re)introduce the public to an old cowboy piece he had first arranged in 1908 when he was but 15. Home on the Range soon became a different kind of standard tune, easily sung and soon highly recognizable. It was the ultimate cowboy song almost instantly, spurring composers like George Gershwin (Bidin' My Time) and Cole Porter (Don't Fence Me In) to come up with their own cowboy songs to cash in on the vogue. Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, later President of the U.S., proclaimed it as a favorite of his. This led to a series of radio shows in the early 1930s featuring Guion and his orchestra playing some of his fine adaptations (including an orchestration of Texas Fox Trot) across the U.S. via network hookups. This set in motion the era of the singing cowboys, paving the way for Gene Autry and Roy Rogers in the popular media, and providing a clearer path for groups like Sons of the Pioneers to get radio airplay.
     During his New York period Guion was writing material of his own as well, including cowboy songs, his own spirituals, and even a folk-opera with Wardall called Suzanne, incorporating a theme of Voodoo, some elements of which were reminiscent of Scott Joplin's Treemonisha. Another important piece was Shingandi, considered to be American primitivism, and successfully performed in 1931 by Paul Whiteman with orchestrations by the esteemed Ferdé Grofe. In 1933 it got its first performance as a full ballet, choreographed by Theodore Kosloff. While in Manhattan Guion also wrote a series of clever and poignant pieces with lyricist Jessie B. Rittenhouse who had worked with years before. The stay in the Empire State was short-lived, as he moved back to Dallas in 1932.
     The next productive period of the mid 1930s led to a commissioned show in 1936 called Cavalcade of Texas, part of the state's centennial, and parent of a hit tune (in Texas), My Cowboy Love Song. Later in the year Guion's beloved mother died. He was left dispirited to a degree, and did not produce a large volume work after 1936. Income from Home on the Range and other endeavors allowed him to purchase an estate in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, which he named after the song. Among his most significant works during this time was the Texas Suite, an orchestrated collection of famous Texan tunes and some new entries, commissioned in 1950 for the Houston Symphony Orchestra and completed in 1952. Guion also maintained active membership in ASCAP, the Texas Teacher's Association, and the Texas Teacher's Guild. In 1950, during a declaration in Texas of David Guion Week, Howard Payne University, where he had learned early on at its predecessor, gave him an honorary Doctorate of Music given his significant influence on young musicians in Texas colleges. Similar honors came from Southern Methodist University. In 1955 he received the honor of being named one of America's most significant folk music composers by the National Federation of Music Clubs. Pending construction of a dam near his house which condemned the property forced him to abandon his Home on the Range in 1965. He lived out his life in Dallas in his mother's home, highly regarded once again on his death in 1981.
     For ragtime musicians and fans David Guion's contribution should certainly extend beyond Texas Fox Trot, as he carried on the influence of pre-ragtime music forms by keeping them alive for future study. His link to these pieces, their rhythms, and their meanings, was almost direct given the environment he grew up with. His musical education allowed us a fairly accurate and scholarly look at these tunes as well. Some of the cowboy music also emerged from forms that shaped ragtime and musical forms of the 1920s and beyond.

William Christopher Handy (November 16, 1873 - March 28, 1958)
Compositions
1907 In the Cotton Fields of Dixie 1908 Mr. Crump [1] 1912 Memphis Blues 1913 Jogo Blues The Girl You Never Met [1] 1914 St. Louis Blues Yellow Dog [Rag] Blues 1915 Hesitating Blues Joe Turner Blues Shoeboot's Seranade 1916 Hail to the Spirit of Freedom Ole Miss Rag [w/Scott Joplin?] In the Land Where Cotton is King [1] 1917 Beale Street [Blues] Keep the Love Ties Binding     [w/J.P. Schofield] Thinking of Thee [1] The Hooking Cow Blues [w/Douglass     Williams] 1918 The Kaiser's Got The Blues [w/Dorner     Browne] 1919 Though We're Miles Apart [w/J. Russel     Robinson] 1920 Long Gone [2] The Rough Rocky Road 1921 Aunt Hagar's Children Blues [w/J.     Tim Brymn] Loveless Love	1922 John Henry Blues Southside Harlem Blues Aunt Hagar's Blues 1923 Sundown Blues Darktown Reveille [2] [w/Walter Hirsch] 1924 The Basement Blues Atlanta Blues The Chicago Gouge 1926 Golden Brown Blues [w/Langston     Hughes] 1929 Wall Street Blues [w/Margaret Gregory] 1932 Way Down South Where the Blues Began 1934 Opportunity 1935 Vesuvius [3] Friendless Blues [w/Mercedes Gilbert] 1937 East St. Louis Mozambique [w/Arthur Porter] I'm Tellin' You In Front (So You Won't     Feel Hurt Behind) [3] [w/Russell     Wooding] 1940 Black Patti [2] [w/Henry Troy] Remembered [w/Olive Lewis Handy &     Joe Jordan] Finis [3] 1951 The Big Stick Blues March [w/Charles L.     Cooke]    1. w/Harry Pace    2. w/Chris Smith    3. w/Andy Razaf

     Growing up in post-Civil War Alabama, the music of Black America and African heritage surrounded young Will Handy. He was born in a log cabin in Florence, Alabama, to Charles Bernard and Elizabeth Bewer Handy. Mr. Handy was the pastor of a small church near Florence, and had his son apprenticed in carpentry, shoemaking and plastering. After earning a little bit of money on the side, young Will brought home a guitar he had purchased, and his father immediately banned the "sinful thing" from the home. However, his parents were well enough off to get him music instruction, and after some failed organ lessons his first real instrument became the cornet. Much of his true musical desire and even his performance activities remained hidden from his parents.
     In his late teens Handy started touring the South with various troupes and shows. According to him, it was in 1892 in Mississippi that he had his first exposure to Delta Blues. Handy also obtained a teaching certificate in Birmingham, Alabama in 1892, and a teaching job in the same place. Poor wages, however, soon chased him off. His playing travels allowed him to perform at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He eventually took over one of the groups he traveled with in 1896, and built up a repertoire of light classics, cakewalks, and early rags. Most of their travels were in the Mississippi Delta area through the early 1900's. He was married around 1896 to Elizabeth V. Price, and they eventually had several children, including Lucille, Catherine, Elizabeth, William P. and Wyer. In 1900 he and Liz or Lizzie are shown in Alabama, and he lists his profession as musician. He had been traveling throughout the Midwest and South, and even to Cuba, but finally decided to stop the tiresome traveling for a while, settling with relatives back in Florence. This allowed him to teach music for a couple of years at the Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University. The family eventually migrated from Alabama to Mississippi where he taught for another six years, finally finding themselves in Memphis, Tennessee late in the decade.
     Although Handy called himself "the Father of the Blues," he did not invent the blues form. He was at least the third composer to use the term "blues" in a song title, preceded three weeks by Artie Matthews' arrangement of Baby Seals Blues. Handy's first blues piece was first put down in 1908 when he was commissioned to write a campaign song for the mayor of Memphis, Edward H. Crump. The song was published as Mr. Crump and went over well. When the blues was finally acknowledged as a publishable genre in 1912, Handy retooled the piece and published under the name Memphis Blues. This time it included "blue notes" (flatted thirds and sevenths) and a more definitive 12 bar blues section. The publication of this and other early pieces like the train oriented Yellow Dog Blues, started a veritable flood of blues-styled compositions. Mishandling of sales of the Memphis Blues also pushed him into publishing with a new partner, Harry H. Pace, and their firm stayed in business for eight years. (Pace would later leave to form Black Swan Records in 1920 in an effort to facilitate black artists recording black-composed pieces.)
     Handy's new fame put him in the forefront of blues presenters. His band made many recordings of his and other composers' compositions, and he even ran his own blues record label for a while. Even so, he occasionally criticized the format as being a "primitive music" that suffered from "disturbing monotony". But as long as the dollars kept rolling in, he kept on championing the genre. Handy's St. Louis Blues quickly became the standard by which other blues were measured, and his Beale Street Blues with mildly questionable lyrics was recorded by many early blues singers.
     By 1917, Handy, his wife and some of their children were living in Manhattan. On his WWI draft card he refers to himself as a music publisher. On the 1920 census he has changed this to music conductor. In 1926 he published his first book, Blues: An Anthology: Complete Words and Music of 53 Great Songs. This is considered the first analytical look at the genre, and a groundbreaking effort. In 1930, still in Manhattan, Handy listed himself as the manager of a music office, which could imply either publishing or theatrical, if not both. He had been involved with recording and consulting with early movie shorts that featured blues music, including the famous St. Louis Blues starring hard-living singer Bessie Smith.
     In the 1930's when the playing jobs started to disappear, W.C. Handy wrote his autobiography, Father of the Blues. Three other books also appeared, including a collection of Negro spirituals, Unsung Americans Sing (1944) including sketches of selected race musicians, and Negro Authors and Composers of the United States. On a 1938 Ripley's Believe It Or Not radio program, Handy's role was lauded as not only the father, but the inventor of the blues. This incensed one of it's listeners, Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, who knew better. In a letter that was sent to Ripley and later read on the air, Morton made it clear that it was more likely that HE introduced the blues, not to mention, jazz, to the world, but stopped short of claiming invention rights. In truth, no one man invented the genre, but both certainly spread it throughout the world. While not the originator of the blues, Handy was certainly its most effective spokesperson, and continued to promote the music form and push for its inclusion in the early 1900s American music vernacular.
     In the 1940s the Handys moved to Harlem. Sadly, in 1943, he suffered a fall from a subway platform which resulted in blindness. To compound things, Lizzie died within a few years. He remarried in 1954 to Irma Louis Logan who had been his personal secretary, and who had personally helped him through many of the issues of blindness. In his 80th year in 1955 Handy suffered a debilitating stroke that confined him to a wheelchair. He finally died of acute bronchial pneumonia at 84 years old. That same year a movie of his life, St. Louis Blues, was released starring Nat King Cole as Handy, as well as many other prominent black musicians of the time. His legacy will forever remain with us on a daily basis, as the influence of his blues can be felt and heard in Gospel, Country, R&B, and Rock and Roll music, all truly American music forms.