James: The Other Hager Brother

In this column, I often speak of the studio pianists that were the driving force on thousands of records made from 1889 to 1925. Perhaps an equally important aspect to many records of this period would be the drums. We know of Eddie King as the iron-fisted drummer and later studio manager for Bix Beiderbecke, but King was not the only interesting musician there at the back of the orchestra on all those records. Eddie King joined Fred Hager’s orchestra around 1904, quite later on in Hager’s bandleading career. Hager clearly must have had a percussionist before King, and he did. Hager’s drummer was his own younger brother James. The record folks called him Jimmy, and that name stuck for many years. James Alexander Hager was born in February of 1882, nearly eight years after his brother Fred. James was the youngest of the Hagers and seemed behind his more successful and older siblings. Fred and his two sisters Lena and Georgiana were beloved by all, but from a young age, it was clear James was the black sheep. Fred had shown musical talent from before age 10, and around age 17 he got a full scholarship to the New York Conservatory, leaving James and the sisters behind. Little is known about James, though it is likely that his talent on percussion was more innate and natural than brother Fred’s violin playing. Th