Historically, many of us have been told that recording the piano in the acoustic era (before 1925) was extremely difficult, and that because of this solos weren’t often made or sold. While some of this was true, it can easily be proven as a much more complicated issue. The piano was one of the first instruments to be recorded commercially, so perfecting this was essential. There is a lot of debate surrounding this topic, so it is fascinating to explore.
Some of the first piano solos to be recorded in the United States were done by Edward Issler and George Schweinfest in 1888 and 1889. Edison’s first book of recording ledgers from this time still exist to this day and can be read online. There are hundreds of pages of handwritten logs, containing names and titles for many recording sessions. Among the first of these are by Issler and Schweinfest. Here and there the two of them are listed separately as doing solos, but there are some that indicate they were recording duets as well.
On December 20th of 1889, Issler and Schweinfest recorded nine piano duets. It is not clear however how these were done, on a single piano, or two. These were likely experimental, as there were only two sessions that these were done. To this day none have surfaced yet, but they would undoubtedly be fascinating to hear. Other piano solos exist within this book as well, but they are done by pianists who are largely unknown to us today and didn’t make many more records after that time.
Piano solos were recorded throughout the 1890s, but they are vanishingly rare. The next significant block of piano solos were done on Berliner starting when the operation moved to the United states in 1894. One of Berliner’s first hires was Fred Gaisberg. He was already in the Washington DC area at the time working for Columbia, so it only made sense that old man Berliner would recruit him. He was the first pianist at Berliner, and according to his own accounts, the only one there for at least a year and a half.
During his exclusive time there as accompanist, he made several piano solos that remain a source of interest for music historians. These included curious titles like “Danse Unique” and “Little Kicker.” Some are unusually syncopated for the time; Gaisberg claimed he understood syncopation very well, though his playing proves his claim not very true. Despite the often messy quality of the playing, the quality of the recordings is impressive. Upon listening to some of these, you would never guess that they were acoustic. The reason for their stunning sound quality is that, instead of horns, Berliner used tubes with muzzles on the ends to capture the sounds.
Berliner not only recorded a few rather experimental piano solos, but they actually had an ongoing number block in their catalog dedicated to them. The number block went from 250 to about 300; as of now only a few have been documented. These records, like many early Berliner numbers, are difficult to track, and many of them are labeled as anonymous pianists, adding to the difficulty. There were at least four different pianists credited throughout this block, including Gaisberg, Noble McDonald, C.H.H. Booth, and possibly Frank P. Banta. This block was used from 1893 until 1898, after that no more documented piano solos were made for Berliner, but the concept of recording piano soloists did not disappear yet.
At Berliner’s successor, Victor, recording pianists resumed, with several records being made at the company’s beginning in 1900. The first of these was by Frank P. Banta. Banta made a solo of “Hello, My Baby,” and, if found, would likely be the first official ragtime piano solo recorded. Later on the same day, Arthur Pryor made a piano solo as well. These records were certainly not experimental, as several hundred copies of each were sold. They also were recorded extremely well (based on the sound of the surviving Pryor record), and sound almost as good as the Berliner solos. The next Victor piano solos were by Jacob Silberberg, an accompanist who was famous for working with Ruby Brooks and Vess Ossman. Silberberg’s solos were not commercially released. Even though this is the case, a white-labeled Victor test pressing of one could very well exist somewhere.
Piano solos were scattered about in recording before 1905; one of the most famous of these was Frank P. Banta’s “Violets.” He made this record just a few months before his death in 1903. Unfortunately it was his death that prompted Edison to release it. It was well known and mentioned by many who knew him later in life, as it was the only thing many had to remember him by, including his son Frank Edgar.
By the 1910s, piano solos were even more spotty in recording, as the overall quality of recording them had unusually decreased. The sound of Mike Bernard’s 1912 Columbia solos compared to that of the Berliners is primitive. The Bernard records are historically important, but the quality of them is much muffled and dense, in ways that the earlier solos were not. They sound much more distant and not intimate in the way the Berliners do. Most piano solos of the decade sound like this. The mass manufacturing that was in full force by this time did negatively impact some of the sound quality of all recordings, not just that of piano solos. Thankfully, a lot of this changed for the better by the end of the decade.
By 1921, piano solos were much more important to companies but also to record buyers. It was at this time that accompanists and soloists were finally given their due credit on labels and in catalogs. Much of this had to do with Okeh. At the beginning, Okeh was a very generic and uninteresting company, but soon the hired some young staff who had more modern ideas about music and recording. Thankfully, the company had Justin Ring from the start.
Ring was likely part of the reason that James P. Johnson and Fats Waller made their first records for the company in 1921, the most famous being of course Johnson’s “Carolina Shout.” Upon hearing “Carolina Shout,” it is clear that piano solos and soloists had come back to the forefront—the quality is impeccable. It booms with life and swing. It is because of this recording that the piece is still widely played over a century later. It was also in that same year that Okeh recorded the famous alleged “inventor of the boogie woogie bass” George Thomas. This recording is also incredibly well done and worth a listen for its content, Boogie woogie historians use it to indicate the earliest recording of its genre.
By the electric era, piano solos were much more common, both for popular and classical recordings. The subtle expertise of capturing piano sound onto wax via horn became obsolete overnight. The microphone was now king.
