Biography
Egbert VanAlstyne displayed remarkable musical talent from an early age, performing on the church organ when only seven years old and soon receiving a scholarship to Chicago Musical College, the distinguished institution devoted to European classical traditions. Circumstances and surroundings nevertheless steered him toward writing popular material that supplied the sheet-music trade with bestsellers and gave vaudeville performers a steady stream of timely numbers. Taking advantage of an emerging fashion in 1900, he produced “Ragtime Chimes,” whose distinctive ringing sonority later found countless imitators. Teaming with lyricist Harry H. Williams, he issued the novelty “Navajo” in 1903. The same partnership continued to explore ethnic comedy in 1904 with “Seminole,” another piece trading on Native American motifs, and “Back, Back, Back to Baltimore,” billed as a coon song. Their breakthrough arrived the following year with “In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree,” which moved several million copies of sheet music. Still drawn to the same “exotic” vein, VanAlstyne and Williams released “Cheyenne” in 1906 and followed it with “Won’t You Come Over to My House?” In 1907 they offered the comic “I’m Afraid to Come Home in the Dark” together with yet another “Indian” sketch titled “San Antonio.” The year 1908 brought “Rebecca,” “It Looks Like a Big Night Tonight,” and the seemingly anxious “I Used to Be Afraid to Go Home in the Dark, Now I’m Afraid to Go at All.” Maintaining his interest in syncopation, he introduced the “Honey Rag” in 1909. His principal success of 1910 was “What’s the Matter with Father?,” while 1911 saw both “Good Night Ladies” and “Oh, That Navajo Rag.” In 1912 he placed “Jamaica Jinger (A Hot Rag)” and “That Old Girl of Mine” on the market, titles that illustrate the twin impulses—hot and sentimental—pursued by most Tin Pan Alley writers of the period. “That Devil Rag,” issued in 1913, clearly belonged to the former category, whereas “Memories,” a polished favorite among society dance orchestras in 1915, belonged to the latter. VanAlstyne’s most notable link to early jazz came through his association with New Orleans pianist Tony Jackson on the melody of “Pretty Baby,” published in 1916 with words by Gus Kahn. The precise nature of his contribution remains unclear; in the cutthroat environment of music publishing, composer credits frequently masked minimal involvement. Whether VanAlstyne merely lent his name to assist Jackson, an African American musician facing the industry’s racial barriers, or whether the two men genuinely worked together on the song is impossible to determine. Even a surviving verdict from Jelly Roll Morton would likely intensify rather than settle the controversy. The composer’s later career produced only modest successes: “Your Eyes Have Told Me So” appeared in 1919 and “Beautiful Love” in 1931. Twenty years afterward Egbert VanAlstyne died in his native Chicago, IL, at the age of 69.