Biography
Vess Ossman belonged to the circle of musicians who produced the earliest known recordings of ragtime. He entered the studio in the first years of the 1890s and remained the leading banjo player in the estimation of record purchasers for more than ten years. The title “The Banjo King” accurately reflected his standing, and he kept making records until the close of World War I. Although Scott Joplin’s fame has tied ragtime to the piano in popular memory, that instrument proved especially troublesome to capture with the acoustic equipment of the opening decade of the twentieth century. Consequently, many surviving ragtime documents feature marching bands, singers, accordion, xylophone, whistling, and, above all, banjo—an instrument whose sound transferred cleanly to wax. Ossman stood out among his peers in both whistling and banjo performance. Thanks to the reissue program of Archeophone Records, many of these cylinders and discs are now accessible in digital formats. The sides the label has returned to circulation are mainly solo and duet performances, yet Ossman also recorded in larger settings. For Gennett he led various lineups under the name Vess Ossman’s Banjo Orchestra, producing numbers such as “Paddle-Addle Fox Trot” and “Go To It Fox Trot.” Some of his other titles, however, contain language that later generations find unacceptable, including “A Coon Band Contest” from 1901, “Darkies Awakening” from 1904, and “All Coons Look Alike to Me.” According to longstanding anecdote, President Theodore Roosevelt invited the banjoist to the White House on multiple occasions, although the White House Historical Society has found no documentation to support the claim.
Born Sylvester Ossman, he later traveled to England and played for the king. By that time he had already appeared before countless live audiences. Before sound recording existed, sheet-music publishers relied on traveling musicians to popularize new songs; Ossman was among those who toured rural areas and performed at public events. The large repertory he assembled enabled him to cut hundreds, possibly thousands, of titles once cylinders and 78-rpm discs became available. He also joined a traveling company of early recording artists assembled by singer Henry Burr, who ultimately produced an even greater number of records. Ossman’s historical significance extends beyond his ragtime work: he was the first musician to record for the Victor label and is credited with the first recording of a John Philip Sousa composition, specifically “The Washington Post March.” Nevertheless, neither he nor Fred Van Eps was the earliest banjoist to enter a recording studio; that distinction belongs to Carrie Cochrane of Buffalo, New York, who made test recordings for Thomas A. Edison in 1889. It is Ossman, not Cochrane, who appears on the “Songs of the Century” list issued in 2000 by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. His version of “Yankee Doodle” occupies the seventieth position, placed between W. C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues” and the Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin’.”
Born Sylvester Ossman, he later traveled to England and played for the king. By that time he had already appeared before countless live audiences. Before sound recording existed, sheet-music publishers relied on traveling musicians to popularize new songs; Ossman was among those who toured rural areas and performed at public events. The large repertory he assembled enabled him to cut hundreds, possibly thousands, of titles once cylinders and 78-rpm discs became available. He also joined a traveling company of early recording artists assembled by singer Henry Burr, who ultimately produced an even greater number of records. Ossman’s historical significance extends beyond his ragtime work: he was the first musician to record for the Victor label and is credited with the first recording of a John Philip Sousa composition, specifically “The Washington Post March.” Nevertheless, neither he nor Fred Van Eps was the earliest banjoist to enter a recording studio; that distinction belongs to Carrie Cochrane of Buffalo, New York, who made test recordings for Thomas A. Edison in 1889. It is Ossman, not Cochrane, who appears on the “Songs of the Century” list issued in 2000 by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. His version of “Yankee Doodle” occupies the seventieth position, placed between W. C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues” and the Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin’.”
Singles
