Biography
In the sphere of pioneering sound recordings, Will Oakland earned recognition as a leading countertenor alongside the somewhat earlier singer Richard Jose. Barbershop quartet singing reached peak popularity in the years right after 1900, during which Oakland served not merely as a favored soloist but also as the uppermost voice of the Heidelberg Quintet, a standout ensemble that cut sides for Victor and Edison between 1912 and 1914.
Born Herman Hinrichs in Jersey City to parents who had emigrated from Hamburg, Germany, Oakland reached adulthood and chose to join the U.S. Army. Following his discharge near 1905, he entered the George Primrose Minstrels in Rochester, NY, where Primrose urged him to adopt the stage name Will Oakland. After roughly two years with that company, he devoted another two to the celebrated minstrel organization directed by Lew Dockstader. At the same time, Thomas Edison sought a countertenor or falsetto singer for his catalog in answer to listener requests for strong high-voiced performances. His representatives located Oakland performing with the Dockstader troupe and contracted him beginning in the summer of 1908. Victor soon followed suit by engaging Oakland as well, with both labels occasionally adding a chorus of male voices to offset his elevated register.
One such ensemble was the established American Quartet, whose members were Billy Murray, John Bieling, Steve Porter, and William F. Hooley. When Oakland joined them the unit performed as the Heidelberg Quintet and issued recordings under that title for both Victor and Edison. The group’s most memorable work featured ragtime pieces and other engaging novelties scored by composer George L. Botsford. Oakland’s centrality was underscored on the earliest pressings, where his name appeared separately. The Heidelberg Quintet concluded its sessions in November 1914, after which Oakland remained a steady recording artist only until 1916, though he produced scattered discs for Edison, Canadian Victor, Okeh, and Columbia as late as 1926.
By the 1930s he had withdrawn from the studios yet persisted as a live performer and formed a friendship with Ulysses “Jim” Walsh, an early researcher who contributed articles on pioneer recording artists to Hobbies magazine. Walsh prized Oakland’s counsel and recollections, and in the 1950s the singer experienced a modest resurgence that included a self-produced LP reissue of his earlier material plus an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Not long before his death in 1956, Oakland cut a promotional disc titled The Hi-Fi Minstrel Man, thereby joining the small circle of artists whose careers bridged acoustic cylinders and the magnetic-tape era—albeit solely through this single electrically recorded item.
Born Herman Hinrichs in Jersey City to parents who had emigrated from Hamburg, Germany, Oakland reached adulthood and chose to join the U.S. Army. Following his discharge near 1905, he entered the George Primrose Minstrels in Rochester, NY, where Primrose urged him to adopt the stage name Will Oakland. After roughly two years with that company, he devoted another two to the celebrated minstrel organization directed by Lew Dockstader. At the same time, Thomas Edison sought a countertenor or falsetto singer for his catalog in answer to listener requests for strong high-voiced performances. His representatives located Oakland performing with the Dockstader troupe and contracted him beginning in the summer of 1908. Victor soon followed suit by engaging Oakland as well, with both labels occasionally adding a chorus of male voices to offset his elevated register.
One such ensemble was the established American Quartet, whose members were Billy Murray, John Bieling, Steve Porter, and William F. Hooley. When Oakland joined them the unit performed as the Heidelberg Quintet and issued recordings under that title for both Victor and Edison. The group’s most memorable work featured ragtime pieces and other engaging novelties scored by composer George L. Botsford. Oakland’s centrality was underscored on the earliest pressings, where his name appeared separately. The Heidelberg Quintet concluded its sessions in November 1914, after which Oakland remained a steady recording artist only until 1916, though he produced scattered discs for Edison, Canadian Victor, Okeh, and Columbia as late as 1926.
By the 1930s he had withdrawn from the studios yet persisted as a live performer and formed a friendship with Ulysses “Jim” Walsh, an early researcher who contributed articles on pioneer recording artists to Hobbies magazine. Walsh prized Oakland’s counsel and recollections, and in the 1950s the singer experienced a modest resurgence that included a self-produced LP reissue of his earlier material plus an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Not long before his death in 1956, Oakland cut a promotional disc titled The Hi-Fi Minstrel Man, thereby joining the small circle of artists whose careers bridged acoustic cylinders and the magnetic-tape era—albeit solely through this single electrically recorded item.
Singles
