Popular American Recording Pioneers, 1895-1925 (review)

Abstract

Popular American Recording Pioneers is a biographical encyclopedia of the most popular performers on record from the turn of the twentieth century to the end of the acoustic era in the mid-twenties. Tim Gracyk and Frank Hoffmann's book fills an important gap in reference collections that have long had good books on opera singers and jazz and blues artists, but not on early recorded popular music. The volume has sixty-five entries ranging in length from two to over ten pages. It is not comprehensive --thousands of performers were recorded in this period--but it does cover the names that turn up most frequently on 78-rpm recordings, including artists such as Henry Burr, Collins and Harlan, Billy Golden, Ada Jones, Billy Murray, Frank C. Stanley, and Cal Stewart; also covered are some of the popular instrumental groups such as the Peerless Quartet and the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. Dozens of other artists and groups could have been included--the vocal quartets of the era could fill an encyclopedia in themselves--but this book is a thorough and well-documented tool covering many of the familiar and important names of the day.