
Van Eps - Banta Trio "KIRMANSHAH" (1919) Composed by Claypoole-Eastwood Oriental One-Step, Banjo, piano and Saxophone Symphonola 437 This is a re-posting with improved audio. Personnel: Fred Van Eps - banjo Nathan Glantz - saxophone Frank Banta - piano The Symphonola label was produced by Emerson between 1919 and 1920 for the Larkin Company department store, Buffalo New York. Symphonola was also the name of a "Victrola-like" record player sold by the Larkin Company. This record is nine inch in diameter unlike the usual 10 inch 78 rpm disk. They also sold a player piano under the same name. Five-string banjo virtuoso Fred Van Eps performed Chopin for Segovia at a private gathering, but the public considered him a ragtime player on records. The banjo was especially suited to the acoustic process of recording, for its pinging strings provided adequate power to cut a deep groove in the master disc. Van Eps finger-syle playing of the five-string banjo is different than the strumming style popular in the 1920 jazz orchestras. It simply was not loud enough to be heard in the theatre, thus the five-string was gradually replaced by the four-string tenor banjo, designed to be played loud with a pick on metal strings.
Fred Van Eps
Nathan Glantz
Frank Banta
Kirmanshah
banjo
saxophone
piano
banta trio
symphonola
437
ragtime
78rpm
1919
oriental
one-step
jazz
syncopation