Sylvester Louis "Vess" Ossman (August 21, 1868 – December 7, 1923) was a leading five-string
banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin.
...
ist and popular recording artist of the early 20th century.
Biography
Sylvester Louis Ossman was born in
Hudson, New York, and made his first recordings in 1893.
He became one of the most recorded musicians of his day, recording
marches
In medieval Europe, a march or mark was, in broad terms, any kind of borderland, as opposed to a state's "heartland". More specifically, a march was a border between realms or a neutral buffer zone under joint control of two states in which diffe ...
,
cakewalks, and
rags. He also accompanied popular singers, such as
Arthur Collins and
Len Spencer.
Ossman married Eunice Smith and they had three children, Vess Jr., Raymond, and Annadele.
[Gracyk, Hoffmann 2000, p. 266.]
In 1900 and 1903, when Ossman's reputation and fame had spread internationally, he toured England and recorded. With the brothers Audley and George Dudley he performed in the Ossman-Dudley Trio.
He led his own dance band, the Ossman's Singing and Playing Orchestra, in
Dayton
Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...
, Ohio, and
Indianapolis
Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...
, Indiana. The increasing popularity of his rival
Fred Van Eps, after 1910, made Ossman's name appear less frequently in record company supplements. He temporarily ceased recording in 1913 but resumed in late 1915. In April 1917, he became a member of the Popular Talking Machine Artists, a group of unrelated musicians who toured as an act. By the early 1920s, he had left the touring act.
[Gracyk, Hoffmann 2000, p. 265.]
On December 14, 1917 he made his final recordings for
. He continued to travel with his dance orchestra, working in hotels throughout Midwest while living in Dayton with his family. In 1923, he joined B. F. Keith's Vaudeville houses on tour with his son, Vess Jr. At a theater show in Minneapolis, Ossman suffered a heart attack. He was brought to the hospital but soon returned to the show. Later, in
Fairmont, Minnesota, he suffered another heart attack, this time fatal, after his last performance on stage. He was buried in Valhalla Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.
[
Ossman played in what is now known as the classic banjo style. He fingerpicked gut strings using a technique similar to ]classical guitar
The classical guitar, also known as Spanish guitar, is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string (music), string instrument with strings made of catgut, gut or nylon, it is a precursor of the ...
ists.
His recordings include "St. Louis Tickle", "Yankee Doodle", "Rusty Rags", "Maple Leaf Rag", "Spaghetti Rag", "The Stars and Stripes Forever", "A Bit of Blarney", "My Irish Molly O", "A Gay Gosson", "Yankee Girl", "Bill Simmons", "Karama" and "Tell Me Pretty Maiden". His recordings also include ragtime-era coon songs, such as "A Coon Band Contest", "The Darkies' Awakening", and Ernest Hogan's " All Coons Look Alike to Me", which were popular at the time.
See also
* Vim Records
Notes
References
* Gracyk, Tim - Hoffmann, Frank W. (2000), ''Popular American Recording Pioneers, 1895-1925'', Routledge
* Heier, Uli; Lotz, Rainer E. (Eds.) (1993) ''The Banjo on Record - A Bio-Discography'', Greenwood Press,
External links
Collected Works of Vess L. Ossman
Downloadable recordings from archive.org
Vess Ossman cylinder recordings
from the UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive at the University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...
Library.
Vess Ossman recordings
at the Discography of American Historical Recordings
The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) is a database catalog of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. The 78rpm era was the time period in which any flat disc records were being played at ...
.
Audio recording of "Rusty Rags" at the Library of Congress jukebox
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ossman, Vess
1868 births
1923 deaths
American classic-fingerstyle banjoists
Musicians from Dayton, Ohio
Pioneer recording artists
Edison Records artists