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Early QRS Artist Identification
By Rob DeLand

Marshall Jose asked about the pianist for QRS 100099, "Cecile -- 
Hesitation". My records show the pianist was Ashley M. Ballou, who 
also recorded QRS 100093, 100100-100102 and 100111 -- and that's all. 

I found a record for him at DAHR [Discography of American Historical 
Recordings]:

https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/mastertalent/detail/302706/Ballou_Ashley 

He can also be found on a few of those "find a grave" sites, 
although it's difficult to say whether it's the same person.

If DAHR is correct (which it usually is) then he composed a tune 
that Arthur Pryor's band recorded for Victor in 1906. This was 
pretty early in QRS's hand-played roll years, and they mostly relied 
on a fairly small (mostly) in-house staff for roll production (for 
example, Lee S. Roberts, Felix Arndt, Joe Collins) plus a number of 
guest artists, including early ragtime composers like Fred Heltman 
and Egbert Van Alstyne. Nice find!

For what it's worth I have QRS 100100, "Hesitation Medley -- for 
Dancing" which includes 3 tunes. I'm not near my collection at the
moment so I can't confirm I have the same signature, but I would 
expect my label and "signature" to match yours pretty closely.

Rob DeLand


(Message sent Tue 22 Mar 2022, 19:04:58 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.)

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