Sold Date: December 4, 2020
Start Date: November 27, 2020
Final Price: $51.00 (USD)
Bid Count: 4
Seller Feedback: 4413
Buyer Feedback: 0

Seldom offered...this is a 7" Victor Record.....looks to be in very good condition, considering it's age.....one sided...very famous musician of that time period. ......  Shipping In the U.S. $6.00....combined shipping if you buy more then one record....
This historically important artist was part of a group of performers who made the first recordings of so-called ragtime music. He began recording in the early 1890s and was the dominant banjoist in the minds of the new record-buying public for at least a decade after that. His nickname "The Banjo King" was well-earned, and he continued recording through World War I. Although the widespread popularity of the composer Scott Joplin has led to a natural association between ragtime and the piano, in actuality, this instrument was extremely difficult to record properly with the equipment available in the early 1900s. As a result, many of these early ragtime performances were recordings of marching bands, vocalists, accordion, even xylophone and whistling, and, of course, the banjo, an instrument that records particularly well. Whistling but especially banjo was where Vess Ossman bested the rest and due to the efforts of the ragtime-mad label Archeaophone, many of these early discs can actually be appreciated via digital listening technology. The recordings by this artist that have been reissued by this company tend to be either solos or duets, but Ossman also worked in other contexts. He was involved in a series of recordings featuring various permutations of Vess Ossman's Banjo Orchestra for the Gennett label, cutting provocative titles such as "Paddle-Addle Fox Trot" or "Go To It Fox Trot." But actually, as far as provocative titles go, some of Ossman's might be a bit too much for more modern times. Despite the language used in their own recordings, it is hard to imagine black rap artists of the 21st century approving too highly of Ossman numbers such as "A Coon Band Contest," originally recorded in 1901, "Darkies Awakening," cut during the heavy social consciousness of 1904, or the worst one of all, "All Coons Look Alike to Me." President Theodore Roosevelt must have enjoyed Ossman's outlook, as legend has it that he invited the banjoist to perform at the White House several times. This remains in the realm of legend, however.