Upright and Grand: Novelty Piano Solos (1923-1930) Barbershop largely set in the fictional

largely set in the fictional German town of Wisborg in 1838

at sixteen years old

his tone itself -- all would echo far downstream in the course of jazz history

Ophelia Rag

Upright and Grand: Novelty Piano Solos (1923-1930) Barbershop largely set in the fictionalAmong those familiar with post ragtime pre swing "novelty" piano playing, that somewhat nebulous hybrid of classical and jazz styles, certain names invariably stand out from the rest. Whether on record, in concert, or in sheet music form, there are some pianists whose virtuosity and imagination thoroughly define the idiom. Frank Edgar Banta (1897 1968) has long been recognized as one of the master novelty pianists of the 1920s. Banta was born into a