Ossman, Vess [Sylvester] L(ouis)

(b Hudson, NY, 21 Aug 1868; d Fairmount, MN, 7 Dec 1923). American ragtime banjoist. He began studying the banjo at the age of 12, and by 1896 was recording ragtime for Victor, Columbia, Berliner and Edison. He extended his popularity by accompanying Arthur Collins, a leading popular singer. He made concert tours of England in 1900 and 1903, when he played for Edward VII; he also performed for President Theodore Roosevelt. Ossman formed various recording groups, usually consisting of banjo, mandolin and harp-guitar. The most popular of these was the Ossman-Dudley Trio (with Audley Dudley, mandolin, and Roy Butin, harp-guitar); its recording of St Louis Tickle (1906, Vic.) was particularly successful. After 1910 Ossman preferred to travel with his groups away from the eastern recording centres, and made extended stays in both Indianapolis and Dayton, Ohio. He consequently recorded less frequently – his last disc was made in 1917 – and his position in the recording world passed to the banjoist Fred Van Eps. Ossman, however, was the leading ragtime banjoist at a time when the five-string banjo was preferred to the piano for recording purposes. He had an especially clean technique and a flair for syncopation, emphasizing strong two-step rhythms in his playing. One of his last and best recordings, his arrangement of Tom Turpin’s Buffalo Rag (1906), remained in the Victor catalogue until 1925.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

U. Walsh: ‘Sylvester Louis Ossman: the Banjo King’, Hobbies Magazine (1948), Sept, 32–3; (1948), Oct, 36–9; (1948), Nov, 31–32; (1949), Jan, 31–2; (1949), Feb, 34–5

D.A. Jasen: disc notes, Kings of the Ragtime Banjo, Yazoo 1044

D.A. Jasen: Recorded Ragtime, 1897–1958 (Hamden, CT, 1973)

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