Charles Adams Prince (December 27, 1868; October 08, 1937) was an American

conductor Conductor or conduction may refer to: Biology and medicine * Bone conduction, the conduction of sound to the inner ear * Conduction aphasia, a language disorder Mathematics * Conductor (ring theory) * Conductor of an abelian variety * Cond ...

bandleader A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a dance band, rock or pop band or jazz quartet. The term is most commonly used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhyth ...

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

and

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

known for conducting the Columbia Orchestra and, later, Prince's Band and Orchestra.''Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound'', p. 860. He made his first recordings, as a pianist, in 1891 for the New York Phonograph Company. Later in the 1890s he worked as a musical director for

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

. He also conducted the Columbia Orchestra and Columbia Band starting in 1904 as the successor of the cornetist Tom Clark. In 1905, Prince assembled the ensembles Prince's Band, Prince's Orchestra, and the Banda Espanola. They principally recorded for Columbia's disc releases and performed much of the same music as the Columbia Band, which was given over for cylinder recording to the veteran flutist and conductor George Schweinfest. Prince's own composition, "The Barbary Rag", was recorded by the band in 1913. Prince's Band was the first to record many compositions that became

jazz standards Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive List ...

. Their version of

W. C. Handy William Christopher Handy (November 16, 1873 – March 28, 1958) was an American composer and musician who referred to himself as the Father of the Blues. He was one of the most influential songwriters in the United States. One of many musician ...

's " Saint Louis Blues" in 1915 is the first known recording of the song. It took the band two sessions to record a successful take, which was considered unusual considering the talent of the band and its leader. Another song by Handy, "

The Memphis Blues "The Memphis Blues" is a song described by its composer, W. C. Handy, as a "southern rag". It was self-published by Handy in September 1912 and has been recorded by many artists over the years. "Mr. Crump" Subtitled "Mr. Crump", "The Memphis ...

", was recorded by Prince's Band in 1914, a week after its first recording by the Victor Military Band. Other standards introduced by the band are Porter Steele's "

High Society High society, sometimes simply Society, is the behavior and lifestyle of people with the highest levels of wealth, power, fame and social status. It includes their related affiliations, social events and practices. Upscale social clubs were open ...

" (1911) and

Lew Pollack Lew Pollack (June 16, 1895 – January 18, 1946) was an American song composer and musician active during the 1920s and the 1930s. Career Pollack was born in New York City, where he went to DeWitt Clinton High School and was active as a boy sopra ...

and

Ray Gilbert Ray Gilbert (September 5, 1912 – March 3, 1976) was an American lyricist. He grew up in Hartford, Connecticut. He married Janis Paige in 1962. Career Gilbert is best remembered for the lyrics to the Oscar-winning song "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" from ...

's " That's a Plenty" (1914). His band also played the popular instrumental " Too Much Mustard" released by Columbia and

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...

's Oxford Records. Prince recorded as a solo celeste player under the name Charles Adams. As such, his recording of " Silver Threads Among the Gold" was popular. At Columbia, Prince also showed initiative in expanding the company's "classical" orchestral catalogue and in experimenting with the size of ensembles that acoustic recording equipment could capture. In October 1910 he conducted an abbreviated version of

Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; ; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a List of compositions ...

's ''Symphony No. 8 in B Minor'', popularly known as the ''

Unfinished Symphony An unfinished symphony is a fragment of a symphony that is left incomplete. The reason as of why and the state of the sketches themselves can vary considerably. The death of the composer is the most common cause for a symphony to be left unfi ...

'', on two sides of a 12-inch disc (released as Columbia A 5267), which was the first orchestral recording of any part of a symphony. He assembled a 90-piece orchestra to record the overture to

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

's opera ''

Rienzi ' (''Rienzi, the last of the tribunes''; WWV 49) is an 1842 opera by Richard Wagner in five acts, with the libretto written by the composer after Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel of the same name (1835). The title is commonly shortened to ''Rienzi' ...

'' in February 1917 (released as Columbia A 6006), which was the largest ensemble commercially recorded to that date. Prince's last recording for Columbia was in 1922. He then changed labels to Puritan Records and later to

Victor Records The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer, incorporated in 1901. Victor was an independent enterprise until 1929 when it was purchased by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and became ...

, where he worked as associate musical director. Prince was related to the U.S. presidents

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...

and

John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was the sixth president of the United States, serving from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States secretary of state from 1817 to 1825. During his long diploma ...

References

* Brooks, Tim; Spottswood, Richard Keith (2004). ''Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890–1919''.

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

Press. . *Crawford, Richard; Magee, Jeffrey (1992). ''Jazz Standards on Record, 1900–1942: A Core Repertory''. Center for Black Music Research. . *Hoffmann, Frank W.; Ferstler, Howard (2005). ''Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound''. CRC Press. . *Jasen, David A. (2007). ''Ragtime: An Encyclopedia, Discography, and Sheetography''. CRC Press. .

External links

*
Charles Adams Prince 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 ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Prince, Charles A. 1869 births 1937 deaths American bandleaders Columbia Records artists