3. Discs. Few piano solo recordings were available at the turn of the century. Eldridge Johnson’s “Improved Gram-o-phone
” catalog (the predecessor of Victor) listed only three, all recorded in 1900: A Cork Dance (#A407), composed and played by Arthur Pryor (famous as a trombonist and bandmaster rather than as a pianist); Hello Ma Baby (#A402), an original fantasie by Frank P. Banta, Sr.; and Variations on the Mariner’s Hymn, played by the composer C.H.H...
