Ernest L. Stevens on Edison 51086

[operabass78s]

Delightful salon piano solos on Edison 51086


Valse-Intermezzo
From "The Love Cure"
(Edmund Eysler)
http://www.box.net/shared/55g9xq710j


Artist's Reverie
Hesitation Waltz
(Georges Aubry)
http://www.box.net/shared/88fdl8iehh

Ernest L. Stevens, piano
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Ernest L. Stevens

December 15, 1893 - April 6, 1981

http://www.pianola.co.nz/artists/stevens.html

One of the busiest artists on the Edison phonograph label in the 1920's. Ernest L. Stevens obtained basic musical training from Howard Case, and studied the organ with Mark Andrews in Montclair, New Jersey.

The slender, brown haired Stevens, who stood at 5'8", was hired as Edison's personal pianist-arranger, playing for Mr. Edison songs that came in from all over the world so that Mr. Edison could select "appropriate" material for his recording artists. Stevens recorded extensively for Edison as a solo pianist, as a member of his own trio, and as leader of his own dance orchestra. He also taught piano and organ privately starting in 1929.

He made piano rolls for various companies, (around 1917 he was living in Delaware and arranging for the Rose Valley Co. of Philadelphia, who produced 'Ideal' brand rolls and also perforated rolls for other companies)

His hand-played ragtime rolls for Artempo, under his own name and the "Steve Williams" pseudonym, are highly regarded by collectors.