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Lou Chiha
"Friscoe"
b. Chicago 1893
Photo reproduced from 1925 Leedy Xylophones and Marimbas
catalog. Gerhardt Collection
Just
before World War I, a new group of xylophone players
joined the Edison line-up to replace Charles Daab who
had been with the company since 1910. Lou Chiha “Friscoe”
was one of the new generation of recording and concert
artists who arrived in 1916 and remained wiht Edison
until 1926.
His
first recording on disc contained two unaccompanied
xylophone solos, both played with four mallets, Silver
Threads Among the Gold (#50342) with Sextet from
“Lucia di Lammermoor” on the reverse.
The PAS Gerhardt Collection also includes two xylophone
solos by “Friscoe” on the Emerson label –
a two-sided 7” disc recording of I Don’t
Know Where I’m Going and Peacock Strut
(#7245).
“Friscoe” made twelve xylophone records for
Edison, and while he was there, he also participated
in the famous tone-tests, in which live performances
were compared with recordings in the presence of audiences.
An advertisement for “The New Edison: The Phonograph
with a Soul” (September 4, 1920) describes the
spectacle:
Vaudeville’s
Strangest Thrill – Meet Signor Friscoe, xylophone
artist extraordinary – and vaudeville’s newest
purveyor of magic. Meet the New Edison – his chief
“magic.” Signor Friscoe comes on to the stage
and plays. His agile hammers ripple merrily over the
xylophone keys. Suddenly Signor Friscoe holds his hammers
poised in mid-air. But his xylophone performance continues
– as if some magic influence were at work upon
the keys. Then the curtains part. The audience gasps.
The New Edison stands revealed. It has been matching
Signor Friscoe’s performance so perfectly that
its Re-Creation could not be distinguished from his
original performance.
Photos
reproduced from "The New Edison, 'The Phonograph
with a Soul.'" 1920. Gerhardt Collection
Photo
reproduced from Composers and Artists whose Art is
Re-Created by Edison's New Art (c. 1920), Thomas
A. Edison, Inc. Gerhardt Collection
This
information is taken from William Cahn, The Xylophone
in Acoustic Recordings (1877 to 1929). Bloomfield,
NY: Cahn Publishing, 1996.
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