Ossman and Published Music.

[Joel Hooks]

We often discuss deviations from the published score. It has a strange stigma as some banjoists seem to think that there is a collective "must stick to the score" among the classic banjo hobby. 

I've been clear on my views on this-- study the score and understand what the composer intended, then make it your own. 

In the last batch of sheet music I acquired there was a "Spanish" piece that stood out to me and I've been playing around with off and on.

"In Old Madrid" by George Lansing, published by Gatcomb. 

https://archive.org/details/in-old-madrid-bolero-george-l.-lansing 

I came across a recording of Ossman playing this piece which I did not know he recorded. 

The recording is very hissy and poppy.  But it is interesting how Ossman dressed up the piece with tremolo. 

https://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/detail.php?query_type=mms_id&...

[Joel Hooks]

Okay, it turns out that “In Old Madrid” was a popular song and Ossman likely made his own arrangement… but still.

[Jody Stecher]

Another reason to make it one's own: I have yet to see a published printed (as opposed to manuscript) alleged transcription of Ossman's arrangements that accurately represents what he actually recorded. Of course I have not heard everything he recorded—maybe someone has (?) — because back in the cylinder days and early disc days too, I think, he kept coming back to the record company to record yet another rendition of a good seller, which then would be released with the same serial number as the previous version(s). Just the fact that one can easily find differing versions of the same pieces all played by Vess Ossman indicates that he was not literal minded about written scores. 

[Joel Hooks]

Right.

That said, some time ago I fooled around with trying to write out his recording of "Baystate Quickstep" by Ike Browne.  I got it to where I was pretty proud, then I came across the attached, which not only was 99% exactly what I had written out but also answered some questions I had about it.  His recording follows this pretty closely.

Favorite%20or%20Bay%20State%20Quickstep%20Vess%20Ossman.pdf