Park Foundation Music App
Home > Artists
Art Hickman's Orchestra
Early jazz-influenced dance orchestra founded by drummer [a=Art Hickman] in San Francisco, California. Hickman's band started out in 1913 as a six-piece outfit (trumpet, trombone, piano, 2 banjos, and drums) that played at the training camp for a baseball team, the San Francisco Seals. In 1915, they were hired to play at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco and in the St. Francis Hotel on Union Square, adding a violin and string bass. "Rose Room," the band's theme song from 1917, immortalizes the ball room in the St. Francis where the band performed. In 1919, Hickman added two saxophone players to the mix, [a=Clyde Doerr] and [a=Bert Ralton], thus creating an early reed section. In summer 1919, the band was hired to play the Biltmore Hotel in New York City. During several recordings sessions for [l=Columbia] in September 1919, they recorded 28 titles, including "Rose Room." All this led to an engagement with the "Ziegfeld Follies of 1920" (June 22, 1920 through October 16, 1920). Hickman's song from that revue, "Hold Me," became a hit. More [l=Columbia] recording sessions followed. They only dried up after January 1922. In June 1924, the orchestra cut half a dozen sides for [l=Victor] in Los Angeles, followed by several more recording sessions over the next couple of years. The band recorded its last two titles with Victor in April 1928 in New York's Liederkranz Hall. Personnel: [a=Art Hickman] on drums, piano, slide whistle [a=Walt Roesner] on trumpet [a=Fred Kaufman] on trombone [a=Clyde Doerr] on alto saxophone and baritone saxophone [a=Bert Ralton] on soprano and tenor saxophone, oboe, and English horn [a=Steve Douglas (9)] on violin [a=Frank Ellis] on piano [a=Ben Black] on plectrum banjo [a=Victor King (2)] on tenor banjo [a=Bela Spiller] on string bass and tuba Mark Mojica on banjo [a=Walter Beban] on saxophone others: Jess Fitzpatrick, Juan Ramos, [a=Roy Fox], Forrest Ray, Ed Fitzpatrick, [a=Dick Winfree], [a=Earl Burtnett], Dick Noolan, Hank Miller, [a=Louis Marcasie], Ray Hoback