Max Kortlander

Last updated

Maximilian Joseph "Max" Kortlander (September 1, 1890 - October 11, 1961) was an American composer, arranger, and pianist. He is best known for his numerous piano rolls which he performed for QRS Music Technologies, Inc. [1] He often collaborated with fellow QRS pianist and composer, Pete Wendling. A song they wrote together in 1922, 'Whenever You're Lonesome (Just Telephone Me)' has become a jazz standard.

Contents

Life and career [2]

Max Kortlander was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1890 to parents Joseph and Elizabeth Kortlander. He attended the Oberlin College Conservatory after high school, and later the American Conservatory, in Chicago, Illinois. In 1914, he was hired by QRS and began writing his own compositions in 1917. His first songs were entitled 'The Ragtime Sailor Man' and 'Chicken Pranks'.

After moving to New York City, he wrote the hit song 'Tell Me' (1919), which was recorded by Al Jolson, one of the most popular singers of the time. It garnered total sales of up to $100,000. [1]

Kortlander worked closely with Pete Wendling after Wendling switched employment to QRS from Irving Berlin, Inc. Music Publishers. Their most successful collaboration, 'Whenever You're Lonesome (Just Telephone Me)' , was recorded by Billy Murray and Aileen Stanley. [3]

In 1928, he and Wendling wrote a theme for the popular cartoon, Felix the Cat. It was recorded by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. [3]

Kortlander married Jean Jones in 1911, and adopted a son, Stephen, at around 1917. They also adopted a daughter, also named Jean, in the early 20s. They divorced in 1931. He remarried in 1933 to Gertrude Begoon.

Also in 1931, due to sales declining for QRS piano rolls, caused by the increased popularity of radio, Kortlander bought the assets for them and continued them under the name 'Imperial Industrial Corporation'. He headed the new company until 1940, when he remerged it with QRS.

His composing output lessened in the 1930s, but he still saw his songs recorded by popular singers like Rudy Vallée and Tommy Dorsey. [3] His last composition was 'Something to Live For' (1940).

Piano rolls sales improved at the end of the Great Depression. Max Kortlander was in charge of QRS piano roll manufacturing until his death of a sudden heart attack in his office on October 11, 1961.

In 1981, Smithsonian Folkways released an album of recordings of Max Kortlander's piano roll stylings entitled 'The Piano Roll Artistry of Max Kortlander.' [4]

The original cutting machine used by Kortlander to cut piano rolls is on display at the QRS factory in Buffalo, New York. [1]

Selected piano rollography [4]

Selected Discography [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Gershwin</span> American composer and pianist (1898–1937)

George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and An American in Paris (1928), the songs "Swanee" (1919) and "Fascinating Rhythm" (1924), the jazz standards "Embraceable You" (1928) and "I Got Rhythm" (1930), and the opera Porgy and Bess (1935), which included the hit "Summertime".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Whiteman</span> American jazz musician and popular bandleader (1890–1967)

Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader, composer, orchestral director, and violinist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1929 in music</span> Overview of the events of 1929 in music

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1929.

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1932.

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1926.

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1919.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Russel Robinson</span> American pianist and composer

Joseph Russel Robinson was an American ragtime, dixieland, and blues pianist and composer. He was a member of the Original Dixieland Jass Band.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James P. Johnson</span> American pianist and composer

James Price Johnson was an American pianist and composer. A pioneer of stride piano, he was one of the most important pianists in the early era of recording, and like Jelly Roll Morton, one of the key figures in the evolution of ragtime into what was eventually called jazz. Johnson was a major influence on Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, Thelonious Monk, and Fats Waller, who was his student.

Pete Wendling was an American composer and pianist, born in New York City to German immigrants. He often collaborated with fellow QRS pianist and composer, Max Kortlander.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Somebody Loves Me</span> 1924 song by George Gershwin

"Somebody Loves Me" is a popular song, with music written by George Gershwin, and lyrics by Ballard MacDonald and Buddy DeSylva. The song was published in 1924 and featured in George White's Scandals of 1924.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russ Morgan</span> Musical artist

Russell Morgan was an American big band leader and arranger during the 1930s and 1940s. He was best known for being one of the composers of the song "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", with Larry Stock and James Cavanaugh, and was the first to record it in 1944.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fascinating Rhythm</span> Song composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin performed by Cliff Edwards

"Fascinating Rhythm" is a popular song written by George Gershwin in 1924 with lyrics by Ira Gershwin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">QRS Music Technologies</span>

QRS Music Technologies, Inc. is an American company that makes modern player pianos. It was founded as Q•R•S Music Company in 1900 to make piano rolls, the perforated rolls of paper read by player pianos to reproduce music. The company also produced shellac records in the 1920s and 1930s and radios beginning in the 1920s. Today, it makes modern, digital variations on the player piano and the recordings to drive them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George L. Cobb</span> American composer (1886–1942)

George Linus Cobb was an American composer. He composed over 200 pieces of music, including ragtime, marches, and waltzes. He also wrote columns for music trade publications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">April Showers (song)</span> 1921 popular song introduced by Al Jolson

"April Showers" is a 1921 popular song composed by Louis Silvers with lyrics by B. G. De Sylva.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">You're Driving Me Crazy</span> Song

"You’re Driving Me Crazy" is an American popular song composed by Walter Donaldson in 1930 and recorded the same year by Lee Morse, Rudy Vallée & His Connecticut Yankees and Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians.

Billboard Pop Memories is a series of compilation albums released by Rhino Records in 1994, each featuring ten hit recordings spanning a five- or ten-year period from the 1920s through the 1950s.

Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away)" is a song composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and Gus Kahn. It was introduced in 1929 by Ruby Keeler (as Dixie Dugan) in Florenz Ziegfeld's musical Show Girl. The stage performances were accompanied by the Duke Ellington Orchestra. On the show's opening night in Boston on June 25, 1929, Keeler's husband and popular singer Al Jolson suddenly stood up from his seat in the third row and sang a chorus of the song, much to the surprise of the audience and Gershwin himself. Jolson recorded the song a few days later on July 6, 1929, and his rendition rose to number nine on the charts of the day.

"Let's Put Out the Lights (and Go to Sleep)" is a popular song by Herman Hupfeld, published in 1932. It was introduced by Lili Damita in the Broadway revue George White's Music Hall Varieties (1932) with the initial title "(Let's) Turn Out the Lights and Go to Bed", and hit versions that year were by Rudy Vallée, Paul Whiteman (vocal by Red McKenzie) and Ben Bernie.

JAZZ: The Smithsonian Anthology is a six-CD, box-set released by Smithsonian Folkways that covers the history of jazz. The set includes 111 tracks with representative works from many styles, including big band, dixieland, free jazz, fusion, Latin jazz, swing, and smooth jazz. An accompanying 200-page book includes essays, analysis, and photographs.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "MAX KORTLANDER - KING OF THE PLAYER PIANO". www.doctorjazz.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
  2. ↑ http://ragpiano.com/comps/kortland.shtml
  3. 1 2 3 4 https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/mastertalent/detail/111335/Kortlander_Max
  4. 1 2 "Piano Roll Artistry of Max Kortlander". Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.