Art Hickman's Orchestra

Early jazz-influenced dance orchestra founded by drummer 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, Clyde Doerr and 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 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 Columbia recording sessions followed. They only dried up after January 1922. In June 1924, the orchestra cut half a dozen sides for Columbia 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:
Art Hickman on drums, piano, slide whistle
Walt Roesner on trumpet
Fred Kaufman on trombone
Clyde Doerr on alto saxophone and baritone saxophone
Bert Ralton on soprano and tenor saxophone, oboe, and English horn
Steve Douglas on violin
Frank Ellis on piano
Ben Black on plectrum banjo
Victor King on tenor banjo
Bela Spiller on string bass and tuba
Mark Mojica on banjo
Walter Beban on saxophone
others: Jess Fitzpatrick, Juan Ramos, Roy Fox, Forrest Ray, Ed Fitzpatrick, Dick Winfree, Earl Burtnett, Dick Noolan, Hank Miller, Louis Marcasie, Ray Hoback