Hi Roger (you can be my pen pal any day of the week)

Harry Reser...up there with Ossman and Van Epps? You bet yer toad in the hole he is! Course remember they played Five string and Harry played Plectrum banjo usually. (Plectrum has a long neck and is tuned to an open G chord, rather than in fifths like the tenor)

He was lightening fast, a huge vaudeville star and I guess is rarely mentioned in jazz circles, because what banjo player is? They mention Eddie Condon 'cause he was a historian. Lonnie Donnegan 'cause he became famous WITHOUT the banjo. Eddie Lang for the same reason and Eddie Peabody 'cause he had Xmas lights on his banjo! Louis St Cyr and Danny Barker get mentioned (6 string banjoists) 'cause of their association with Satchmo. Oh and only three people in the universe besides us know who Vess Ossman was.

Harry spent the last 20 years of his life as a broadway "pit musician" and croaked during Hello Dolly (or something) with guitar (no banjo by then) in hand.

Rick