Hi all~ Just wanted to let you know, my partner actually found some info
on Rogers and it is quite interesting.  Apparently he was a virtuoso
cornetist of the old school, a younger contemporary of the much-more-famous
Herbert C.  Clarke.  He was so good that Clarke himself went out of his
way to hear his concerts!  Like Clarke, he was also a stellar member of
the Sousa Band, 1899-1904, but in 1907 he was hired by Victor's classical
A&R director, Emilio de Gogorza (himself a very fine and very musical
baritone who did not have a career because of his short stature and
terrible near- sightedness) to conduct some recording sessions for Victor.
This he did for about 14 years, and apparently his name was considered
enough of a draw to put it on the record labels of the time.

I know only too well that acoustic orchestral recordings of any type
are considered collector curiosities nowadays but, as I said, Rogers'
accompaniments are highly musical for their time.  Perhaps the finest
of them is the long introduction to the "Martha" quartet, "Siam giunto,
giovinette" with Alda, Jacoby, Caruso and Journet, in which he achieves
a beautiful (for an acoustic, anyway) orchestral blend, making the
orchestra sing (which he always did) and bringing out details, especially
in the winds, which bespeaks a good musician.  He also, apparently, sang
a bass line on a recording where the bass failed to show up for the
session, and after reading that I am now convinced that he also sings
the single word "Marguerite!" in the finale of the "Faust" Garden Scene
recording with Farrar and Journet--an unbilled voice that for some time
was thought to be Caruso himself singing from far back of the horn.  So,
let us give a small tip of the cap to this now-neglected musician who
brought a modicum of musical taste to recordings at a time when the usual
orchestral accompaniment sounded like a high school band scraping and
banging away (no offense to high school bands, I know they have improved
greatly since 1910!).

Sheila