The Pipering of Willie Clancy Vol.2

Willie Clancy: 1918-1973
Willie Clancy was an iconic figure in the revival of the uillinn pipes and traditional music from the 1960s onwards. His father Gilbert played flute and concertina and had known and listened to legendary blind travelling Clare piper Garrett Barry. Willie played his first tin whistle at five years. He was also influenced by his grandmother, who had a keen ear for music. Like his good friend Junior Crehan, he was also influenced by the west Clare style of fiddler Scully Casey from nearby Annagh.

"Willie Clancy possessed amazing talents -whistle player, flute player, singer , storyteller, philosopher and wit. He was particularly known for his mastery of that most complex of wind instruments - the Uilleann Pipes.

Born on Christmas Eve, 1918, Willie grew up in an atmosphere of music, singing and storytelling. Both his parents, Ellen and Gilbert, sang and played instruments. Willie started playing the whistle at the age of five. He was greatly influenced by his grandmother, by his father and by Garrett Barry, the legendary blind piper from Inagh. Garrett Barry died in the workhouse in Ennistymon at the close of the nineteenth century. His piping style was passed on to Willie by his father Gilbert. Willie was aware that Garrett Barry possessed a heritage of music unique to himself. The music of Garrett Barry is known and cherished today because of Willies determination to pass on this treasure. (See image below.)

Willie was seventeen years old when he encountered the great travelling piper, Johnny Doran. By the early Forties Willie had mastered the basic piping techniques and in 1947 he won first prize at the Oireachtas competition.

Unfortunately, he could not make a living from his music and he was forced to emigrate to London, where he worked as a carpenter. While there, he continued with his music and made contact with other notable players, including Seamus Ennis. With the death of his father in 1957, he returned to Miltown Malbay and married Doirin Healy. He developed a highly distinctive and individual style of piping. From 1957 until 1972 the Summer music sessions in the West Clare town became widely renowned, with Willie Clancy as one of the main attractions. Pipe-making, reed-making and all things connected with the instrument were explored and advanced by the Clancy influence. He gave many performances on both radio and television as well as live sessions in his local area.

His sudden death in January 1973 at the age of fifty-five was widely mourned among friends and musicians alike. He is buried in Ballard Cemetary just outside the town of Miltown Malbay.

As a tribute to this extraordinary man and gifted musician, it was decided to set up an annual Summer music school in Willies home town. The school quickly established a name for good music and high standards in tuition, a fitting tribute to a fine musician." -- from County Clare Library

Willie Clancy - The Pipering of Willie Clancy Vol.2
Year: 1958-73 (recorded); 1994 (released)
Label: Claddagh

Japanese Masterpieces of the Shakuhachi

Now we enter the void.

Shakuhachi music is some of the most deeply affecting musics I have ever heard. It is suffused with presence. It requires diligence, and awareness, and a sharp will on the part of both the musician and the listener. It cannot be background music. This music is not for soothing you whilst you relax in a spa and pretend to meditate. This music is true meditation. It is a slap in the face, a breath of fresh air, and the nimble light of beauty dancing through the world. Its association with Zen Buddhist monks probably explains the funny basket-hat, or at least I hope so, because I'm at a loss…

Anyway, all I'm saying is, this music has the brash hunger of an empty shark, the shifting eternity of an unhurried cloud, and the solipsism of a lone swan on a still lake.

The Shakuhachi

The shakuhachi is believed to have evolved from flutes that first appeared in ancient Egypt and arrived in Japan via China about 1,400 years ago. It has a long association Zen and is said to have a meditative quality because its sound is so closely linked with human breath. With no valves or reed it is deceptively simple instrument made of a piece of bamboo with holes. It produces a rich, mellow sound that it intimately related to the bamboo from which it is made. Its name come from its length in Japanese measurements (equaling 58 centimeters). One shaku is equal to 7.25 centimeters. Hachi is “eight.”

Patterson Clark, an American who studied the shakuchi in Japan, told the Washington Post, the shakuhachi is “notoriously difficult to play...It forces a face-to-face confrontation with expectation, self-criticism, disappointment, frustration, and impatience—all in a single breath. Exhaling through all these impediments and releasing one’s attachments to them can dissolve the ego so that one experiences only the sound—and become the sound.” 

 The shakuhachi is played very softly. Master musician Yoshio Kurabashi told the Washington Post, “The loudest tone is at the start of the first note of the phrase. As the breath continues, the sound grows softer until it fades into silence.” Notes can be flattened, bent, overblown and played with different fingering. By one count 64 sounds can be made in each octave.

 A bamboo shakuhachi flute from the 8th century found in Nara is 43.7 centimeters long and 2.3 centimeters in diameter and engraved with images of four women picking flowers and playing the biwa lute along with images of flowers, butterflies and birds. 

Japanese Masterpieces of the Shakuhachi

played by the Masters Meian-ryu, Kimpu-ryu, Tozan-ryu, Ikuta-ryu, Kikusue-ryu

Year: 1991
Label: Lyrichord
Time: 53:22

This famous bamboo flute, historically the instrument of the Samurai, is here played by the Masters of Meian-ryu, Kimpu-ryu, Tozan-ryu and Kikusui-ryu, at Darumaden of Nanzenji, and Meianji, Kyoto.
Selected as one of CD Review Magazine's 50 Definitive World Music Recordings! (June 1990)

AMG Review by Adam Greenberg
One of a long series of albums put out by Lyrichord dealing with traditional musics from around the world, Japanese Masterpieces of the Shakuhachi reprises the major schools of playing for the traditional Japanese bamboo flute. The liner notes, though leaving the performers uncredited, are quite detailed on the history of the flute and of the playing styles used. As many "world music" aficionados know, the shakuhachi lends itself well to making beautiful, earthy tones that Coleman Hawkins could only have dreamed about. The album starts with "Koku," a 12th century piece written by a priest for relaxation. "Sekihiki No Fu" is an accompaniment for a sung Chinese poem. "Matsukaze" represents a pine tree, which itself represents man; the work makes use of komibuki, a panting technique, used here to symbolize the wild breath of a samurai. "Ajikan" is a beautiful meditation on nothingness, and "Oshusanaya" is a pastoral piece. "Sagariha" uses a choppy rhythm that implies waves, though the translation is "drooping leaves." Finally, "Kyushi Reibo" is a piece written in memoriam of the Buddha's death by a pilgrim who was impressed by the strong spirit (reibo) of the Buddha on the island of Kyushu. Throughout, the album shows some noteworthy playing by the musicians of this mysterious sounding flute, and beauty in all aspects of the playing. The sound is perfect for tranquil relaxation, regardless of the century or the continent.


CD REVIEW
Japanese Masterpieces for the Shakuhachi is one of those rare discs that takes over the mind and body, filling the room with an unearthly mist of sound. The timbre of the bamboo flute on this release can be shrill and penetrating in the upper registers, mellow and breathy in the middle, thick and dark in the lowest reaches. The use of quivering tremolos at climactic moments and well-paced dissonance's that add a foreboding sense of mystery are fully exploited by the indigenous masters of this Buddhist-inspired music. The performances are so convincing that you get the feeling these artists aren't just musicians symbolizing the unknown, but actually calling it forth. An obvious hiss may summon you back to earth once in a while, but the instruments still come across with vitality. - Linda Kohanov, 4/90

Rhythm Music Magazine
The shakuhachi (vertical bamboo flute) was sometimes used in Gagaku, but the music on LYRCD 7176 is associated with the four or five schools of largely solo styles of the Fuke sect of samurai. The starkness of the melodies is decorated by microtonal ornamentation and changing timbres, which can quickly move from shrill overblowing to breathy worbling to mellow sustained tones; when two or more shakuhachis combine, beats created by deliberately "out of tune" unisons add further variety. Small details such as these are the main focus of the music, which amply repays repeated listenings. -Steve Holtje, 3/94

Tracks:
1 Kokh   9:08
2 Sekihiki No Fu   13:48
3 Matsukaze   6:43
4 Ajikan   6:31
5 Oshusanaya   7:11
6 Sagariha   6:00
7 Kyushi Reibo   4:36

the wind blows lonely through distant pine trees. or alternate link
mp3 >224kbps vbr | w/o cover | 86.1mb

liner notes here

Blind Willie McTell - Atlanta 12-String

Some people call him the greatest bluesman of all time. I don't think that's true, at least not so long as Son House and Skip James are still riding the great greyhound bus in the sky. But coming in closely behind them, Blind Willie McTell holds his own with the best of the rest of 'em. Though it is thought that he took the name 'Blind Willie' to piggyback on the popularity of Blind Willie Johnson (to be fair, his name was actually William and he was actually blind, unlike "Sonny Boy Williamson II"), his style owes little to the earlier revenant. Actually, McTell's resonant 12-string and plaintif tenor voice align him more closely with the heavenly stylings of Washington Phillips, who in turn influenced Blind Willie Johnson.

It is not known whether Blind Willie McTell ever heard Washington Phillips.

What is known is that Bob Dylan (who actually did steal his name from someone else), knew about Mr. McTell, and revered him so much that Bob wrote a song about him. And while it's one of Dylan's better songs of his post 1975 period, it doesn't even stand up to the worst of Willie's. Perhaps it's the pauper's diction, nasal voice, or predictable chord accents. Really, the only connection I can see between the two is the 12-string guitar.

You can leave Bobby Zimmerman to the dogs. This here's music for god's jukebox.

 

Seen the arrow on the doorpost
Saying, "This land is condemned
All the way from New Orleans
To Jerusalem."
I traveled through East Texas
Where many martyrs fell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

Well, I heard the hoot owl singing
As they were taking down the tents
The stars above the barren trees
Were his only audience
Them charcoal gypsy maidens
Can strut their feathers well
But nobody can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

See them big plantations burning
Hear the cracking of the whips
Smell that sweet magnolia blooming
(And) see the ghosts of slavery ships
I can hear them tribes a-moaning
(I can) hear the undertaker's bell
(Yeah), nobody can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

There's a woman by the river
With some fine young handsome man
He's dressed up like a squire
Bootlegged whiskey in his hand
There's a chain gang on the highway
I can hear them rebels yell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

Well, God is in heaven
And we all want what's his
But power and greed and corruptible seed
Seem to be all that there is
I'm gazing out the window
Of the St. James Hotel
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

- Bob Dylan

Biography

by Bruce Eder

Willie Samuel McTell was one of the blues' greatest guitarists, and also one of the finest singers ever to work in blues. A major figure with a local following in Atlanta from the 1920s onward, he recorded dozens of sides throughout the '30s under a multitude of names -- all the better to juggle "exclusive" relationships with many different record labels at once -- including Blind Willie, Blind Sammie, Hot Shot Willie, and Georgia Bill, as a backup musician to Ruth Mary Willis. And those may not have been all of his pseudonyms -- we don't even know what he chose to call himself, although "Blind Willie" was his preferred choice among friends. Much of what we do know about him was learned only years after his death, from family members and acquaintances. His family name was, so far as we know, McTier or McTear, and the origins of the "McTell" name are unclear. What is clear is that he was born into a family filled with musicians -- his mother and his father both played guitar, as did one of his uncles, and he was also related to Georgia Tom Dorsey, who later became the Rev. Thomas Dorsey. 

McTell was born in Thomson, GA, near Augusta, and raised near Statesboro. McTell was probably born blind, although early in his life he could perceive light in one eye. His blindness never became a major impediment, however, and it was said that his sense of hearing and touch were extraordinary. His first instruments were the harmonica and the accordion, but as soon as he was big enough he took up the guitar and showed immediate aptitude on the new instrument. He played a standard six-string acoustic until the mid-'20s, and never entirely abandoned the instrument, but from the beginning of his recording career, he used a 12-string acoustic in the studio almost exclusively. McTell's technique on the 12-string instrument was unique. Unlike virtually every other bluesman who used one, he relied not on its resonances as a rhythm instrument, but, instead, displayed a nimble, elegant slide and finger-picking style that made it sound like more than one guitar at any given moment. He studied at a number of schools for the blind, in Georgia, New York, and Michigan, during the early '20s, and probably picked up some formal musical knowledge. He worked medicine shows, carnivals, and other outdoor venues, and was a popular attraction, owing to his sheer dexterity and a nasal singing voice that could sound either pleasant or mournful, and incorporated some of the characteristics normally associated with White hillbilly singers. 

McTell's recording career began in late 1927 with two sessions for Victor records, eight sides including "Statesboro Blues." McTell's earliest sides were superb examples of storytelling in music, coupled with dazzling guitar work. All of McTell's music showed extraordinary power, some of it delightfully raucous ragtime, other examples evoking darker, lonelier sides of the blues, all of it displaying astonishingly rich guitar work. 

McTell worked under a variety of names, and with a multitude of partners, including his one-time wife Ruthy Kate Williams (who recorded with him under the name Ruby Glaze), and also Buddy Moss and Curley Weaver. McTell cut some of his best songs more than once in his career. Like many bluesmen, he recorded under different names simultaneously, and was even signed to Columbia and Okeh Records, two companies that ended up merged at the end of the '30s, at the same time, under two names. His recording career never gave McTell quite as much success as he had hoped, partly due to the fact that some of his best work appeared during the depths of the Depression. He was uniquely popular in Atlanta, where he continued to live and work throughout most of his career, and, in fact, was the only blues guitarist of any note from the city to remain active in the city until well after World War II. 

McTell was well-known enough that Library of Congress archivist John Lomax felt compelled to record him in 1940, although during the war, like many other acoustic country bluesmen, his recording career came to a halt. Luckily for McTell and generations of listeners after him, however, there was a brief revival of interest in acoustic country-blues after World War II that brought him back into the studio. Amazingly enough, the newly founded Atlantic Records -- which was more noted for its recordings of jazz and R&B -- took an interest in McTell and cut 15 songs with him in Atlanta during 1949. The one single released from these sessions, however, didn't sell, and most of those recordings remained unheard for more than 20 years after they were made. A year later, however, he was back in the studio, this time with his longtime partner Curley Weaver, cutting songs for the Regal label. None of these records sold especially well, however, and while McTell kept playing for anyone who would listen, the bitter realities of life had finally overtaken him, and he began drinking on a regular basis. He was rediscovered in 1956, just in time to get one more historic session down on tape. He left music soon after, to become a pastor of a local church, and he died of a brain hemorrhage in 1959, his passing so unnoticed at the time that certain reissues in the '70s referred to McTell as still being alive in the '60s. 

Blind Willie McTell was one of the giants of the blues, as a guitarist and as a singer and recording artist. Hardly any of his work as passed down to us on record is less than first-rate, and this makes most any collection of his music worthwhile. A studious and highly skilled musician whose skills transcended the blues, he was equally adept at ragtime, spirituals, story-songs, hillbilly numbers, and popular tunes, excelling in all of these genres. He could read and write music in braille, which gave him an edge on many of his sighted contemporaries, and was also a brilliant improvisor on the guitar, as is evident from his records. McTell always gave an excellent account of himself, even in his final years of performing and recording.

Blind Willie McTell - Atlanta 12-String

Year: 1975
Label: Atlantic

Review
by Bruce Eder
In 1949, a brief flurry of interest in old-timey country blues resulted in this 15-song session by Blind Willie McTell for the newly formed Atlantic Records. Only two songs, "Kill It Kid" and "Broke Down Engine Blues," were ever issued on a failed single, and the session was forgotten until almost 20 years later. McTell is mostly solo here, vividly captured on acoustic 12-string (his sometime partner Curley Weaver may have been present on some tracks), and in excellent form. The playing and the repertory are representative of McTell as he was at this point in his career, a blues veteran rolling through his paces without skipping a beat and quietly electrifying the listener. Songs include "Dying Crapshooter's Blues," "The Razor Ball," and "Ain't I Grand to Live a Christian."

Tracks:
1. Kill It Kid - McTell - 2:33
2. The Razor Ball - McTell - 2:53
3. Little Delia - McTell - 3:02
4. Broke Down Engine - McTell - 2:46
5. Dying Crapshooter's Blues - McTell - 3:06
6. Pinetop's Boogie Woogie - Gimbel, Smith - 2:49
7. Blues Around Midnight - McTell - 2:46
8. Last Dime Blues - McTell - 2:49
9. On the Cooling Board - McTell - 3:08
10. Motherless Children Have a Hard Time - McTell - 2:56
11. I Got to Cross the River Jordan - McTell - 4:00
12. You Got to Die - McTell - 3:12
13. Ain't It Grand to Live a Christian - McTell - 2:38
14. Pearly Gates - McTell - 3:22
15. Soon This Morning - McTell - 2:40


don't you never dog your woman.
mp3 >256kbps vbr | w/ cover
or now in FLAC
  

Louisiana Cajun French Music

Well it's about time this blog had some cajun music. It was sorely missing from my gumbo of old american roots and fruits. Now remedied!


Zydeco and Cajun are the premier cultural expressions of the spirited and hardy people of southwest Louisiana. While the two styles have some similarities, they are also quite different. Cajun music as we know it today can be traced back to early Acadian, French, Creole, and Anglo-Saxon folk songs. These early ballads and lullabies -- typically concerned with troubles and hard times -- were often sung a cappella. For the most part, they were performed at home and passed down orally from generation to generation; however, the singers of these traditional songs were eventually accompanied by simple instrumentation. Cajun music is, of course, meant for dancing -- one-step, two-step, and waltzes. Traditionally, the Cajun dance ("Fais-do-do" in Cajun) was the major social function in Cajun society. The principal instrument in Cajun music is the diatonic accordion, preferably in the key of C. Although it is a German instrument, the Cajun people adopted it in the 1870s. To a lesser degree, the fiddle is also a favorite instrument in Cajun music. Early Cajun bands featured both of these instruments, as well as a triangle to keep the rhythm. Acoustic guitars were added to the lineup by 1920, then, three decades later, steel, electric guitars, and sometimes drums. Although Cajun music has changed somewhat over the years and has been influenced by other styles of music -- notably country and blues -- it has remained a distinctive style. The first Cajun record was Joe Falcon's "Allons ý Lafayette" from 1928. Although the style was recorded only sporadically for several decades, Iry LeJeune, Harry Choates, Nathan Abshire, Lawrence Walker, Leo Soileau, and Vin Bruce had become influential Cajun artists by the middle of the 20th century. While the music's popularity continued to grow within Louisiana, it didn't enter the spotlight nationally until the mid-'80s, riding on the coattails of the Cajun food explosion. Today several traditional and contemporary Cajun artists -- including Dewey Balfa, Zachary Richard, and Beausoleil -- tour nationally and internationally. Compared to Cajun music, zydeco music has a much shorter history. Like Cajun music, the dominant instrument is the accordion, but unlike Cajun music, zydeco adds electric bass, horns, and sometimes keyboards. In a nutshell, zydeco is Creole (Black) dance music of southwest Louisiana blending Cajun music with rhythm & blues and soul. The word "zydeco" is actually a bastardization of an early zydeco song, "L'Haricots Sont Pas Salls" (The Snap Beans Aren't Salted). The first Black-French recordings were made in 1928 by Amad‚ Ardoin, an accordion player who played in the Cajun style. However, the music we know as zydeco today didn't begin to evolve -- at least on record -- until the mid-'50s, when Clifton Chenier and Boozoo Chavis made their initial recordings. Like Cajun music, zydeco didn't achieve national popularity until the 1980s, buoyed somewhat by Rockin' Sidney's surprise hit "My Toot Toot." By the '90s, several zydeco artists were signed to major labels, including Terrance Simien, Boozoo Chavis, Buckwheat Zydeco, and Rockin' Dopsie. ~ Jeff Hannusch





Louisiana Cajun French Music, Vol. 1: Southwest Prairies, 1964-1967

Year: 1989/1994
Label: Rounder

Review by Ron Wynn

This first of two 1989 Rounder anthologies spotlighting traditional Cajun music from the mid-'60s began with a great group, The Balfa Freres. This was among the finest and most intense of the founding Cajun bands, characterized by wonderful harmonizing, intense leads and great fiddle backing. Others on this anthology were Austin Pitre & The Evangeline Playboys, a hard-driving, upbeat unit, and the venerable Edius Nacquin, in his 70s when he cut the anthology's final four tracks and still an energetic, distinctive singer. The selections were recorded as part of several field sessions initiated by the Newport Folk Foundation from 1964 through 1967.

Tracks:
1 Danse de Mardi Gras - Balfa Brothers - 2:51
2 Lacassine Special - Balfa Freres - 3:11
3 La Valse du Bambocheur - Balfa Brothers - 5:37
4 Hackberry Hop - Balfa Freres - 3:02
5 Valse des Platains - Balfa Freres - 3:47
6 Lake Arthur Stomp - Balfa Freres - 2:16
7 Parlez-Nous Á Boire - Balfa Brothers - 3:42
8 La Valse des Bombaches - Pitre, Austin & The Evangeline... - 3:46
9 Les Flammes d'Enfer - Pitre, Austin & The Evangeline... - 3:38
10 J'Ai Fini Mes Miseres - Pitre, Austin & The Evangeline... - 1:44
11 Hack a 'Tit Moreau - Edius Nacquin - 1:44
12 Si J'Aurais des Ailes - Edius Nacquin - 1:38
13 La Ville de Monteau - Edius Nacquin - 2:43
14 Ou T'Etais Mercredi Passe - Edius Nacquin - 1:54
the flames of hell.
mp3 >192kbps vbr | w/ cover




Louisiana Cajun French Music, Vol. 2: Southwest Prairies, 1964-1967

Year: 1989/1994
Label: Rounder

Review by Eugene Chadbourne

Beyond a doubt one of the best issues in this label's catalog, this dandy album provides the listener with the variety that can be found in a compilation, but also satisfies the taste for each artist by doling out generous portions of their music. As for the performers who are featured, all they need is a little room to show their stuff and all credit for the album's grand success is theirs. These are the grand old men of Cajun, the names that come up time and time again in interviews with stars of the genre. Like many originally folk forms of music, the appeal of this music style eventually led it to be played by full, almost pop-sounding ensembles by the '90s. Cajun had already influenced the sound of country and rock music in previous decades to the point where there are probably plenty of listeners whose idea of Cajun music might not encompass the wild and raw performances on this compilation. The instrumental combinations are deliciously sparse, removing the entire elephantine nature of drum set and electric amplification. A stomping foot is what listeners have instead of electric bass on the duos by "Bois Sec" Ardoin and Canray Fontenot. The latter man's fiddle is a hearty thing; the vocals by these guys make Tony Joe White sound like a prepubescent choir boy. The sensitivity and split tones in their singing bring to mind the recordings of Native American medicine men. Guitarist Preston Manuel, another important figure in this genre, performs "La Bataille dans le Petit Abre" in a trio with Isom Fontenot on harmonica and Aubrey DeVille on fiddle; the piece is gorgeous, pretty as any ever recorded and certainly a high point in tracks featuring harmonica. Producer and editor Ralph Rinzler gets credit for the fadeout, for which he should be punished by a forced bath in a stinky bayou. DeVille and Manuel get together for a duet which is charming, the accompaniment dropping so far back in volume behind the hilariously over-recorded vocal that it starts to feel like a tickle. The second side is devoted to tracks by the duo of Adam and Cyprien Landreneau, both singing and wailing on violin and accordion, respectively. The group is rounded out by Dewey Balfa, whose presence on triangle fills out an important part of the rhythmic component in a symbolic way, the younger man's presence respectively acknowledging the way this music has been passed on from generation to generation. This side is a romper-stomper, the amusing interludes of studio chatter almost a relief from the musical intensity. Landreneau the fiddler has a tone so sharp that it would send avant-garde jazz violinists such as Billy Bang or Leroy Jenkins running for cover. The way he plays the melody on "La Prairie Ronde" is astounding. On "Les Pinieres" he almost sounds like an alien life form, and that's not the first time an outsider has felt this way about things Cajun. It must be admitted certain listeners may express displeasure at the sound of the vocals on these tracks, even after seeing pictures of what these guys look like (they are a couple of old men and they sing like a couple of old men). Voices crack, yet carefully timed hoots seem to be pitched in a sophisticated relation to the fiddle and accordion harmony. Cajun fans looking for a collection of pieces from some of the music's founding fathers can't do better than this. The label left consumers in a state of insecurity about how much printed material would be provided about the music, however. At one point pressings came with a tiny inserted card indicating that a booklet for the project was still unfinished and purchasers could send in for a copy when it was ready. "Au plu tard," as the Cajuns would say.

Tracks:
1 Hack a 'Tit Moreau - Ardoin, Alphonse "Bois Sec", Canray Fontenot - 3:41
2 Untitled Dance Tune - Ardoin, Alphonse "Bois Sec", Canray Fontenot - :58
3 Eunice Two Step - Ardoin, Alphonse "Bois Sec", Canray Fontenot - 2:20
4 Quo Fa're "Bois Sec" - Ardoin, Alphonse "Bois Sec", Canray Fontenot - 2:21
5 Jug au Plombeau - Ardoin, Alphonse "Bois Sec", Canray Fontenot - 2:31
6 La Bataille Dans le Petit Arbre - Isom Fontenot, Aubrey Deville, Preston Manuel - 2:42
7 Le Vieux Boeuf et le Vieux Charriot - Isom Fontenot, Aubrey Deville, Preston Manuel - 2:50
8 La Robe de Rosalie - Adam Landreneau, Cyprien Landreneau - 3:12
9 La Prairie Ronde - Adam Landreneau, Cyprien Landreneau - 3:01
10 La Talle des Ronces - Adam Landreneau, Cyprien Landreneau - 1:48
11 Les Pinieres - Adam Landreneau, Cyprien Landreneau - 3:02
12 Treville N'Est Pas Pecheur - Adam Landreneau, Cyprien Landreneau - 1:43
13 Danse de Limonade - Adam Landreneau, Cyprien Landreneau - 2:01
danse le Two Step! & track 10
mp3 >192kbps vbr | w/ cover

Bali: Gamelan & Kecak

The first time I heard gamelan music, I had no idea what it was. I thought it was electronica. It literally sounded like aliens. I was very confused, and very entranced. Then gradually I heard some more, and it was totally mindblowingly enchanting. I hope all of you get to hear one of these ensembles live some time, because the overtones really really knock you out. They build up a cloud of resonant sound that is hovering, shimmering all around you, which is the context of every note that gets played. And within this soundfield, stuff gets repeated, switched around, slowed down, sped up; it creates a context for surprises. And it lulls your conscious mind while stimulating your spirit. And that's why the music is so amazingly ethereal and out-of-body.

And this is exactly the same as what John Fahey does in open tunings.

And this is not an accident.

John Fahey happened to grow up in a neighborhood that had a gamelan ensemble in a backyard. When he'd get frustrated with school or family or life he'd bugger off to the gamelan and play for a while. Wild, eh? True story.

He also was sent an early Harry Partch disc when he was young. Harry Partch was very influenced by indonesian music and gamelans in particular.

And they weren't the only ones. Gamelan music changed the way that westerners thought about music at a very fundamental level. Suddenly, there was an alternative to the the linear scale-based, chord-based, key-based, melody-based approach to music that westerners had been taking since Baroque times. Here was a music that was harmonically driven, like Medieval music, Greek music, and a few others lost to time.

If you've never heard this sort of music before, or even if you have, you owe it to yourself to give this disc a listen. And when you come down from floating 50 feet above your body, you will have been deeply healed.

A gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings. Vocalists may also be included.

The term refers more to the set of instruments than to the players of those instruments. A gamelan is a set of instruments as a distinct entity, built and tuned to stay together — instruments from different gamelan are generally not interchangeable.

The word gamelan comes from the Javanese word gamels, meaning "to strike or hammer", and the suffix an, which makes the root a collective noun.

Introduction

Gamelan is a term for various types of orchestra played in Indonesia. It is the main element of the Indonesian traditional music. Each gamelan is slightly different from the other; however, they all have the same organization, which based on different instrumental groups with specific orchestral functions. The instruments in a gamelan are composed of sets of tuned bronze gongs, gong-chimes, metallophones, drums, one or more flute, bowed and plucked string instruments, and sometimes singers. In some village gamelan, bronze is sometimes replaced by iron, wood, or bamboo. The most popular gamelan can be found in Java, and Bali.

The Beliefs

In Indonesian traditional thinking, the gamelan is sacred and is believed to have supernatural power. Both musician and non-musicians are humble and respectful to the gamelan. Incense and flowers are often offered to the gamelan. It is believed that each instrument in the gamelan is guided by spirits. Thus, the musician have to take off their shoes when they play the gamelan. It is also forbidden to step over any instrument in a gamelan, because it might offend the spirit by doing so. Some gamelan are believed to have so much powers that playing them may exert power over nature. Others may be touched only by persons who are ritually qualified. In Javanese gamelan, the most important instrument is the Gong Ageng. The Javanese musicians believe that Gong Ageng is the main spirit of the entire gamelan.

Functions of Gamelan

Gamelan is a way of linking individuals in social groups. Gamelan music is performed as a group effort, and so there is no place for an individual showoff. Traditionally, gamelan is only played at certain occasions such as ritual ceremonies, special community celebrations, shadow puppet shows, and for the royal family. Gamelan is also used to accompany dances in court, temple, and village rituals. Besides providing music for social functional ceremonies, gamelan also provides a livelihood for many professional musicians, and for specialized craftsmen who manufacture gamelan.

Today, although gamelan music is still used for ritual ceremonies and the royal family, it is also performed as concert music at social and cultural gatherings to welcome guests and audiences. Gamelan is also used to accompany many kinds of both traditional and modern dances, drama, theatrical and puppetry. In modern days, gamelan can be kept in places such as courts, temples, museums, schools, or even private homes.

Balinese Gamelan music is very similar to Javanese Gamelan music. The music is in cycle too, however, it is usually faster. One of the characteristic of Balinese gamelan music is that, it has a lot of sudden changes in tempo and dynamics. Like the Javanese gamelan, the instruments in Balinese gamelan includes metallophones and gongs. However, there are more metallophones than gongs in Balinese gamelan. The metal keys in Balinese metallophones are ticker than those of Javanese. These Balinese metallophones produce very bright sound. Another characteristic of Balinese Gamelan music is the used of cymbals. These cymbals create fast rattling sound that usually cannot be found in Javanese Gamelan music.

Kecak (pronounced , alternate spellings: Ketjak and Ketjack) a form of Balinese music drama, originated in the 1930s and is performed primarily by men. Also known as the Ramayana Monkey Chant, the piece, performed by a circle of 100 or more performers wearing checked cloth around their waists, percussively chanting "cak" and throwing up their arms, depicts a battle from the Ramayana where the monkey-like Vanara helped Prince Rama fight the evil King Ravana. However, Kecak has roots in sanghyang, a trance-inducing exorcism dance.

Kecak was originally a trance ritual accompanied by male chorus. German painter and musician Walter Spies became deeply interested in the ritual while living in Bali in the 1930s and worked to recreate it into a drama, based on the Hindu Ramayana and including dance, intended to be presented to Western tourist audiences. This transformation is an example of what James Clifford describes as part of the "modern art-culture system" in which, "the West or the central power adopts, transforms, and consumes non-Western or peripheral cultural elements, while making 'art' which was once embedded in the culture as a whole, into a separate entity." Spies worked with Wayan Limbak and Limbak popularized the dance by traveling throughout the world with Balinese performance groups. These travels have helped to make the Kecak famous throughout the world.

Performer, choreographer, and scholar I Wayan Dibia cites a contrasting theory that the Balinese where already developing the form when Spies arrived on the island. For example, well-known dancer I Limbak had incorporated Baris movements into the cak leader role during the 1920s. "Spies liked this innovation," and it suggested that Limbak, "devise a spectacle based on the Ramayana," accompanied by cak chorus rather than gamelan, as would have been usual.

As an uncharacteristically knowledgeable amazon customer has said:

In his amazing book Ocean of Sound, David Toop opens with a chapter on the meeting of western composers (especially Debussy) with the sounds of the Indonesian Gamelan (which are essentially orchestras of various sizes). Situating the nexus of much modern music in this meeting by finding strains of these sounds in minimalists like Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and John Cage, but also stretching into the filmic realms of Ryuchi Sakamoto, the electronics of Loop Guru, and the Free Jazz of Don Cherry, just to name a few he cites, Toop indicates the range of influence of this amazing music. David Lewiston's 1987 recordings on this compilation jubiliantly reflect this diversity, even in the fascinating opening track of various ensembles passing by in a parade showcasing the sounds of cymbals, gongs, drums, flutes, metallophones, wooden cowbells, and countless other mostly percussive sounds. The rest of the tracks on the CD are equally varied. The third track, for example, Genggong Duet, takes place with the Balinese Jew's Harp, and could almost sound like the electronic squiggles of some electronic outfits like mouse on mars or matmos; the fourth track, a Frog Song which is produced through a piece of palm bark and sounds like a reed instrument, could pass for a free-jazz improvisation. Another exciting highlight would be the 8th track, a Kecak piece that tells the Indian Legend of Hanuman. Familiar to anyone whose seen the film Baraka, this is a piece where a large group sits in a circle, moving, swaying, and chanting, tjak tjak tajk, in furious rhythm. Like the Master Musicians of Jajouka, whom William Burroughs called a "2000 year old rock band," this music sounds both ancient and progressive at the same time. An excellent introduction based on variety alone, but with digital recording, these sounds are surprisingly clean. For anyone curious about Balinese music, this would be a great place to start.

VA - Bali: Gamelan & Kecak

Year: 1989
Label: Nonesuch

Recorded by David Lewiston in 1987, these are fine recordings of both famous and little-heard strains of Indonesian music. In a series of recordings that include both large gamelan orchestras and small ensembles, he has captured the wide scope of the music of Bali. In addition to the gamelan works we are offered some very unique sounds: a palm bark version of the Jew's harp; a reed instrument with a distinctly "Hendrix on the bagpipes" sound. Perhaps most enjoyable is a recording of a passing parade, with various instruments, rhythms, and melodies drifting by in the sort of cacophony associated with Charles Ive's marching band works. Lewiston's offering is invaluable. -- Louis Gibson

Album Description
Bali's most popular ensemble is still the large gamelan gong, consisting of 25 to 30 musicians. The principal melody instruments are metallophones, xylophone-like instruments with bronze keys. Sets of small, tuned gong kettles provide melodic ornaments, while the penetrating bass tones of great gongs punctuate larger phrases. Clashing cymbals add to the overall glitter. A flute or stringed instrument sweetens the melody. The entire structure is supported by two drummers, who create the crucial rhythmic underpinning. The kecak is uniquely Balinese. The rhythmic interlocking "tjak-tjak-tjak-tjak," chanted by a large group of male voices, originated as the accompaniment to an ancient trance dance. It is a performance of the Ramayana, where the monkey hordes come to the aid of King Rama in his battle with the evil King Rawana. The 80 members of the Sekaha Ganda Sari are heard in this kecak performance.

Review
by Bruno Deschênes
For many musicians, Bali is still the last paradise on Earth; their music shows an unsurpassed originality and creativeness. Still today, new pieces are being composed by Balinese composers for the different existing ensembles. This CD, produced and recorded by American ethnomusicologist David Lewiston, gives us an overview of the large variety in Balinese music, of the different types of gamelan ensembles. The first piece is the music of the opening parade of the Bali Arts Festival on June 1987 (a festival taking place in June and July of every year on the island). You hear recently created ensembles, styles, and pieces as well as older ones. Among the recent musical creations of Balinese are the kecak, a type of rhythmic vocal play with short and percussive words which are used for trance dance. This type of singing, which came to life in the 1930s, is found only in Bali and is sung exclusively by men. Quite possibly one of the best Balinese CDs available!

Tracks:
1 - Opening Parade, Bali Arts Festival - 12:18
2 - Gamelan Gong Sekaha Sadha Budaya - 10:41
3 - Genggong Duet - Artika, Meji - 2:33
4 - Genggong Batur Sari, Batuan - 4:11
5 - Gamelan Salunding, Tenganan - 7:52
6 - Sadha Budaya Gamelan Gong Suling - 6:06
7 - Gender Wayang: Sukawati - Balik, Loceng, Nartha, Sarga - 7:34
8 - Sekaha Ganda Sari, Bona - 8:07
9 - Gamelan Gong Kebyar Sekolah Tinggi Seni Indonesia, Den Pasar - 12:48

we come in peace.
mp3 >256kbps vbr | w/ scans

Björn Ståbi & Ole Hjorth - Folk Fiddling from Sweeden: Traditional Fiddle Tunes from Dalarna

Brilliant strange music here. There is something so mysterious about traditional Scandinavian music. It comes in circles, but instead of the kind of circle that brings you back to the same place you started (as occurs in American, Celtic, and many other traditional dance musics), each return brings you to a new level. So essentially, it is a spiral. And there are spirals within each spiral. So really, this is fractal music, as organic as a tree's branching roots, a clouds billowing edges, or a river's forking delta.

It is cold music too. Every happy june day is still tinged with the memory of the long dark winter, and this feeling comes through in every solitary note, which maintains its loneliness even when singing the most beautiful birdsong.

Sweeden has become known for its Nickelharpa, the 19-string keyed fiddle of medieval origins. But while these recordings do not feature its sound, they always reference its church-like droning harmonies and brittle melodies.

Take a walk in the crisp winter air after listening to this music, and see if you can find the hidden flowers in the sky.

Björn Stabi probably was the first traditional Swedish fiddler to perform in the United States when he appeared in a duet with Ole Hjorth at the Newport Folk Festival about thirty years ago. Their performances, filled with sonorous harmonies and exotic melodies, were a life changing moment for many listeners. Stabi remains one of the most renowned folk fiddlers in Sweden. Bjorn Stabi's Orsalater (GIGA 35) is his first album of tunes from his ancestral home of Orsa. Apparently the project was unrehearsed, recording old tunes as they popped into his memory. There some jarring but tasty non-tempered notes, usually said to speak for the considerable age of a piece.

Björn is the current tradition bearer of Orsa's rich musical heritage. Björn was recognized as a riksspelman (Zorn Silver) back in 1961 and in 1986 he was tapped for the highest honor a Swedish folk musician can receive—The Zorn Gold. Lisa earned the Zorn Silver medal in 1999.

Björn Ståbi & Ole Hjorth - Folk Fiddling from Sweeden: Traditional Fiddle Tunes from Dalarna

Label: Elektra Nonesuch
Year: ?

For more information, please click the back cover below.

Tracks:
A1. Skullbräddleken - 2:30
A2. Vals - 2:54
A3. Polska - 2:10
A4. Systerpolska - 1:34
A5. Noaks Gånglåt - 3:00
A6. Säckpipslåt - 0:45
A7. Hjortingens Polska - 2:10
A8. Vallåt - 1:08
B1. Polska In G - 1:37
B2. Långdans - 1:56
B3. Polska - 2:55
B4. Gånglåt - 1:12
B5. Gråtlåten - 1:46
B6. Vallåt - 1:10
B7. Skänklåt - 1:49

Notes:

Side A contains tunes from throughout the province of Dalarna (after the tradition of various fiddlers):
track A1 is a wedding-tune from Mockfjärd,
track A2 is a waltz from Orsa,
track A3 is a dance-tune from Enviken,
track A4 is a dance-tune from Orsa,
track A5 is a walking-tune from Orsa,
track A6 is a bagpipe-tune from Gagnef,
track A7 is a dance-tune from Bingsjö,
track A8 is a herding-tune from Orsa.

Side B contains tunes from Rättvik parish, Dalarna (after the tradition of Hjort Anders Olsson, Bingsjö).

troll music.

vinyl, cleaned | mp3 >256kbps vbr | w/ cover

very out-of-print

Minstrel Banjo Style

Ok, so this is sort of the companion album to Rural Parlor Guitar. It's an album of music from the 19th century, which has laid the foundation for everything that we hear today. Like that one, it is an indescribable mix of African and European elements, mingling together like molasses and cornbread. The difference, perhaps, is that these musicians are resurrecting a dead form, doing their best to reconstruct it, while the Parlor Guitar album had musicians from the living tradition. That may contribute to some of the clean, dry feeling that accompanies all academic projects. Nevertheless, it's a very interesting, beautiful, and strange excursion into our shared musical past. You can really hear the African ngoni ancestors of the banjo coming through in the odd rhythms, deep notes, and furiously unexpected syncopations and cascades of pentatonic scales.

The early origins of the instrument, now known as the banjo, are obscure. That its precursors came from Africa to America, probably by the West Indies, is by now well established. Yet, the multitude of African peoples, languages, and music make it very difficult to associate the banjo with any specific African protoype. From various historical references, however, it can be deduced that the banjar, or bangie, or banjer, or banza, or banjo was played in early 17th century America by Africans in slavery who constructed their instruments from gourds, wood, and tanned skins, using hemp or gut for strings. This prototype was eventually to lead to the evolution of the modern banjo in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Until 1800 the banjo remained essentially a black instrument, although at times there was considerable interaction between whites and blacks in enjoying music and dance—whites usually participating as observers. What brought the instrument to the attention of the nation, however, was a grotesque representation of black culture by white performers in minstrel shows.

The very essence of minstrelsy was black-face caricatures which became increasingly popular toward the end of the 18th century, leading to fully fledged black-face skits and songs on stage throughout white America by the middle of the 19th century. It was during this time that the banjo in all probability was first introduced to Ireland, when the Virginia Minstrels toured in England, Ireland and France in 1843, 1844 and 1845. The leader of the Virginia Minstrels was Joel Walker Sweeney who was born in Buckingham County, Virginia, in 1810. Sweeney, whose antecedents came from Co. Mayo, has become one of the most controversial characters in the history of the banjo, having been credited widely with introducing the fifth string, or chanterelle, to the instrument. In fact, there are early watercolour paintings well before Sweeney's time that show the fifth string on plantation banjos. [Note 2.] So Sweeney most certainly did not invent the 5-string banjo. What he did, however, with his minstrel show was extend the popularity of the banjo to an enormous audience all over the United States and Europe.

from The Banjo: A Short History by Mick Moloney

THUMBNAIL HISTORY OF THE BANJO
By Bill Reese

EARLY STAGES

Banjos belong to a family of instruments that are very old. Drums with strings stretched over them can be traced throughout the Far East, the Middle East and Africa almost from the beginning. They can be played like the banjo, bowed or plucked like a harp depending on their development. These instruments were spread, in "modern" times, to Europe through the Arab conquest of Spain, and the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. The banjo, as we can begin to recognize it, was made by African slaves based on instruments that were indigenous to their parts of Africa. These early "banjos" were spread to the colonies of those countries engaged in the slave trade. Scholars have found that many of these instruments have names that are related to the modern word "banjo", such as "banjar", "banjil", "banza", "bangoe", "bangie", "banshaw". Some historians mention the diaries of Richard Jobson as the first record of the instrument.. While exploring the Gambra River in Africa in 1620 he recorded an instrument "...made of a great gourd and a neck, thereunto was fastened strings." The first mention of the name for these instruments in the Western Hemisphere is from Martinique in a document dated 1678. It mentions slave gatherings where an instrument called the "banza" is used. Further mentions are fairly frequent and documented. One such is quoted in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians from a poem by an Englishman in the British West Indies in 1763: "Permit thy slaves to lead the choral dance/To the wild banshaw's melancholy sound/". The best known is probably that of Thomas Jefferson in 1781: "The instrument proper to them (i.e. the slaves) is the Banjar, which they brought hither from Africa."

MINSTREL ERA

White men began using blackface as a comic gimmick before the American Revolution. The banjo became a prop for these entertainers, either individually or in groups. By the early part of the 19th century, minstrelsy became a very popular form of entertainment. Joel Walker Sweeney and his Sweeney Minstrels were already popular by the 1830s. By 1843 the Virginia Minstrels began to do an entire show of this blackface entertainment and this is usually the date used to mark the beginning of the minstrel era. The Virginia Minstrels had 2 Banjo players, Dan Emmett and Billy Whitlock, a pupil of Sweeney. In addition Minstrel shows usually had a fiddler, a bones player and a drum/tambourine. We know from early Banjo instruction books by performers like Thomas Briggs, 1855, Philip Rice, 1858 and Frank Converse, 1865, that the minstrel style of playing was the "downstroke", what we call frailing today. This style was learned from the slave performers themselves.

Briggs in Banjo Instructor of 1855 describes playing as follows: "In playing the thumb and first finger only of the right hand are used; the 5th string is touched by the thumb only; this string is always played open, the other strings are touched by the thumb and first finger...The strings are touched by the ball of the thumb and the nail of the 1st finger. The first finger should strike the strings with the back of the nail and then slide to....."

Frank Converse in his Banjo Without a Master describes the style of playing as follows: "Partly close the hand, allowing the first finger to project a little in advance of the others. Hold the fingers firm in this position. Slightly curve the thumb. Strike the strings with the first finger (nail) and pull with the thumb."

THE FIFTH STRING

Joel Walker Sweeney of The Sweeney Minstrels, born 1810, was often credited with the invention of the short fifth string. Scholars know that this is not the case. A painting entitled The Old Plantation painted between 1777 and 1800 shows a black gourd banjo player with a banjo having the fifth string peg half-way up the neck. If Sweeney did add a fifth string to the banjo it was probably the lowest string, or fourth string by today's reckoning. This would parallel the development of the banjo elsewhere for example in England, where the tendency was to add more of the long strings with seven and ten strings being common. Sweeney was responsible for the spread of the banjo and probably contracted with a drum maker in Baltimore, William Boucher, to start producing banjos for public sales. These banjos are basically drums with necks attached. A number have survived and a couple of them are in the collections of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington. Other makers like Jacobs of New York or Morrell who moved his shop to San Francisco during the Gold Rush, helped to supply the growing demand for the instrument in the mid 1840s as the minstrel shows traveled Westward to entertain the gold diggers.

MINSTREL TO PARLOR

From the 1840s through the 1890s the Minstrel show was not the only place to see banjo players. There are records of urban Banjo contests and tournaments held at hotels, race tracks and bars, especially in New York to the enthusiastic cheering and clapping of sometimes inebriated crowds. Most of the contestants were white in the early contests but there are records of black players taking part in the post-civil war era. During this time (c. 1857) metal strings were invented. It seems they were cheaper than the normal professionally made gut strings and more long lasting then the home-made fiber or gut variety. Urban bar room players, minstrel show performers, slave performers, southern country players, all these performers were to come together during the Civil War (1860-1864). Regiments and Companies formed Minstrel groups and bands to entertain themselves during lulls in battle as did sailors aboard gunboats. The most famous of the Civil War banjoist was perhaps Samuel Sweeney, the younger brother of Joel Sweeney, who was an orderly of Jeb Stuart. Stuart apparently liked banjo music and when he wanted to relax he had Sweeney play for him. Sweeney also entertained Stuart's entire regiment.

After the War soldiers carried the knowledge and appreciation of the instrument home to almost every corner of America. During most of this time the banjo was looked-down upon by the more well-to-do classes of the population. Articles in the papers of the day like that in the Boston Daily Evening Voice of 1866, classified the Banjo of the 1840s and 1850s as an instrument in "the depth of popular degradation", an instrument fit only for "the jig-dancing lower classes of the community..." By 1866, however, the instrument had become a "universal favorite" with over 10,000 instruments in use in Boston alone. The cause of this sudden popularity was the introduction of the banjo as a parlor instrument. This is the somewhat misnamed "classical" period of the banjo. The banjo was played in the "classical" style which meant that it was picked with the fingers in imitation of the popular guitar players of the day. Many outstanding performers and teachers had banjos named after them that incorporated their own changes in the instrument in an attempt to make the banjo more refined and above all louder.

The Dobson Brothers and their sons were among the most active in the early stages. Henry C. Dobson is credited with adding the first frets about 1878. He is also credited with producing the first resonator and the first attempt at the use of a tone ring. Though the designs were his, many of the instruments were actually made by the Buckbee Company located on Webster Ave, in New York City until 1897, and later on 13th St. The company was later sold to Rettberg & Lange who went on to produce the Orpheum Banjo. Lange after leaving Rettburg would produce one of the finest sounding Banjos of the day, The Paramount. George C. Dobson, the son of H. C. Dobson continued to be active in the development of the banjo and continued performing almost until his death in 1931.

A.A. Farland (1859-1954) was another famous performer and was most outspoken about the development of the banjo. His banjos were also produced by Buckbee, and later by Rettberg and Lang. About 1915 he produced Farland's Patent Banjo Head made of "annealed steel, beautifully enameled" in an attempt to give more volume to his playing. He abhorred wire strings saying that "... the z-z-z- given by the final vibrations of wire strings is so offensive that I could not bear to use them." He claimed that "all but the deaf" in an audience of 12,000 could hear his banjo when he used his new "annealed" steel head !

Perhaps the most prolific of the banjo makers and enthusiasts of this period was S.S. Stewart of Philadelphia who made a whole range of instruments to fit every pocket book. He began in 1878 and produced banjos of all sizes and models, some made especially for ladies and for children. In 1898 SS Stewart was awarded the Sears contract and teamed up with the Mandolin maker Baur. Stewart died the same year but his sons teamed up with Baur to continue the Sears contract which ended in 1901. His sons continued making banjos until 1904. It is estimated that the Stewarts produced somewhere in excess of 25,000 banjos from 1878 to 1904. In addition Stewart published his own magazine for the banjo player were he regularly expounded his "philosophy" on banjo playing. It was Stewart who spread the story that Joel Sweeney "invented" the banjo by adding the fifth string.( Mike Holmes, banjo historian and editor of Mugwumps Online Magazine >http://www.mugwumps.com <>

If you're interested, read another article on Banjo History

VA - Minstrel Banjo Style

Year: 1994
Label: Rounder

Product Description
This is the first recorded anthology to present the sound of the banjo as heard in ante-bellum times. This compilation may very well provide listeners with initial exposure to this tradition-steeped music.

Review
by Steve Leggett
This intriguing album, which features contemporary banjo players Joe Ayers, Clarke Buehling, Bobby Winans, Bob Flesher, Bob Carlin, and Tony Trischka employing drop-thumb frailing techniques on gourd and hoop banjos in replication of the ante bellum minstrel style, somehow seems to fall short of what it might have been. Some of these performances are surprisingly lifeless and perhaps a bit too studied to really catch fire. Then there's the content problem of the minstrel canon itself, which was built on whites in blackface trying to mimic black life and attitudes, and in that context, songs like "Oh, I'se So Wicked," as performed here by Bob Flesher, are layered with subliminal cultural baggage and cruel ironies that are difficult to set aside even all these years later. Still, the minstrel era marks a period in the south when African approaches to rhythm and arrangement collided and eventually merged with European ones, and in what might be the largest irony, black musicians appropriated many of the minstrel tunes, which were in themselves parodies of black culture, into their own milieu, giving these songs another layer of the onion. All of this is more weight than this set is really intended to bear. The tunes are pleasant enough sounding on the surface, the banjo tones are round and gentle, and if one can set aside the ugly racial problems in America that really drove the minstrel phenomenon, then this set is a partial step toward cultural realignment.

Elderly Review:
We all know the good old 5-string banjo was popular way back in the previous century -- but who knows what the old playing styles were like, or the tunes? Here, miraculously, is a chance to find out. It's an anthology of 19th century banjo music, performed by many people who have been re-creating the old styles from printed tunebooks and methods of the era. A must for any banjophile, and if you're new to the banjo, why not start at the beginning?


Tracks:
1. Whoop Jamboree - Ayers - 2:54
2. Essence of Old Virginny - Ayers - 2:00
3. Sylphides Mazurka - Ayers - 1:40
4. Peeping Through de Cellar Door - Ayers - 3:25
5. Medley: Bully for All/St. Patrick's Day - Ayers - 2:35
6. Whoop Jamboree Reprise - Ayers - 1:45
7. Medley: Hobson's Jig/Briggs'Corn Shucking Jig - Buehling - 2:20
8. White Cat, Black Cat - Buehling - 1:34
9. Medley: Green Corn/Oh, What's de Matter, Suse Ann? - Buehling - 2:00
10. Anthony Street Reel - Buehling - 1:08
11. Clare de Kitchen - Buehling - 2:25
12. Medley: Whelpley's Jig/Buckley's Jig - Winans - 4:32
13. Medley: Johnny Boker/Matt Peel's Walk Around - Winans - 3:25
14. Medley: Phil Issac's Jig/Raccoon Jig - Winans - 3:00
15. Medley: Briggs' Jig/Brigg's Reel - Winans - 2:30
16. Medley: Harper's Jig/Kentucky Juba - Flesher - 2:30
17. Jim Along Josie - Flesher - 2:15
18. Medley: Rumsey's Jig/Modoc Reel - Flesher - 2:35
19. Oh, I'se So Wicked - Flesher - 2:40
20. Medley: Alabama Joe/Alabama Walk Around - Flesher - 1:45
21. Medley: Phil Rice's Excelsior Jig/John Diamond Walk Around - Carlin - 2:44
22. Richmond Am a Hard Road to Travel - Carlin - 3:47
23. Medley: Devil's Dream/DarkeyMoney Musk/Mrs. McLeod's Reel - Carlin - 3:02
24. Slave Narrative/Juba - Trischka - 1:49
25. Medley: Operatic Jig/Roast Beef - Trischka - 1:34
26. Yankee Doodle - Trischka - 1:40
27. New York March - Trischka - 0:47
28. Medley: Git up in de Mornin'/Sebastopol Breakdown - Trischka - 1:26

from the mysterious south
mp3 ~192kbps vbr | w/ cover