Béla Bartók on the Banjo

I just realized that though I don't have the bandwidth to upload anything currently, or the time to write reviews, every once in a while I come across something that would be easy to share with you all. This is one such instance.

Enjoy this and grab it quick! It's free only this weekend. And the music is very very fine as well. Jake Schepps is a really skilled and exploratory banjo player, and the album also features the absolutely incredible young guitarist Grant Gordy (perhaps my favorite living guitarist, and a really nice guy too), and a crop of talented Colorado-based acoustic musicians. I saw them play these tunes live last summer, in an old schoolhouse in the mountains… maybe 30 people in the audience. Just incredible music.

John Fahey attempted to fuse the ideas of Béla Bartók with the "primitive" music of the United States. Jake Schepps' project is another take on the same. Except instead of using American melodies and Bartókian harmonies, he uses Bartók's melodies and an American string band arrangement. And I think you'll find, that like most classical music that was inspired by folk music, it sounds better on folk instruments than on grand pianos.

Enjoy!

Hello Friends,

A short reminder that right now you can download the critically acclaimed album "An Evening in the Village: the Music of Bela Bartok" for FREE.  Please spread the word and let any and all know that for the next two days (March 24, & 25) you can download the entire album with bonus tracks for the big fat price of $0.00.  Bandcamp does offer the option to pay something if you are so inclined, and you can buy a physical copy for only $10.  And as always, if you buy two Bartok CD's you get a free Ten Thousand Leaves.
Facebook info here. Tweet this to your followers by clicking here, and then head straight to Bandcamp to get your copy.

Thanks!

Jake and all the Expedition Quartet
Website | Facebook |Twitter | YouTube

Béla Fleck - 2 Albums

Well it's past time that this blog paid a bit of tribute to the banjo's greatest contemporary icon.

In the taxonomy of the Grapevine, there are several divisions. Roots are the foundation of our music. Fruits are the perfection of it. Seeds begin something new and Branches connect two different strands. Well first Béla became a fruit, mastering the Scruggs/Keith/Trischka style banjo styles. Then he started branching, playing jazz and Celtic music on the 5-string banjo, and doing it better than anyone before. Then he became a seed, pioneering a new bluegrass meets funk meets world music with the Flecktones. And as I watch young players like Jayme Stone and Jake Schepps take the banjo to new places, I'm realizing that their foundation is in Béla's wonderful pioneering foundation. So in time he's becoming a new root. And yet he's going on to seed many new projects as well, making new kinds of music in Africa and India and who knows where next. So while I'm sure his name is well-known by now, I thought it still fitting to present some of his earlier, less-well-known works to give a picture of his primordial fully-formed coming out (he actually was in jazz bands and a couple of great bluegrass bands in the 70s, but this is his first statement that presents the full scope of his vision).

Biography
by Sandra Brennan
Premier banjo player Béla Fleck is considered one of the most innovative pickers in the world and has done much to demonstrate the versatility of his instrument, which he uses to play everything from traditional bluegrass to progressive jazz. He was named after composer Béla Bartok and was born in New York City. Around age 15, Fleck became fascinated with the banjo after hearing Flatt & Scruggs' "Ballad of Jed Clampett" and Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell's "Dueling Banjos," and his grandfather soon gave him one. While attending the High School of Music and Art in New York, Fleck worked on adapting bebop music for the banjo.

Fleck always had diverse musical interests, and his own style was influenced by Tony Trischka, Earl Scruggs, Chick Corea, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, the Allman Brothers, Aretha Franklin, the Byrds, and Little Feat. After graduation, he joined the Tasty Licks, a group from Boston. They recorded two albums and dissolved in 1979. Afterwards, Fleck joined the Kentucky band Spectrum. That year, only five years after he took up the instrument, he made his solo recording debut with Crossing the Tracks, which the Readers' Poll in Frets magazine named Best Overall Album. In 1982, he joined New Grass Revival and stayed with them until the end of the decade. During this time, his reputation continued to grow and in 1990, Frets magazine added his name to their Hall of Greats. In 1988, one of his compositions, "Drive" (from the album New Grass Revival), was nominated for a Grammy.

Fleck, mandolin player Sam Bush, fiddler Mark O'Connor, bassist Edgar Meyer, and Dobro player Jerry Douglas teamed up in 1989 to form Strength in Numbers and record The Telluride Sessions. Late that year, Fleck was asked by PBS television to play on the upcoming Lonesome Pine Special; in response he gathered together a veritable "dream team" of musicians to form the Flecktones. The original members included Howard Levy, who played piano, harmonica, and ocarina, among other instruments; bass guitarist Victor Lemonte Wooten, and his brother Roy "Future Man" Wooten on the drumitar, an electronic drum shaped like a guitar. Though the special wasn't aired until 1992, the Flecktones recorded their eponymous debut album in 1990 and followed it up with Flight of the Cosmic Hippo (1991).

In 1993, they released their third album, UFO Tofu, which featured music blending different genres ranging from bluegrass to R&B to worldbeat. In 1995, they released Tales from the Acoustic Planet; Left of Cool followed in 1998, and Tales from the Acoustic Planet 2: The Bluegrass Sessions was released a year later. Outbound followed in mid-2000. Busy and prolific, Fleck released an album of classical pieces, Perpetual Motion, in late 2001, followed by Live at the Quick in 2002, the ambitious double-disc Little Worlds (and its truncated single-disc version, Ten from Little Worlds) in 2003, and Music for Two (with bassist Edgar Meyer) in 2004. Hidden Land, another album with the Flecktones, appeared on Columbia Records in 2006. The band released its first holiday collection in 2008, appropriately titled Jingle All the Way. The Melody of Rhythm: Triple Concerto & Music for Trio appeared in 2009 from Koch Records, which teamed Fleck with cellist/bassist Edgar Meyer and the Indian percussionist Zakir Hussain along with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra directed by Leonard Slatkin.

Official Bio:

Béla Fleck (born July 10, 1958 in New York City, New York) is an American banjo virtuoso. He is best known for his work with the band Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, with bassist Victor Wooten, saxophonist Jeff Coffin, and percussionist Future Man.

Life and early career

Béla Anton Leoš Fleck, who is named after famous Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, Austrian composer Anton Webern, and Czech composer Leoš Janáček, was drawn to the banjo when he first heard Earl Scruggs play the theme song for the television show Beverly Hillbillies. He received his first banjo at age fifteen from his grandfather (1973). He was a member of the class of 1970 at P.S. 75 (the Emily Dickinson School) in Manhattan. Later, Fleck enrolled in New York City's High School of Music and Art where he studied the French horn. He was a banjo student under Tony Trischka.

Almost immediately after high school, Fleck traveled to Boston to play with Jack Tottle, Pat Enright, and Mark Schatz in Tasty Licks. During this period, Fleck released his first solo album (1979): Crossing the Tracks and made his first foray into progressive bluegrass composition.

Fleck played on the streets of Boston with bassist Mark Schatz; and the two, along with guitarist/vocalist Glen Lawson and mandolin great Jimmy Gaudreau, formed Spectrum: the Band in 1981. Fleck toured with Spectrum during 1981. That same year, Sam Bush asked Fleck to join New Grass Revival. Fleck performed with New Grass Revival for nine years. During this time, Fleck recorded another solo album, Drive. It was nominated for a Grammy Award in the then first-time category of "Best Bluegrass Album" (1988).

Béla Fleck and the Flecktones

Béla Fleck and Victor Wooten formed Béla Fleck and the Flecktones in 1988, along with keyboardist and harmonica player Howard Levy and Wooten's percussionist brother Roy "Future Man" Wooten, who played synthesizer-based percussion. Levy left the group in 1992, making the band a trio until Saxophonist Jeff Coffin joined the group onstage part-time in 1997, eventually becoming a permanent member. His first studio recording with the band was their 1998 album Left of Cool. In 1996, he appeared on the tribute album to Hank Marvin, one of his influences, and The Shadows "Twang" playing a Shadows UK hit from the 1960s, "The Stranger".

With the Flecktones, Fleck has been nominated for and won several Grammy awards. (Cf. Grammy sections below.)

Other music and recordings

Fleck has shared Grammy wins with Asleep at the Wheel, Alison Brown, and Edgar Meyer. He has been nominated in more categories than any other musician, namely country, pop, jazz, bluegrass, classical, folk, spoken word, composition, and arranging.

In 2001, Fleck collaborated with long-time friend and playing-partner Edgar Meyer to record Perpetual Motion, an album of classical material played on the banjo along with an assortment of accompanists, including John Williams, Evelyn Glennie, Joshua Bell and Gary Hoffman. The album includes selections such as Chopin's Etude Op. 10 No. 4 in C# minor, Debussy's Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum, and Paganini's Moto Perpetuo (from which is derived the name), as well as more lyrical pieces such as the first movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, two of Chopin's mazurkas, and two Scarlatti keyboard sonatas. Perpetual Motion won two Grammys at the Grammy Awards of 2002 for Best Classical Crossover Album and Best Arrangement for Fleck and Meyer's arrangement of Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum. Fleck and Meyer have also composed a double concerto for banjo and bass, and performed its debut with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra.

Fleck names Chick Corea, Charlie Parker, and the aforementioned Earl Scruggs as influences. He regards Scruggs as "certainly the best" banjo player of the three-finger style.

Solo and with the Flecktones, Fleck has appeared at Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Merlefest, Montreal International Jazz Festival, Toronto Jazz Festival, Newport Folk Festival, Austin City Limits Music Festival, Bonnaroo, and Jazzfest, among others.

He has also appeared as a sideman with artists ranging from Tony Rice to Ginger Baker and Phish.

In 2005, while the Flecktones were on hiatus, Fleck undertook several new projects: recording with African traditional musicians; cowriting a documentary film called Bring it Home about the Flecktones' first year off in 17 years and their reunion after that time; coproducing Song of the Traveling Daughter, the debut album by Abigail Washburn (a young banjo player who mixes bluegrass and Chinese music); forming the acoustic fusion supergroup Trio! with fellows Jean-Luc Ponty and Stanley Clarke, and recording an album as a member of the Sparrow Quartet (along with Abigail Washburn, Ben Sollee, and Casey Driessen).

In late 2006, Fleck teamed up with Chick Corea to record an album, The Enchantment, released in May 2007. Fleck and Corea toured together throughout 2007.

In July 2007 at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, he appeared and jammed with Toumani Diabaté, a kora player from Mali. He is also scheduled to play the 2009 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival with Toumani Diabaté.

In December 2007, he performed charity concerts in Germany to help promote AIDS awareness. His largest concert was held in Grosse Halle Bern on December 1, 2007.

On June 13, 2008, he performed as part of The Bluegrass Allstars, composed of bluegrass heavyweights Sam Bush, Luke Bulla, Edgar Meyer, Bryan Sutton, and Jerry Douglas at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee.

The next day Fleck performed with Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet also at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.

---------------

Béla Fleck is often considered the premier banjo player in the world. A New York City native, he picked up the banjo at age 15 after being awed by the bluegrass music of Flatt & Scruggs. While still in high school he began experimenting with playing bebop jazz on his banjo, mentored by fellow banjo renegade Tony Trischka. In 1980, he released his first solo album, Crossing the Tracks, with material that ranged from straight ahead bluegrass to Chick Corea’s “Spain.” In 1982, Fleck joined the progressive bluegrass band New Grass Revival, making a name for himself on countless solo and ensemble projects ever since as a virtuoso instrumentalist. In 1989 he formed the genre-busting Flecktones, with members equally talented and adventurous as himself.

Throw Down Your Heart, the third volume in Béla’s renowned Tales From the Acoustic Planet series, is his most ambitious project to date. In on-location collaborations with musicians from Uganda, Tanzania, Senegal, Mali, South Africa and Madagascar, Béla Fleck explores the African origins of the banjo, the prototype of which was brought to American shores by African slaves. Throw Down Your Heart is a companion to the award-winning film of the same name, which Béla and director Sascha Paladino are currently premiering at festivals nationwide. Transcending barriers of language and culture, Fleck finds common ground with musicians ranging from local villagers to international superstars such as the Malian diva Oumou Sangare to create some of the most meaningful music of his career.

The music on the album is as adventurous and varied as anything we’ve come to expect from Béla, ranging from the tradition-based opening track, performed with a group of Kenyan women singers, to the exquisite title track, performed with the Haruna Samake Trio and Bassekou Kouate from Mali. Basseko, who comes from a long line of Griot musicians, is an incredible improvising player who plays the n’goni, the Malian banjo. The music he and Béla make together is gentle and melodic. Equally modern is his duet with South African guitarist Vusi Mahlasela, who is simply known as ‘the voice’ (and what an awesome and expressive voice he has). His music connects South Africa’s Apartheid-scarred past with its promise for a better future.

Nothing can quite prepare the listener for the sound of the giant marimba played by the Muwewesu Xylophone Group in Uganda. Says Béla, “The marimba is reassembled every day, and it seems to be played by a set group of men. Each one plays a certain musical part in the group. I think there are other people who know each of the parts in case someone is unable, or unavailable to play. Also there seemed to be kids who were being taught parts. But a spot in the primary team seemed to be a very coveted spot, and the men who played in this group were very serious and very good. The village did join in – in large numbers, singing and playing flutes and fiddles and percussion instruments. They also danced.” It’s a sound of pure joy.

Another highlight is “Djorolen,” a duet with singer Oumou Sangare, who delivers a vocal that expresses heartbreaking beauty and sadness. “As she points out in this song,” says Béla, “it is often the orphans, those who have lost their parents when they are young, who have the greatest problems in life.”

“D’Gary Jam” is a fascinating amalgam that exemplifies the spirit of the album. Béla explains, “This track started its life in Nashville. We had a great jam one day, which went for 22 minutes straight, the whole take was really cool.

This was in July, about 7 months before we went to Africa. I decided to bring the track along, and add people to it as we went, and even after the trip, a kind of science project, if you will. After things got added, I took some liberties with people’s parts and did a little audio sculpting.” Along with the great acoustic guitarist D’Gary, the track features, among others, Oumou Sangare, the legendary kora player Toumani Diabate, and Bassekou Kouyate.

As to the origins of the banjo, Béla comments, “When I went to Africa I found instruments and players that gave me a better sense of where the thing started. In Gambia and Mali in particular, I found what I was looking for!” This is especially apparent on the traditional song medley “Ajula/Mbamba,” performed by Béla and The Jatta Family from the Gambia. “The akonting could very well be the original banjo. Everyone around Banjul certainly seems to think so! Huge numbers of slaves came west from this area. We were told that the musicians were allowed to play these instruments on the slave ships, and that many lives were saved due to it.”

While many of these recordings were made in the field, in Uganda, Tanzania, The Gambia and Mali, the album is beautifully recorded. The lasting impression is that Béla Fleck has revealed many subtle facets of African music, from the fully modern to the deeply traditional. It is some of the most exciting and beautiful music he’s ever made. “[Fleck’s] reverence for his fellow players allows for the honey of the African sounds to seem that much sweeter. And the music, well…You’ll just have to hear it for yourself…” -Popmatters.com

“The banjo sheds its image as the quintessential American instrument to reveal a symbol of deep African heritage and the collective wail of the European slave trade (the film’s title derives from this heartbreaking historical chapter).” - Austin American Statesman

Source: http://www.belafleck.com/bio.html

Béla Fleck - Daybreak

Year: 1988

Label: Rounder

Whenever I press a Bela Fleck disc into a friend's hand, I and ask them to listen to it,because Fleck is a virtuoso, a master of his instrument. Over the years, Bela Fleck continued to incorporate various styles into his recordings. 1988's `Daybreak' gives you a taste of how well-versed he is in playing other musical genres.

Bela stays faithful to his NewGrass style on `Texas Barbeque', `Twilight`, `Reading in the Dark', `Applebutter', `Dawg's Due' (a David Grisman tune); `Crossfire', and `Punchdrunk'.

There are jazz tunes: Spain'-- a few bars into it you'll recognize this Chic Corea favorite; and a honky-tonk version of Fats Waller's `How Can You Face Me Now' (with vocal).

This would not be a Bela Fleck disc few without a traditional bluegrass melody. This disc has several: `Bill Cheatham' featuring Bill Keith and Bela in a banjo duet; a joyful, bouncy version of `Silverbell` and a NewGrass-y version of `Fiddler's Dream'.

He also throws in a few Celtic songs---- 'Growling Old Man and the Grumbling Old Woman' and 'Christina's Jig/Plain Brown Jug'

For fans of his later `jazzgrass' sound with the Flecktones, `Daybreak', `Flexibility', `Old Hickory Waltz' and `The Natural Bridge Suite' (reminiscent of Stephane Grappelli/Django Rheinhart) won't disappoint.

Tracks
1. Texas Barbeque - Fleck - 3:57
2. Spain - Corea, Rodrigo - 7:10
3. Twilight - Fleck - 2:01
4. Reading in the Dark - Fleck - 2:36
5. Growling Old Man and the Grumbling Old Woman - Traditional - 1:38
6. How Can You Face Me? - Razaf, Waller - 4:52
7. Bill Cheatham - Traditional - 3:13
8. Christina's Jig/Plain Brown Jig - Fleck - 3:49
9. Silver Bell - Traditional - 2:54
10. Fiddler's Dream - Traditional - 2:46
11. Daybreak - Fleck - 2:58
12. Dawg's Due - Fleck - 2:57
13. Flexibility - Fleck - 4:10
14. Old Hickory Waltz - Fleck - 4:52
15. Crossfire - Fleck - 3:25
16. Applebutter - Fleck - 2:41
17. The Natural Bridge Suite - Fleck - 6:54
18. Punch Drunk - Fleck - 2:42

Béla Fleck - Crossing the Tracks

Year: 1979
Label: Rounder

Review
by Steve Leggett
Crossing the Tracks was Béla Fleck's first solo album, released on LP by Rounder Records in 1979 (for some reason Rounder never got around to releasing it on CD until 2005), and it featured an inspired and forward-thinking string band consisting of Bob Applebaum on mandolin, Russ Barenberg on acoustic guitar, Sam Bush on fiddle, Mark Schatz on acoustic bass, and Fleck, then a 20-year-old banjo player with brilliant chops and a bebop heart. Fleck gets the bluegrass monkey off his back with the opening track, a solid version of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs' "Dear Old Dixie," and then is free to roam through a gentle and sparkling set of traditional tunes ("Growling Old Man and Grumbling Old Woman"), boogie rags (Fats Waller's "How Can You Face Me Now"), airy and elegant originals ("Inman Square" and the wonderful, endlessly shifting "Twilight"), and genre-jumping jazz covers (Chick Corea's "Spain"), all done with a bright, joyful élan, before ending things with a beautiful old-timey version of the traditional "Ain't Gonna Work Tomorrow," which features vocals from Fleck's old Tasty Licks bandmate Pat Enright. In time this sort of thing would come to be known as "jazzgrass" or "newgrass," but there really wasn't a name for it in 1979, which certainly didn't stop Fleck from going there. Crossing the Tracks is full of subtle innovation, and if it doesn't seem as immediately startling as his later fusion flights, listen again. All the seeds are there.

Tracks:
1. Dear Old Dixie - Flatt, Scruggs - 2:39
2. Inman Square - Fleck - 4:00
3. Texas Barbeque - Fleck - 3:59
4. Growling Old Man and the Grumbling Old Woman - Fleck, Traditional - 1:41
5. Spain - Corea, Rodrigo - 7:12
6. Crossing the Tracks - Fleck - 3:38
7. Spring Thaw - Fleck - 2:27
8. How Can You Face Me Now - Razaf, Waller - 4:54
9. Twilight. 2:01
10. Frosty Morning. 2:58
11. Ain't Gonna Work Tomorrow. 2:26

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