mralston - Posted - 11/14/2009:  05:41:02

(Please excuse brief venting) In the past week I (briefly) followed a post here on BHO on evolution which got pretty tedious pretty quick, a spin-off on the evolution of the banjo which seemed to be tainted by the evolution thread, then an excellent posting by banjobilly on some YouTube clips of contemporary African musicians playing banjo-like instruments. That thread intrigued me, since I had never seen some of the right-hand techniques, indigenous to Africa, which are clearly ancestral to the clawhammer style. That thread stalled with a short dispute on the origin of the banjo, which I think was a shame.

I did a little YouTube searching this morning, and found a couple of interesting clips on the evolution of the banjo as a musical instrument, and some clips of contemporary African musicians playing banjo-like instruments which I added to BanjoBilly's list. I also figured out how to create a playlist of these clips, link below. I saved the best till next-to-last... a long clip with Scott Didlake, Mike Seeger, & Clark Buehling. If you stay with the playlist up to this clip, stay with it. Last clip is on early cigar box fiddles, kinda congruent with the info on early development of the banjo.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_li...7E1C4440FE96
(this link takes you to a "playlist" page, click on "play all videos")



Mark Ralston

"Now, people…. when it comes to the scientifical parts of music I know nothing about it, but I can play. Listen…. A man comes to this world naked and bare; He goes through life with troubles and care; He departs this life and goes we don’t know where; But he’ll be all right there if he lives all right here" ......... Uncle Dave Macon

www.yellowstone-jewelry.com

fretlessinfortwayne - Posted - 11/14/2009:  06:01:04

Mark, I met a fellow at Clifftop that you might know -- Chuck Levy of Gainesville, Fla. He has a fascination with the three-string ekonting and traveled to Gambia in 2007 to learn more about it. He was playing one at Clifftop. Very nice fella. He has an excellent CD that just came out called "Banjourneys."

Dean

"Each one's got to have his own style. It's all creamed potatoes, just fixed a little different." -- Benton Flippen

Edited by - fretlessinfortwayne on 11/14/2009 06:28:13

omiimii - Posted - 11/15/2009:  00:45:38

you might also might want to check out the cd black banjo songsters, which was compiled by cecilia conway. she also wrote a book, which i have yet to read (but really, really want to!) called "african banjo echoes in appalachia". it has really good review on amazon.com and looks to be a really informative and interesting read.

also check out these three pages:
http://www.myspace.com/akonting
http://www.myspace.com/banjorootswestafrica
http://www.myspace.com/banjoroots

these pages have a ton of info.

R.D. Lunceford - Posted - 11/15/2009:  11:35:25

Two books; the one that omiimii recommends above and "America's Instrument- The Banjo in the 19th Century", by Gura and Bollman represent a nearly complete education in the history and development of the banjo. Read those two and you'll know more about the banjo than 99% of everybody.

R.D. Lunceford- "Missourian in Exile"
Model 1865 Bowlin Fretless Banjo
****************************************************
"Drink from the Musselfork once, and you'll
always come back." -Dr. Bondurant Hughes, 1917

mralston - Posted - 11/15/2009:  12:32:28

Thanks, all, for the comments. I think I put my finger on something regarding my reaction here...... I had a long relationship with the banjo until the late 1980s, when I got away from the music (job, kids, blah, blah, blah). So I kinda cut my teeth on OT music before the internet really got up and running. I'm just recently getting back into OT music, and looking at some of the (overwhelming mass of) OT internet resources for the first time.

I knew a bit about the history of the Banjo (bought "Ring the Banjar when it came out in 1984), but had never seen first-hand the African playing that was the source of clawhammer. The academic stuff is fine but not the same as actually hearing & seeing someone play one of the African instruments, which I hadn't seen before.

So........ seeing some of those YouTube clips was like finding a long-lost home movie of an old, once-close relative. Here's one clip that really rang my bell:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSDx...FE96&index=4

Dean - have you moved to AL yet ? Nice meeting you this summer at Clifftop, didn't meet Levy. Did meet Jim Bollman and had an interesting chat about old Boston banjos.

Mark Ralston

"Now, people…. when it comes to the scientifical parts of music I know nothing about it, but I can play. Listen…. A man comes to this world naked and bare; He goes through life with troubles and care; He departs this life and goes we don’t know where; But he’ll be all right there if he lives all right here" ......... Uncle Dave Macon

www.yellowstone-jewelry.com

omiimii - Posted - 11/15/2009:  13:22:07

also, there is some playing in the bela fleck film throw down your heart.
i'm not a bluegrass fan and wish they had had more african folks playing in the film
but there are a few parts worth seeing. i would rent it over buying it though.

robertsart - Posted - 11/15/2009:  15:14:31

A really cool CD relating to this topic, is "From Mali to America" by Cheick Hamala Diabate and Bob Carlin. It was nominated for a Grammy when it came out a few years ago but I never really heard much about it... maybe it was overshadowed by Bela's "Throw Down Your Heart" which, I think came out about the same time, if not a little bit later.

I'm sure it's not everyones cup of tea, but I love it (despite the fact that it isn't always easy to tap your foot along with!). It has very comprehensive liner notes regarding the relationship between traditional "banjo like" instruments of West Africa (ngoni) and the American banjo. It's available on the 5-String Productions label: http://www.5-string.com/5SP06004.html







Scott Roberts
www.oldgroove.com

Edited by - robertsart on 11/15/2009 17:03:19