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Lew H - Posted - 12/12/2014: 19:08:27
Duke Ellington's orchestra first played Caravan several decades ago in 1937. It was a slow-ish exotic middle eastern sounding tune. It was covered by many jazz groups, some of whom speeded up the tempo and emphasized the rhythm more. Somewhere along the line, the faster, punchy version entered the newgrass repertoire. If you've never heard an old-time banjo version, you get to do so now. As usual, I've inserted a few glitches so that no one expects perfection from me in future posts. ;)
By the way, I recorded this tune using my Vega Style M Tubaphone with an 11 15/16 inch pot--originally a tenor, but now with a repro 5-string neck.
mightyyt - Posted - 12/12/2014: 19:35:18
Outstanding!
mhmbv - Posted - 12/12/2014: 20:20:35
Very nice, Lew. Really enjoyed your version of that great old tune. Your glitches were extremely tasteful if there were any.
banjonoah - Posted - 12/12/2014: 21:00:58
Lew, this is awesome. Nice job on this one.
Doug Knecht - Posted - 12/12/2014: 21:05:40
You know I always like it when you play this song, Lew!
Sideshow Skip - Posted - 12/13/2014: 02:17:21
Brilliant, Lew ! I love when people get innovative and stretch the possibilities of the banjo
rickhayes - Posted - 12/13/2014: 07:11:36
Nice interpretation and playing on that take Lew.
Lew H - Posted - 12/13/2014: 12:07:16
Thanks, all, for your kind words. I do like take clawhammer where it has never gone before (to paraphrase Star Trek). That's what makes it fun for me. A lot of OT pickers would just hate what I've done here, so I do appreciate your comments. Doug, maybe we'll meet up sometime and pick Caravan together; perhaps I"ll get to the Sprainfield festival next year and see you.
ramjo - Posted - 12/13/2014: 14:58:40
Now that's how Duke would play the banjo if the joint didn't have a piano. 
Nice!
Laurence Diehl - Posted - 12/13/2014: 21:42:49
Lew, you are obviously fearless. I always liked this tune on banjo, never heard it clawhammer but you did a fine job!
Lew H - Posted - 12/14/2014: 05:42:43
Thanks, Laurence.... although some people might say I'm more foolhardy than fearless. You also do some fabulous progressive banjo boundary-pushing that I greatly admire.
Zischkale - Posted - 12/14/2014: 10:31:38
Great arrangement, dig those bends, and the sharp, biting tone, real nice!
Another great one -- I really enjoy how you do Mojo Hand, whenever I play that arrangement folks seem to take notice. My only miniscule complaint is I wish this were a video so I could study the fret and right hand work!
Lew H - Posted - 12/14/2014: 13:18:00
Aaron, thanks again. I have to enlist help to post videos, so I'm taking the easy route with posting mp3 files. Maybe a brief overview will help. The banjo is in open G tuning , and the modal sounding part is played up the neck-- mostly around the 6th to 9th frets on the 2nd and 3rd strings. The weird sounding chord at the end of this modal part is a C minor 9 (or so I'm told)--from 1st to 4th strings: 1st--open, 2nd--4th fret, 3rd--5th fret, 4, 5th fret. So it's a C minor with the first string open The bridge is a circle of 4ths also up the neck. Each subsequent chord is a 4th above the previous one. I basically hold chords while doing HOs and POs. THis bridge starts in C major barred at the 5th fret, goes to F major, goes to B flat major, goes to E flat major, then drops one fret to D major (as a transition back to the modal sounding part).
By the way, did you see Peter Summerville's string band version of Mojo. He picked up that riff from me, sped it up, and took it to new places. I love it! I'm working on Muddy Waters's "Rollin' and Tumblin'," but I deon't have the timing quite right yet. Maybe in a few weeks....
Zischkale - Posted - 12/15/2014: 12:34:24
Yeah, I'd be flattered, that's a great string band rendition there.
Patrick P. - Posted - 12/17/2014: 06:49:06
Nice rendition in clawhammer banjo, i've always heard(not sure for the conjugation ...) in 3 finger picking
Lew H - Posted - 12/17/2014: 07:43:24
Thanks Patrick. So far as I know, I'm the only person to clawhammer this old jazz tune. I first heard it from a bluegrass hot picker in my community, then later heard the jazz versions from Duke Ellington and the speedier version from the Benny Goodman Quartet (Quintet?). I mistakenly said in my first post that Ellington wrote the piece. In reality, someone else wrote it, but Ellington was the first to record it (according to Wikipedia).
Banjolio - Posted - 02/06/2015: 10:57:33
Lew H: I love this tune, and I REALLY love the way you play it.
Your playing is so clean and has the feel of a fiddle tune yet does the jazz composition justice.
What tuning are you in?
I've been playing this with my band for a while, and it's very different from your version.
I play it mostly clawhammer ... with some single string and some strumming.
Key of Dm. Tuning: aDGBD
I've attached (if it works) a version.
Lew H - Posted - 02/06/2015: 11:32:24
Thanks for your gracious comments. I play it in G major tuning, but probably in the key of C minor with bridge in C major. That's how some of the bluegrassers in my area play it, and whom I emulate on this song.. It's all up the neck, but not otherwise too hard. If there were guitar accompaniment in my version, in the C minor part, the guitar would be playing chords of G, A flat, G, A flat.... one strum of each.
Your version is just magical to my ear. I like your intro a lot, and the arrangement is truer to the Ellington version, but with great banjo picking and a neat arrangement. I'm wowed by the different variations in your picking. Since my version is solo, I just try to keep the bum-ditty rhythm going while approximating the melody. I have a lot of fun with it, but don't have many opportuniites to play it at jams or in public.
