WVDreamin - Posted - 02/18/2022:  20:04:47

Sorry for the delay, it was a rough day at the office.

This week I've chosen "Chinese Breakdown."

Couldn't find much about it (like, why the title?) other than what was on the Tradition Tune Archive, which wasn't much.  Appears to have first been recorded in 1925 by the Dixie String Band, but I couldn't find that recording. I did find this early one from '27 with a plectrum banjo as the main instrument: Scottdale String Band And there's another old version that is very busy Chinese BD. It sounds a bit like the Loony Tunes melody and I think there is an old song with lyrics about a Merry Go Round that has that melody. 

Most folks play it in D, which is where the fiddlers seem to prefer it, but I really like how it falls on the fingerboard in C, and both banjo players I regularly play with seem to agree that C has the better sound and there aren't enough C tunes. There's lots of versions on the web, not many are banjo centric but here's a handful that are. 

Dan Levenson

Dale Fain (more of a backup, but neat two finger playing)

Hillary Burhans lesson

Adam Hurt

Vera Victoria short but sweet

Michel Lelong

And here is me on fiddle with Paul Perkins on the 5 string banjo.  (I always like to say that full phrase on stage when introducing him, usually done with a lot of fanfare).

Chinese Breakdown

 

janolov - Posted - 02/19/2022:  04:19:50

I was trying to play Chinese Breakdown some the years ago. I listened a lot of this video by Kirk Sutphin and Chris Via youtube.com/watch?v=F2oCsp6xiL8 and tried to work out a kind of old-time three finger version, but now I think I have forgotten the tune - it is time for a rebooting of the memory. 

carlb - Posted - 02/19/2022:  05:08:24

I have three friends, who I play with weekly, and we always play in C. As a result, there are quite a few D tunes that I now play in C on the fiddle. Chinese Breakdown is among them and I like it much better in C than in D. Other D tunes, that I can now play in C are: Arkansas Traveler, Peacock Rag, Paddy Won't You Drink Some Cider, and Pig Ankle Rag.

JanetB - Posted - 02/19/2022:  17:01:58

Great samples, including your smooth fiddling, Billy!  I like how Hilarie slows it down and plays along a nice, playable version with a random youtube video.  She's such a great learn-by-ear player and breaks it down to teach with a good view of the neck and some explanation.

I had arranged this for someone a while back, but never recorded it till today.  I'd discovered that Brad Leftwich had fiddled it on Bob Carlin's seminal CD Banging and Sawing.  He was very notey, and I literally had to "read ahead" of my own tab to play it today.  It would be better to internalize the piece and then simplify it.  Brad wrote his source was Ed Haley and so I've begun an arrangement from Mr. Haley, which is different in some ways from Brad's and I think easier.  The hard part now is hearing Haley's fiddle clearly.  Perhaps I can get to finish it this week...

My tab is in double C, so figure to capo or tune up a step to play in D.

No info on the title yet, but it sounds a bit ragtime to me.

Chinese Breakdown (TOTW)

Chinese Breakdown (CH) tab

WVDreamin - Posted - 02/19/2022:  18:40:15

Very nice, Janet!
Ed Haley was my inspiration for key of C, but when I was looking at the various versions for this week's post I realized that I didn't really study Haley's version very closely (or learned it a long while ago before I was capable of hearing the fine details, which is the reality). I've wound up with my own version it seems.

elkinsfiddler - Posted - 02/19/2022:  19:08:14

Gee, I never thought of Chinese Breakdown as a Kentucky/West Virginia tune although I probably learned it in Elkins, WV where I lived for many years. I think it is much more universal and probably came from the same cloudy source that tunes like Colored Aristocracy and Moon Behind the Hill came from (actually both those tunes have a West Virginia connection though not the same one). They seem like late 19th century medicine show or maybe minstrel tunes roughly based on ragtime. I've played it on the fiddle for years but for some reason never on the banjo. Recently, I've started to play a rough version on the banjo. I really like the version recorded for this post. Thanks!

WVDreamin - Posted - 02/19/2022:  19:19:22

Thanks Leslie, I enjoy this tune a lot, many places for variations. I hope you work up a version and post it.

banjukebox - Posted - 02/20/2022:  07:23:07

This is a great tune, though it doesn't seem to be played too often in jams around these parts. Thanks for posting!

Here's another version: Chinese Breakdown

And: The Tab

Remsleep - Posted - 02/20/2022:  07:32:49

It’s a favorite precisely because it reminds me a bit of the Looney Tunes theme. I was told that it came out of Mt. Airy, NC, where the original “Siamese Twins”, Chang and Eng Bunker settled. The tune was written in their honor - hence the circus sound - and I guess whoever wrote it had reasons for calling it “Chinese” rather than “Siamese”. Could be true, could be fake news, but I like the tune and usually play it out of C rather than D.

Don Borchelt - Posted - 02/20/2022:  07:38:34

Great choice for TOTW, Billy, you and Paul do a great job on it, too. I also love the fine, elegant version Janet has shared with us, she never disappoints.



Chinese Breakdown always felt to me like a minstrel era tune, but unlike Turkey in the Straw and similar tunes, it doesn't seem to have a published record from that era. But it is one of those old tunes played widely all over the country, like Turkey in the Straw, Soldier's Joy, Arkansas Traveler, Chicken Reel, and Golden Slippers, tunes I don't hear in jams much anymore, but they used to be in every fiddler's repertoire. It was one of the first fiddle tunes I learned to play on the banjo. I made the recording attached below in 1971, fifty years ago, at the Union Grove festival on the Van Hoy Farm in Union Grove, North Carolina, using a little cassette recorder I had with me. If I remember correctly, I was in open G tuning using C positions, but capoed on the 2nd fret. These days, I play it in open D tuning. The fiddler might be a very young Jimmy Vipperman, but I'm not sure. Below is a picture of me playing in the Union grove contest with the Vipperman family, Jimmy on fiddle, his father Johnny on bass, and his brother Larry on guitar.

-Don B

Edited by - Don Borchelt on 02/20/2022 07:41:18

Chinese Breakdown from Union Grove 1971

 

Don Borchelt - Posted - 02/20/2022:  18:16:58

While I was writing up my post, I didn't see that banjukebox had also submitted a recording. Very nicely done, you got the whole melody without sacrificing the rhythmic drive.

WVDreamin - Posted - 02/20/2022:  18:43:56

Don, your version is nice and peppy and look at how young you were!

Pat, I like the syncopation quite a bit.

gcpicken - Posted - 02/20/2022:  21:34:16

quote:

---

Originally posted by JanetB

Great samples, including your smooth fiddling, Billy!  I like how Hilarie slows it down and plays along a nice, playable version with a random youtube video.  She's such a great learn-by-ear player and breaks it down to teach with a good view of the neck and some explanation.

I had arranged this for someone a while back, but never recorded it till today. 

That recording you attached brought a real tear to my eye. So beautiful and haunting.

WVDreamin - Posted - 02/21/2022:  05:03:22

I was just listening to everyone again and if I had to guess, I would say both Janet and Pat used Brad Leftwich as their model for this tune. Very similar and uniquely different from the others I've come across or that have been posted so far.