Repertoire advice? Early banjo pieces that show African influence?

[Jared Denhard]

Hi everyone--really enjoying everyone's videos and high level discourse, a relative rarity online these days, it seems!

Anyway, sorry if this has been beaten about somewhere before, but I'm putting together a little lecture/recital on traditional bloodlines of early banjo music, exploring African/ Celtic and European contributions to early repertoire and playing styles.

I wanted to ask if anyone could suggest some pieces that best represent the West African roots of the banjo, that would be good examples to include in this concert.

I was thinking of adapting some Ekonting riffs off of videos, but that seems kind of like extreme reverse engineering, since that music has obviously developed over the last 200 years, and mostly seems to consist of repeated ostinato figures under ornately sung melodies.

I think the argument can be made for "Injun Rubber Overcoat," with its bluesy flat 5th and call and response form, but would appreciate any other ideas or input. 

Thanks!

[Jared Denhard]

Thanks, Paul! I will explore those suggestion, esp the Gottschalk, I'm reading your essay on it right now! 

The Converse is the "Morceaux" piece, with the EAEAB tuning? 

It does have that cakewalk syncopation that you'd think you'd find more...

Anyway, I appreciate the direction!

[John Masciale]

You might want to look at Coal Black Rose.  There are strong elements of Juba in there.  For 1828 it really foreshadows minstrel music, and has been suggested to be the first true minstrel song.  I read somewhere that Grapevine Twist has African American origins, but I don't remember where I read that, so it is probably undocumented.  In general I would suggest that the later the date for a piece of music the less likely that it has African influence.  Of course, after the war music of people like Horace Weston starts to show up.

[Jared Denhard]

Thanks, John- it is Juba-esque! 

[Strumelia]

I would put my personal vote in for Pompei Ran Away.    :)

[Jared Denhard]

Thanks, Strumelia-that's a great one!

J

[John Cohen]

My vote is for Hobson's Jig.

[Jared Denhard]

Thnaks, John-

I like playing Injun Rubber and Hobson's Jig together, as they use similar melodic material but good contrast, too.

It's funny how Hobson's is one of the few EB jigs that's actually a 6/8 jig by Irish dance definition.

Most of the time (in Briggs, Buckley, Sweeney) they are just 2/4 twosteps/marches/quicksteps.

[John Cohen]

I don't know if you listen to any modern African pop music, but Hobson's Jig kind of has the feel the electric guitars do in that genre.

[Jared Denhard]

cool--will check out!

[Joel Hooks]

Hi Paul, I don't give the story much credit either, perhaps for different reasons.

The man did not show him anything.  FBC wrote "it was the first banjo I ever heard… I cannot say I learned anything from his execution."  It is also a stretch to say that the youthful FBC was insulting to the guy without evidence.  By all accounts, FBC (young or old) was a pleasant person.

A lot of credit has been given to this story and the attached musical piece as very early proof of the "old-time banjo" tradition of scordatura.  This is cited as documentable proof that the current "old-time" folk banjo tradition existed before and remains free of popular minstrelsy influence.

As FBC was a preteen adolescent at the time this would have taken place it is clearly a "back in my day we had it hard" story directed at "you kids of today that have it easy. (shakes fist)."  The scordatura was clearly pointed out as a stunt of showmanship, that the musician claimed he was such a good banjo player that he could even play "out ob a'tune."

Also, as banjo historians claw and scratch to find a documentable connection between African Americans (free or slave) and the pioneers of popular five string banjo, this story gets confused with another story. It is often misquoted that FBC was taught how to play thimble style by a black man named John "Pic" Butler.  That fact is that Pic Butler was not black (at least not the one FBC knew) and this had been distorted over the years (originating with Robert Toll I think) and gets repeated time and time again.  We were enlightened of this by the fantastic job Tony Thomas did at the EBG.

I'm glad that we live in a day where we can read the actual cited documents and not have to rely on the authors interpretation of them.

Back to the topic.

How does one determine what would have "sounded African" to a American in the 1850s?  I mean, I can watch youtube videos of African folk music played recently in Africa by current musicians.  That does not give me an exact account of what a generation removed of enslaved African Americans--stripped of their culture, would have played mid 19th century. Or does it?

Paul Ely Smith said:

Yeah, that's the Converse.  The "cakewalk syncopation" is common enough in minstrel music that I don't give its presence in the "Morceau" much weight.  The EAEAB tuning is interesting though, and when I got into this stuff (c. 1980) I decided to use it as my standard tuning--I think the EAEG#B was devised by the minstrels and I prefer the way the banjo sounds with the perfect intervals...And I liked having to rework all the fingering so that I didn't just follow the minstrel banjo methods.  The piece may be authentic, but Converse's unpleasant dismissal of his source makes me think he might have overlooked a lot of what the player was actually doing, or possibly he insulted the player enough that the guy didn't really show what he was doing.  When you see later attempts of European-Americans copying African-American music, compared to the originals, I see no reason to think that the minstrels did any better--I assume that, lacking sound recording and (for some) respect for African-American music, they probably did worse.  Think Pat Boone doing rock 'n' roll.      

[Joel Hooks]

I thought FBC made it pretty clear, it was an act.  The gag was "I am such a great banjo player that I am not bothered by it being out of tune! (twists a peg to "throw it out of tune"-- really just changing the intervals, but the audience does not know this).  Now listen as I can play with the banjo out of tune!"

That is "trick playing."  No different than when I play "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" while swinging the banjo in front of me for the finale of "Bell Chimes."  Or using scordatura to play "Bag Pipes Imitations." Or when Bacon played "Yankee Doodle" and "Blue Bells of Scotland" at the same time on one banjo.

That was show business (on a buskers scale).  One thing we have to constantly remember is that the banjo was used to make money and that even from the earliest times of the five string banjo it was played for entertainment. 

I'll bow down to others on the African Sound part.  The Habanera rhythm (16th/8th/16th ) is largely attributed to Cuba. I believe that the ragtime folks call that "untied syncopation."  But again, I'm speaking beyond my knowledge level.

[Strumelia]

If you don't think you have anything to learn from someone, you won't learn something from that person.

Very wise words to treasure and keep, Paul.  I've experienced that myself.