5 string Banjo America’s National Instrument.

[thereallyniceman]

I have recently discovered and old record album that I had not come across before and thought that I would share it with you. It contains some plectrum tracks but mostly Classic fingerstyle.

5 string Banjo America’s National Instrument.

 

DOWNLOAD THE FULL RECORDING HERE

Track Listing:

01 Come on Down South                       Ted Shawnee

02 Southern Kaffe Klatch                    Alexander Magee

03 Hungarian Dance No.6                    Frank Bradbury

04 Waiting for the Robert E. Lee         Ted Shawnee

05 Massa’s in the cold, cold ground     Fred Bacon

06 Dance of the Hours                           Frank Bradbury

07 Jolly Darkies                                      Alexander Magee

08 Dill Pickles                                         Ted Shawnee

 

The sleeve notes are interesting for their inventiveness, if not their accuracy. I was a little surprised to read that Joel Walker Sweeney “invented” the banjo in 1831. :-)

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The track “Dance of the Hours” by Bradbury is amazing and I have added the music score to the MUSIC LIBRARY for those brave enough to try, but although arranged by Bradbury it does not seem have all of the embellishments of the recording.

 

ENJOY !

 

FRANK BRADBURY: DANCE OF THE HOURS

[thereallyniceman]

The recording is around 30Meg so may take a while to download for people with slower broadband connections.

[Jody Stecher]

Inventive sleeve notes indeed. Especially when it comes to numbers. This is like shooting fish in a barrel but .... Let's see what I learned:

the five string banjo has four strings.

Sweeney played for two years for the queen, apparently continuously. After that *someone* gave him a money belt, but not until he returned home. Paying him on the east side of the Atlantic might only encourage him to play another year without stopping.

Fred Bacon manufactured one banjo.

If Frank Bradbury was selected to play 8 times as often as other soloists how many times were the others soloists selected? This reminds me of when I was the opening act for a Big Star for one night. The next day I bragged that my CD sales were double hers. The truth was that I sold 2 and she sold 1.  

Then there is the idea that the saxophone has the same relationship to France as the mandolin to Italy. Hmmm. Wasn't Adolphe Sax Belgian?  Why France? Because of Selmer, maybe?

[marc dalmasso]

Ian ; Thx ; i will give an eye to the score

Jody ; yes every sax player in the world want the blue logo " henri Selmer Paris " on his instrument  and

 nothing else ;

[Mike Moss]

Reading sleeve notes is always fun, if only for the entertainment value. I've learned a lot about the five (but actually four)-stringed "classical" banjo with its hum string, named after Dave Hum. Also, apparently, Bradbury transcribed music for the banjo both here and abroad -- does that mean that he wrote the transcriptions in a hotel room in Paris, or that he played the transcriptions in other countries?

[Mike Moss]

PS: The Dance of the Hours is just amazing and hilarious at the same time. I've been having a look at the sheet music and I will probably give it a shot. I've got a couple of questions:

- There seem to be a couple of unplayable notes in bar 1 on page 6. How am I supposed to play the low E flat and D flat while playing the E flat and F two octaves above? Am I supposed to jump from one position to another, playing them as close as possible?

- What is a drum slide? I've seen this mentioned a few times, mostly in American texts, but I don't know what it means. Is it a rasp?

[thereallyniceman]

Bar 1 Page 6... simple.

This is the short, but very important, second banjo part for the piece.  ;-)

A Drum Slide is a rasp across the strings from 4th-1st finger of the R Hand.

I usually rasp with my right hand turned over and then explode the fingers over the strings in the order  1st-4th finger... but that is just my preference as it give a more brash sound.

[Trapdoor2]

LOL. I guess good old Queen Vic got bored after 2 yrs of daily banjoing and sent him packing. Perhaps the citizens of the US, upon his return, gave him a belt full of gold and then tried to coerce him into the water?

This is the first time I've ever heard F. Bradbury play. Very neat!

I wonder if "Southern Kaffee Klatch" is actually "Koontown Koffee Klatsch"? I should like to hear the whole album!

 

[Jody Stecher]

My best guess is that the lower notes comprise an alternate melody. My second best guess is that Bradbury was composing for an octopus. 

Mike Moss said:

PS: The Dance of the Hours is just amazing and hilarious at the same time. I've been having a look at the sheet music and I will probably give it a shot. I've got a couple of questions:

- There seem to be a couple of unplayable notes in bar 1 on page 6. How am I supposed to play the low E flat and D flat while playing the E flat and F two octaves above? Am I supposed to jump from one position to another, playing them as close as possible?

- What is a drum slide? I've seen this mentioned a few times, mostly in American texts, but I don't know what it means. Is it a rasp?

[thereallyniceman]

Hey Marc.. you can download the full album:

DOWNLOAD THE FULL ALBUM

Ian

[Jody Stecher]

There is a 12 inch version of this LP with corrected liner notes and 14 tracks, the addition of Bill Bowen, lots more Ted Shawnee (playing with a plectrum) and some of the repertoire replaced. Instead of Hungarian Dance, Frank Bradbury plays Donkey Laugh.  The Kaffe Klatch has been abandoned in favor or more plectrum banjo recordings. About 20 years ago or more Bill Keith had acquired a barrel full of these LPs and was selling them for just a few dollars, recommending that everyone listen to the Fred Bacon piece. I just found my copy and had a look. 

The corrected liner notes do make more sense now. For instance, the clause about 8 times more than any other banjo player turned out to be a case of missing parentheses.   ".....has been selected 8 times (more than any other banjoist) as soloist...."     Sweeney still plays continuously for 2 years but in the new version of the notes he is presented with the gold-filled money belt in advance of returning to America. 

The expanded LP is called "Banjo-istics"  and is subtitled "5 String Banjo/America's National Instrument. The back cover says "Collector's Recording- Finger Stylists and Plectrum. In fact it's 8 plectrum pieces and 7 fingerstyle pieces.

[Mike Moss]

I've got a third theory to add to the 2nd banjo / cephalopod hypotheses. It's a bit ridiculous but certainly do-able. I tried fretting the low E flat (3rd fret) with my left hand index finger, and playing it with my left hand pinky finer, while fretting the high E flat (13th fret) with my right hand thumb and playing it with my right hand pinky. Lo and behold, it works! Simultaneous notes two octaves apart! Ditto for the next notes. It rather feels like playing a Chapman Stick.

[thereallyniceman]

Hmmm,  Certainly thinking outside the box there Mike!

Just grow some of these: