Recordings of Old Classic Banjo Players Needed

[Hal Allert]

If you have been following my previous post, you will have noticed that spilled the beans to Ian about my latest project. I hope to start an Internet Radio Station that will play restored music from my collection of tapes. It will be called Classic Banjo Radio. I have close to 500 songs ready to go with another 200-300 to clean up yet.

My purpose is to preserve the playing of these old performers forever by posting their songs on the Internet.When I am gone, all of my old tapes and such will have no purpose and will either degrade gracefully or be tossed. I am sure many of you have old recordings that you don't know what to do with. I am asking now if you would like to contribute to this project and help keep the music flowing.

If you have any old cassettes or recordings I would digitize them, clean them up, and send you back MP3s of your music just for letting me use them. I would not send back the cassettes as not many of you probably don't have a way of playing them anymore.

Please look through your collections and determine if you have anything I might use. You can reply to this posting or contact me at [e-mail] with what you have. I can let you know if I have it or not. I suspect there are a lot of copies of the same music floating around out there and would not want you to mail me something that I already have. If I already have it, I could possibly send you a clean version of what you have on tape.

Again, my mandate has been to keep this music alive for the future. Our group shares that philosophy or we wouldn't be contributing to this site as we have been. So please help me out in keeping Classic Banjo alive.

[Jody Stecher]

Good on you for doing this!  I love the Radio logo. We had a radio very much like that in the kitchen when i was growing up. I don't think I have any recordings you don't have. I've got some digitized old banjo recordings that I got from Norman Field who put them on CD for me, and some of his old Neovox cassettes (not to be confused with Steve Walker's Neophone CDs, some of which I also have).  I assume you've got all this.

[Hal Allert]

I might not, Jody. I don't have the Neovox cassettes nor the Norman Field ones. Can you send me a list offline?

[Jody Stecher]

Sure, I will scan the playlists from the cassette j cards and CD booklets and inserts and email you that. After you verify if there is anything not already in your collection,  I can copy what you don't have and get it to you somehow. This will take time of course.

However, I do play the cassettes so you can't have them and not return them! I think you will find that many players of old music have a way of playing cassettes, open reels, LPs, 78s, and even cylinders (not me for cylinders, but others I know, absolutely, and they play them daily.) So I think your No Returns Of Tapes policy might need revision if you want access to people's collections.  

 A few points of clarification. 1) Neovox and Norman Field are one and the same. Neo*phone*  is different. Do you have Steve Walker's Neophone CDs?  

2) If you look at the old five-string banjo sheet music, by any publisher at all, you will never find a Banjo Solo (an instrumental musical piece) described as a "song". That's because it isn't. It's none of my business since you are doing the work but still I think Keep It Clear is a good policy. So in setting up your Radio Site I recommend  adhering to this minimal level of precision. Song is when there are words or birds. Songs are sung. Banjos are played. 

[Hal Allert]

Jody, thanks for the quick response. I mentioned not returning the cassettes because I, mistakenly, assumed they weren't being used. I can and will be glad to return cassettes to anyone who wants them back.

Thanks for clarifying the Neovox and Norman Field thing. I didn't know that. I don't think I have any of Steve Walker's CDs. I do have a set of 6 CDs that were called Early Music. I don't remember where I got them. The quality of the sound on these 6 is terrible. I have never liked hearing a CD of the old music in its original state, especially since it was digitized. There is no value added to it. Some people might object to not hearing it in its original state but I would not want to hear a radio station playing mostly static or noise for any length of time. I have several CDs that I purchased and could not listen to because the quality of the tunes were so bad. I cleaned them up and can listen to them now. I consider them different recordings from the ones I purchased.

I know we have had this discussion before about what to call these banjo pieces. I changed the wording on my website to acknowledge this and am sorry if I lapsed into the vernacular by using the term songs. I stand corrected again.

Is there a link I can go to to view the Neophone CDs? I understand Neovox is no more either.

Hal

[Jody Stecher]

The quality of the Steve Walker CDs is mostly very good. However the Tarrant Bailey Collection is very noisy, as the home-made cylinders it presents had been played many times and sometimes were recorded over other early recordings on the same cylinders. Walker's Neovox recordings have been minimally processed because in general (apart from collection I just mentioned) his starting point is discs and cylinders that are in excellent condition. The same applies to Norman Field's recordings. They sounded good to start with, so more or less direct transference to other media was successful. Care and restraint needs to be taken in cleaning the music worn discs and cylinders because the music itself can be purged along with the noise. There have been some Vess Ossman CD releases that have dreadful audio quality. But Rich Stillman did a fantastic job in his 2003 CD of Ossman and Van Eps using his own "secret software".  

The Neophone website has been defunct for a long time. Most of the CDs are themed ragtime anthologies containing classic banjo but also brass band and other non-banjo music but most of them have a healthy dose of classic banjo. They also contained excellent liner notes with a good perspective on musical trends, the early record business, and Steve Walker went as far as presenting two recordings of Olly Oakley playing Sweet Jasmine that were recorded decades apart and which reflect the feeling of two different eras, the pre-Great War optimism and the deep sadness that the loss of a generation brought to the UK. 

[Jody Stecher]

Norman Field still has a website, though maybe not for selling dubs of recordings from his collection.

http://www.normanfield.com

There you will find a link to an article about de-crackling 78s.  The home page is well worth a look. Here is a direct link to page about what to do to separate the sounds of banjos (etc) and the sound of bacon frying.

http://www.normanfield.com/decrackle.htm

[Jody Stecher]

All is forgiven. I believe the vernacular however is "number",   as in "Our next number will be Whistling Rufus".  I've now sent scans of all the Neovox recordings I have (there are more that I don't have).  I'll try to do the Neophone ones on Wednesday. I used 2 addresses. One is sending me automated replies. Let me know please that you've received this first load of scans. 

Hal Allert said:

I know we have had this discussion before about what to call these banjo pieces. I changed the wording on my website to acknowledge this and am sorry if I lapsed into the vernacular by using the term songs. I stand corrected again.

[marc dalmasso]

All this is very good , jukebox , internet CB radio ' station , videos on you tube & on this site but i think the best way to keep this music live is to it play LIVE  in banjo festivals , for instance ; I have pain to explain this in English , but better is playing CB in places where the audience is not there specialy for this ; the rallyes & others CB banjo ' events between 4 walls  are fabulous but  will not make an advertising for CB banjo style

[thereallyniceman]

Hi Hal,

We already have a Jukebox  on this site with over 300 recordings. How does an Internet Radio Station work and is it different from a selectable playlist audio player?

It is something that I have never used.  Can you select tracks and are downloads allowed ? A tick of a box in the site JUKEBOX database I will allow downloads of all tracks for people to keep and play along with?  I have not allowed this up to now as you were charging for track downloads and referred people to your site if they needed a a specific MP3 or album... have you closed your online shop?

[thereallyniceman]

I agree Marc,

I agree fully that old CB recordings  do little to inspire beginners. They are on this site as an added extra.

The problem  with "live" CB playing here in the UK is that it seems that the majority of players are fairly old (with a few youngsters and the likes of Maestro Moss and Rob Murch being notable exceptions). When these older players are gone CB may go with them.

What I think we need is more young people to play the style. My original idea when taking on this website was to post videos of, modern day, good players that would inspire others just starting out to try the CB style. Reaching a vast audience with BHO and Youtube and promotion of this site was part of my plan, and then to offer beginner lessons to show them how to play. I may not have handled this correctly as perhaps I tried to put too much in my lesson videos. I am planning to produce a series of  5 minute lessons starting at the real basics and maybe working through tutor lessons.  The trouble is that I end up doing it single handedly and inspiration starts to fade. If others are prepared to help the job would be a breeze, but I won't hold my breath.

Any volunteers to help produce CB absolute beginners' lessons that can be promoted on the web?

marc dalmasso said:

All this is very good , jukebox , internet CB radio ' station , videos on you tube & on this site but i think the best way to keep this music live is to it play LIVE  in banjo festivals , for instance ; I have pain to explain this in English , but better is playing CB in places where the audience is not there specialy for this ; the rallyes & others CB banjo ' events between 4 walls  are fabulous but  will not make an advertising for CB banjo style

[Jody Stecher]

Internet radio is like regular radio. It plays continuously. The sequence of the playing of the recordings is usually determined not by the listener. Downloads are not usually an option although there are ways around that for the tech-savvy.

Ian, Hal's idea complements yours, it doesn't compete. Your jukebox is a reference resource for those already interested. "Streaming" radio provides an audible ambience. It could be on in the background in a restaurant for instance. It would mean that CB would be or could be "in the air" all the time. 

thereallyniceman said:

Hi Hal,

We already have a Jukebox  on this site with over 300 recordings. How does an Internet Radio Station work and is it different from a selectable playlist audio player?

It is something that I have never used.  Can you select tracks and are downloads allowed ? A tick of a box in the site JUKEBOX database I will allow downloads of all tracks for people to keep and play along with?  I have not allowed this up to now as you were charging for track downloads and referred people to your site if they needed a a specific MP3 or album... have you closed your online shop?

[Mike Moss]

An internet radio station sounds like a great idea -- something to just switch on to go back in time for a while. Randomized playlists could keep it interesting and prevent it from becoming predictable. Hal has also made a number of very interesting podcasts and they could be featured regularly.