Vance Lowry and the classic banjo? - Classic-Banjo2024-03-28T14:21:45Zhttps://classic-banjo.ning.com/forum/topics/vance-lowry-and-the-classic-banjo?xg_source=activity&feed=yes&xn_auth=noThere might be and there mi…tag:classic-banjo.ning.com,2022-09-14:2667446:Comment:1907702022-09-14T16:08:39.592ZTony Thomas MFA Black Banjoisthttps://classic-banjo.ning.com/profile/TonyThomasMFABlackBanjoist
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<p>There might be and there might have been and the fame of the Bohees might have precipitated it, but I do not know.</p>
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<p>There might be and there might have been and the fame of the Bohees might have precipitated it, but I do not know.</p> Jody for all I know there may…tag:classic-banjo.ning.com,2022-09-05:2667446:Comment:1906972022-09-05T16:11:54.581ZTony Thomas MFA Black Banjoisthttps://classic-banjo.ning.com/profile/TonyThomasMFABlackBanjoist
<p>Jody for all I know there may be a thriving and particular Black culture in the Maritimes in general and in New Brunswick where the Bohees are said to hail from in particular. It is just that the facts are the Bohees parents moved to Massachusetts while they were children. </p>
<p>In the late 60s and 70s I visited Canada frequently and got to know activists in the Black movement there, but I havent paid much attention to it in the past 40 years. So there may be a large and thriving Black…</p>
<p>Jody for all I know there may be a thriving and particular Black culture in the Maritimes in general and in New Brunswick where the Bohees are said to hail from in particular. It is just that the facts are the Bohees parents moved to Massachusetts while they were children. </p>
<p>In the late 60s and 70s I visited Canada frequently and got to know activists in the Black movement there, but I havent paid much attention to it in the past 40 years. So there may be a large and thriving Black cultural scene there from the time of the Bohees to to day for all I know. In the past 20 years, judging from the Internet, Canadian and Black Canadian cultural and educational and civil rights organizations have certainly highlighted the Bohees as part of Canada's Black heritage. </p>
<p>LOL as I age, modesty about what I know and greater modesty about what I once knew or remembered, but no longer do, has become a key to not making a fool of myself.,</p> Thanks, Tony. That is more th…tag:classic-banjo.ning.com,2022-09-04:2667446:Comment:1904992022-09-04T14:25:09.506ZJody Stecherhttps://classic-banjo.ning.com/profile/JodyStecher
<p>Thanks, Tony. That is more than I knew. I was hoping to find out that there was once a Black banjo culture in the Maritimes but I guess there wasn't. <br></br> <br></br> <cite>Tony Thomas MFA Black Banjoist said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="https://classic-banjo.ning.com/forum/topics/vance-lowry-and-the-classic-banjo?commentId=2667446%3AComment%3A190696&xg_source=activity#2667446Comment190696"><div><div class="xg_user_generated"><p>T</p>
<p>The Bohee Brothers were probably the most famous Black…</p>
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<p>Thanks, Tony. That is more than I knew. I was hoping to find out that there was once a Black banjo culture in the Maritimes but I guess there wasn't. <br/> <br/> <cite>Tony Thomas MFA Black Banjoist said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="https://classic-banjo.ning.com/forum/topics/vance-lowry-and-the-classic-banjo?commentId=2667446%3AComment%3A190696&xg_source=activity#2667446Comment190696"><div><div class="xg_user_generated"><p>T</p>
<p>The Bohee Brothers were probably the most famous Black banjo entertainers in the world after Horace Weston. They were born in the Maratimes of Canada, a place with a Black population where a significant proportion are descendants of Blacks who joined the British in the American revolution and ended up being taken there when it all ended. At some point in their childhood their family moved to the Boston, MA, as far as I know they had no active entertaining or musical life in Canada. This is a frequent story in the 19th and early 20th century and may be even going now, members of the the Black community descended from American revolution loyalists getting out of an isolated existence up there and moving to the USA (or Toronto or Montreal) to be part of a larger Black community.</p>
<p>Separately and together the Bohees became major attractions in what could be called Black blackface minstrelsy and appeared in some of the largest of the touring shows featuring Black performers that began after the Civil War. I am researching entertainers in this period for a presentation at the Banjo Gathering in November. They certainly obtained top billing in the ads and the reports for the shows, Not only did they do specialties on the banjo and singing, but as part of several shows, they mounted the Bohee Banjo Band which I believe included 5 banjoists as a separate part of their shows, </p>
<p>In the early 1880s they participated in a minstrel company that toured England, and they both decided to stay in England, They both continued to perform in minstrel and minstrel like entertainment in England. I havent found anything that suggested they returned to the US on tours. More famously the Bohees set up a studio for banjo lessons in London when the banjo was the height of fashion in the late 1880s and 1890s. When I say the height of fashion, I mean to say the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII was famously a pupil of the Bohee's studio. About 20 years ago Ulf Jagfors from Sweden examined the Buckingham Palace records and discovered not only was Edward their student, but his sister was also taking lessons at that studio.</p>
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</blockquote> My problem is I am like one o…tag:classic-banjo.ning.com,2022-09-04:2667446:Comment:1907572022-09-04T14:06:40.310ZTony Thomas MFA Black Banjoisthttps://classic-banjo.ning.com/profile/TonyThomasMFABlackBanjoist
<p>My problem is I am like one of those jugglers who has all these plates spinning in the air and cannot take care of them.</p>
<p>Looking for other things I have found a lot of information about Lowry . An Australian academic produced a journal article about his which is totally wrong and ignorant about banjo playing and history, but it led me to a number of other sources. Plus wthe newspapers and other data we can have access to keeps expanding, At some point I have to sit down and bring…</p>
<p>My problem is I am like one of those jugglers who has all these plates spinning in the air and cannot take care of them.</p>
<p>Looking for other things I have found a lot of information about Lowry . An Australian academic produced a journal article about his which is totally wrong and ignorant about banjo playing and history, but it led me to a number of other sources. Plus wthe newspapers and other data we can have access to keeps expanding, At some point I have to sit down and bring it all together,''</p>
<p>Lowry's father and grandfather were five string banjoists, his grandfather in the Tennessee area near where Gribble, Lusk, and York were! Lowry became a banjo entertainer starting in his late teen years, though was busking on the streets of Kansas from the age of 12! Lowry continued to play the five string banjo finger style with all reports of his playing into the 1940s, although his act seems to have shifted more and more from being a jazz soloist or band member and more and more into being a comedian. We have pictures of him with banjos all the way up to the late 1930s which I will try to collect in some way and get them to you since you request it. Curiously, we have no pictures of him playing the banjo in the US even though there are notices of him playing the banjo even at the Apollo Theater in Harlem during WWII!!!</p>
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<p>But upper management, she has a doctora, and I only an MFA, says stop typing and we will clean up this room! Back to you Jody,<br/> <br/> <cite>Tony Thomas MFA Black Banjoist said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="https://classic-banjo.ning.com/forum/topics/vance-lowry-and-the-classic-banjo?commentId=2667446%3AComment%3A190497&xg_source=msg_com_forum#2667446Comment190755"><div><div class="xg_user_generated"><p>Jody I had long thought that Lowry switched to Plectrum or even the tenor but recent work and clippings that I have found suggest he remained a finger style player until his death. He does seem to have abandoned the fifth string as there are pictures of him holding 5 string banjos without a fifth string, Descriptions of his playing when he returned to the USA in the 1940s describe his as "plucking" the banjo or playing with his finger. Some of the descriptions of his playing with horn bands are due to the fact that Lowry also played the alto-sax and appears to have played more alto sax in his involvement with Paris jazz orchestras and recordings he made with Jean Cocteau in the 20s,</p>
<p>Nice seeing you on stage in Berkeley last year. I should be coming out for some mentoring on Black music history next (2023) year<br/> <br/> <cite>Jody Stecher said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="https://classic-banjo.ning.com/forum/topics/vance-lowry-and-the-classic-banjo?id=2667446%3ATopic%3A97254&page=1#2667446Comment96917"><div><div class="xg_user_generated"><p>There is a fair amount of information about Vance Lowry on the internet and several photos and photocopies of memorabilia. So far, I have found no photos of his banjo. But given the context of his music which was in bands with horns and drums, I think plectrum banjo is more likely than fingers. </p>
<p>for instance</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow noopener" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/puzzlemaster/3316370898/" target="_blank">https://www.flickr.com/photos/puzzlemaster/3316370898/</a></p>
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The Bohee Brothers were pro…tag:classic-banjo.ning.com,2022-09-04:2667446:Comment:1906962022-09-04T13:55:36.302ZTony Thomas MFA Black Banjoisthttps://classic-banjo.ning.com/profile/TonyThomasMFABlackBanjoist
<p>T</p>
<p>The Bohee Brothers were probably the most famous Black banjo entertainers in the world after Horace Weston. They were born in the Maratimes of Canada, a place with a Black population where a significant proportion are descendants of Blacks who joined the British in the American revolution and ended up being taken there when it all ended. At some point in their childhood their family moved to the Boston, MA, as far as I know they had no active entertaining or musical life in…</p>
<p>T</p>
<p>The Bohee Brothers were probably the most famous Black banjo entertainers in the world after Horace Weston. They were born in the Maratimes of Canada, a place with a Black population where a significant proportion are descendants of Blacks who joined the British in the American revolution and ended up being taken there when it all ended. At some point in their childhood their family moved to the Boston, MA, as far as I know they had no active entertaining or musical life in Canada. This is a frequent story in the 19th and early 20th century and may be even going now, members of the the Black community descended from American revolution loyalists getting out of an isolated existence up there and moving to the USA (or Toronto or Montreal) to be part of a larger Black community.</p>
<p>Separately and together the Bohees became major attractions in what could be called Black blackface minstrelsy and appeared in some of the largest of the touring shows featuring Black performers that began after the Civil War. I am researching entertainers in this period for a presentation at the Banjo Gathering in November. They certainly obtained top billing in the ads and the reports for the shows, Not only did they do specialties on the banjo and singing, but as part of several shows, they mounted the Bohee Banjo Band which I believe included 5 banjoists as a separate part of their shows, </p>
<p>In the early 1880s they participated in a minstrel company that toured England, and they both decided to stay in England, They both continued to perform in minstrel and minstrel like entertainment in England. I havent found anything that suggested they returned to the US on tours. More famously the Bohees set up a studio for banjo lessons in London when the banjo was the height of fashion in the late 1880s and 1890s. When I say the height of fashion, I mean to say the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII was famously a pupil of the Bohee's studio. About 20 years ago Ulf Jagfors from Sweden examined the Buckingham Palace records and discovered not only was Edward their student, but his sister was also taking lessons at that studio.</p>
<p></p> Hi Tony,
... and sorry I miss…tag:classic-banjo.ning.com,2022-09-03:2667446:Comment:1904972022-09-03T21:53:20.393ZJody Stecherhttps://classic-banjo.ning.com/profile/JodyStecher
<p>Hi Tony,</p>
<p>... and sorry I missed you in Berkeley. Kate and I were Covid-Cautious and remain so. New topic: Have you turned up any "new" information about the Bohee Brothers?. I've been fascinated with their story ever since realizing that they were Canadians. I know they performed and spent time in the USA before relocating to the UK but they seem to have started their musical lives in Canada. That suggests that there was a banjo culture in NE Canada way back then, and it seems…</p>
<p>Hi Tony,</p>
<p>... and sorry I missed you in Berkeley. Kate and I were Covid-Cautious and remain so. New topic: Have you turned up any "new" information about the Bohee Brothers?. I've been fascinated with their story ever since realizing that they were Canadians. I know they performed and spent time in the USA before relocating to the UK but they seem to have started their musical lives in Canada. That suggests that there was a banjo culture in NE Canada way back then, and it seems possible it was a black music culture. The little bit I've been able to find out about them turns more than one assumption on its head. For instance for thimble style they used banjos with a metal clad rim. FIngerstyle was expected to be soft and dulcet whereas thimble style was made as raucous as possible. With metal thimbles on a metal clad banjo (but apparently not on metal strings) they made a different sound from the all-wood rim banjos they used for finger up-picking. What a contrast to 21st century bluegrass pickers using pick and incorporating noise (in a good way) in their playing and clawhammer players stuffing their banjo pots with diapers and teddy bears to keep the sound round and subdued. <br/> <br/> <cite>Tony Thomas MFA Black Banjoist said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="https://classic-banjo.ning.com/forum/topics/vance-lowry-and-the-classic-banjo?commentId=2667446%3AComment%3A190496&xg_source=activity#2667446Comment190755"><div><div class="xg_user_generated"><p>Jody I had long thought that Lowry switched to Plectrum or even the tenor but recent work and clippings that I have found suggest he remained a finger style player until his death. He does seem to have abandoned the fifth string as there are pictures of him holding 5 string banjos without a fifth string, Descriptions of his playing when he returned to the USA in the 1940s describe his as "plucking" the banjo or playing with his finger. Some of the descriptions of his playing with horn bands are due to the fact that Lowry also played the alto-sax and appears to have played more alto sax in his involvement with Paris jazz orchestras and recordings he made with Jean Cocteau in the 20s,</p>
<p>Nice seeing you on stage in Berkeley last year. I should be coming out for some mentoring on Black music history next (2023) year<br/> <br/> <cite>Jody Stecher said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="https://classic-banjo.ning.com/forum/topics/vance-lowry-and-the-classic-banjo?id=2667446%3ATopic%3A97254&page=1#2667446Comment96917"><div><div class="xg_user_generated"><p>There is a fair amount of information about Vance Lowry on the internet and several photos and photocopies of memorabilia. So far, I have found no photos of his banjo. But given the context of his music which was in bands with horns and drums, I think plectrum banjo is more likely than fingers. </p>
<p>for instance</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow noopener" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/puzzlemaster/3316370898/" target="_blank">https://www.flickr.com/photos/puzzlemaster/3316370898/</a></p>
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</blockquote> Jody I had long thought that…tag:classic-banjo.ning.com,2022-09-03:2667446:Comment:1907552022-09-03T20:10:45.354ZTony Thomas MFA Black Banjoisthttps://classic-banjo.ning.com/profile/TonyThomasMFABlackBanjoist
<p>Jody I had long thought that Lowry switched to Plectrum or even the tenor but recent work and clippings that I have found suggest he remained a finger style player until his death. He does seem to have abandoned the fifth string as there are pictures of him holding 5 string banjos without a fifth string, Descriptions of his playing when he returned to the USA in the 1940s describe his as "plucking" the banjo or playing with his finger. Some of the descriptions of his playing with…</p>
<p>Jody I had long thought that Lowry switched to Plectrum or even the tenor but recent work and clippings that I have found suggest he remained a finger style player until his death. He does seem to have abandoned the fifth string as there are pictures of him holding 5 string banjos without a fifth string, Descriptions of his playing when he returned to the USA in the 1940s describe his as "plucking" the banjo or playing with his finger. Some of the descriptions of his playing with horn bands are due to the fact that Lowry also played the alto-sax and appears to have played more alto sax in his involvement with Paris jazz orchestras and recordings he made with Jean Cocteau in the 20s,</p>
<p>Nice seeing you on stage in Berkeley last year. I should be coming out for some mentoring on Black music history next (2023) year<br/> <br/> <cite>Jody Stecher said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="https://classic-banjo.ning.com/forum/topics/vance-lowry-and-the-classic-banjo?id=2667446%3ATopic%3A97254&page=1#2667446Comment96917"><div><div class="xg_user_generated"><p>There is a fair amount of information about Vance Lowry on the internet and several photos and photocopies of memorabilia. So far, I have found no photos of his banjo. But given the context of his music which was in bands with horns and drums, I think plectrum banjo is more likely than fingers. </p>
<p>for instance</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow noopener" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/puzzlemaster/3316370898/" target="_blank">https://www.flickr.com/photos/puzzlemaster/3316370898/</a></p>
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</blockquote> Lowry lived in Paris along wi…tag:classic-banjo.ning.com,2022-09-03:2667446:Comment:1904962022-09-03T20:02:51.603ZTony Thomas MFA Black Banjoisthttps://classic-banjo.ning.com/profile/TonyThomasMFABlackBanjoist
<p>Lowry lived in Paris along with other members of the former Ciros band awaiting transportation to Russia for an engagement in Petrograd that was timed to start in November 1917 which was cancelled by the revolution. Lowry Remained in France until some time in the 1930s, although he made frequent trips to entertain and record in London, and seems to have gotten gigs in Sweden and Denmark as well. Besides the 5 string Banjo Lowry played the alto saxophone., In Paris in the 20s he was…</p>
<p>Lowry lived in Paris along with other members of the former Ciros band awaiting transportation to Russia for an engagement in Petrograd that was timed to start in November 1917 which was cancelled by the revolution. Lowry Remained in France until some time in the 1930s, although he made frequent trips to entertain and record in London, and seems to have gotten gigs in Sweden and Denmark as well. Besides the 5 string Banjo Lowry played the alto saxophone., In Paris in the 20s he was associated with some of the surrealist engagements in Jazz including some recordings and film made by Jean Cocteau and even did some jamming in a surrealist hangout in Paris with Igor Stravinsky sitting in on drums!!!</p>
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<p>Lowry made several recordings in both London and Paris in the late 1920s on the banjo. He seems to have been using a 1920s classic banjo without the fifth string attached or not using the fifth string, When WWII approached he moved to England and thence was repatriated to the USA. There are some notices for his performances in the USA during WWII at fund raising events for the war effort, where he appears to have been more of a comedian than a musician. Interestingly enough, the notices of his vaudeville performances from the 40s describe him as a finger stye banjoist rather than a plectrum player, I had thought Lowry went over to the dark side and played either a tenor or plectrum, but I have been convinced that continued to play finger style.,<br/> <br/> <cite>Tony Thomas MFA Black Banjoist said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="https://classic-banjo.ning.com/forum/topics/vance-lowry-and-the-classic-banjo?commentId=2667446%3AComment%3A132777#2667446Comment132777"><div><div class="xg_user_generated"><p>I think the teaming up with Stinson was at the most one engagement at the Family Theater in Allegheny Pa, then an independent town, but within months to be incorporated into Pittsburgh. It was where Stinson lived and entertained on the banjo, and was local political ward healer and barber. Stinson seemed to have regular appearances at this theater when he was not touring, and it seemed to be more oepn to African American performers than other theaters in the Pittsburgh area. After Stinson died Lowry moves to NYC if he was not already living there and joins a set of Clef Club associated ensembles led by Louis Mitchell and then Dan Kildare before leaving the US for England in 1916 thence to France in November 1917 where he remained resident until 1939 <br/> <br/> <cite>Tony Thomas MFA Black Banjoist said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="http://classic-banjo.ning.com/forum/topics/vance-lowry-and-the-classic-banjo?id=2667446%3ATopic%3A97254&page=2#2667446Comment100237"><div><div class="xg_user_generated"><p></p>
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<p>A bit busy being drawn back into the minstrel period and into efforts to characterize the whole place of minstrelsy in 19th century society, LOL, distracted me. But I have an interest in Lowry which brought me here though I am always wanting to help HIS NICENESS.</p>
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<p>It certainly looks like a five string banjo, but I see no sign of a fifth string being on the banjo. In that era plectrum and tenor players often used a five-string without the fifth string</p>
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<p>Before I was pulled into the antebellum period by OUP I was developing an interest in Lowry and some of his Ciro club peers precisely as a link between the age of five-string guitar banjo playing and the tenor banjoists of the jazz age which he may be. Unfortunately, I am still immersed in trying to figure out where T.D, Rice was between August 1830 and May 1831, LOL.</p>
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<p>In the Black newspapers of the first decade of the 20th century, Lowry is frequently described as a comedian and banjoist, something that seemed to be standard as this is the way earlier newspapers also described James Bland before he too went to the soggy island. Lowry's notices as a banjoist come from a period BEFORE tenor banjoists existed or at least before tenors were formally marketed in 1910.</p>
<p>Very interestingly enough in late 1910 and 1911 notices appeared that he was working up an act with C.P. Stinson. Stinson appears in Converse's memoirs as the first Black player allowed to participate in a banjo contest in the 1880s, and who famously won such a contest in Kansas City. Stinson performed in the US and Europe in minstrel troops and as a banjo soloist. He returned to Pittsburgh where it was headline news in the national Black press that the major white music store in Pittsburgh hired him as a banjo instructor. For a time, at least one report says, Stinson was making banjos in Pittsburgh, but he eventually became more of an actor, and then a theater manager. However, more pertinent to this research is that he definitely was a guitar banjo player.</p>
<p>Teaming up with Lowry probably would have been a duo but probably with jokes, and maybe singing.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Stinson died before the new show business season could start and never toured with Lowry,</p>
<p>Lowry was among the New York musicians associated with the Clef Club led initially by James Reese Europe. The Clef Club had annual concerts to raise funds for formal music education for African American youth in New York. At several of these concerts Lowry is listed as a banjo soloist. Europe considered all stringed instruments to be African American particularly the banjo, and for these concerts he assembled orchestras that scores of banjos (and often as many as ten pianos as he considered that a stringed instrument too!).</p>
<p>However, Europe was one of the pioneers of the pick played banjos, the four string mandolin/violin played banjos. Europe was foremost an arranger who would often be pulled in to black Broadway or touring shows to rearrange the band and the singing, and had formal compositional skills. He said he liked the various mandolin-descended banjos because he could score them like the violin or the viola or the cello. His own dfance band the Europe Society Orchestra with about 10 pieces had 5 banjos, but only two pianos.</p>
<p>Lowry also played the Clarinet, and stayed in Europe until the Second World War. He recorded with both tenor and clarinet. He appeared in one avante-guard movive in the 1920s in France, playing, not the banjo but the clarinet. He apparently lived in France during the interwar years (we show our age when to us the War was still WWII and not the ones that seemed to be permanently starting and stopping over the past 20 years).</p>
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<p>I wish I could do more but right now I am kneed deep in other work, but keep in touch as I eventually aim to write about Lowry.</p>
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<p>He seems to have died in the late 1940s, although continued to perform as a solo act after his return to the US and I found some notices for War bond and similar benefits from the WWII years. A couple years ago I was briefly in contact with a relative of Lowry's through Ancestry.com,.</p>
<p>Probably if this had come up in 2012, I would have richer memories about Lowry. But he certainly is a candidate for someone who started as a five-string classic player who graduated to being a tenor player.Some day I will return to him. LOL</p>
<p>I<br/> <br/> <cite>thereallyniceman said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="http://classic-banjo.ning.com/forum/topics/vance-lowry-and-the-classic-banjo?commentId=2667446%3AComment%3A97087#2667446Comment97073"><div><div class="xg_user_generated"><p>Thank you RitonM ,</p>
<p>That is very interesting and Mr. Lowry certainly is/was a great player. It sure sounds like Classic Style to me, but I agree that many of his arpeggioed chords sound like he is using a plectrum. The triplets, finger tremolo and Bass notes clinch it for me though... Classic Style !!</p>
<p>Here is a music player so that you we don't have to hunt for the track:</p>
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<div style="margin: 20px auto; padding: 5px 0px 5px 10px; width: 380px; background-color: #fef2cf;"><div class="iframe_player" id="./files/SITEPOSTS/Fr_Banjo.mp3" style="vertical-align: middle;"><strong>VANCE LOWRY on <a rel="nofollow noopener" href="http://www.francemusique.fr" target="_blank">www.francemusique.fr</a> Classic Banjo</strong></div>
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<p>By the way Tony Thomas is a site member on here, but we have not seen him for a while. Tony helped edit the site page "WHAT IS CLASSIC BANJO?"</p>
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</blockquote> Because this photograph shows…tag:classic-banjo.ning.com,2018-10-30:2667446:Comment:1326842018-10-30T18:02:44.734ZTony Thomas MFA Black Banjoisthttps://classic-banjo.ning.com/profile/TonyThomasMFABlackBanjoist
<p>Because this photograph shows Lowry playing a five string banjo with four strings, it does not mean that in the recording made years later by my judgment he was playing a five string banjo without the fifth string. The photo looks like it was taken probably 1916 or 17 when Lowry was performing with the Ciro Club band in London,.The pianist appears to be Dan Kildare who killed himself in 1919 or 1920 </p>
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<p> IDboth recordings were made in 1929, NOT 1926, as the French radio web…</p>
<p>Because this photograph shows Lowry playing a five string banjo with four strings, it does not mean that in the recording made years later by my judgment he was playing a five string banjo without the fifth string. The photo looks like it was taken probably 1916 or 17 when Lowry was performing with the Ciro Club band in London,.The pianist appears to be Dan Kildare who killed himself in 1919 or 1920 </p>
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<p> IDboth recordings were made in 1929, NOT 1926, as the French radio web site says. I have jpgs of the 78s! He played in a lot of contexts and appears to have played the 5 string banjo with or without a fifth string, mando banjos of various derivations including bandolins and tenors and four-string mandolin banjos (know after Lowry played them as melody banjos) and certainly played tenors and bandolins with plectrums</p>
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<p><br/> <cite>Joel Hooks said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="http://classic-banjo.ning.com/forum/topics/vance-lowry-and-the-classic-banjo?id=2667446%3ATopic%3A97254&page=3#2667446Comment131793"><div><div class="xg_user_generated"><p>My opinion on the recordings (which you can hear by following the link to a podcast in the original post) is that the first piece is a duet with a "fingerstyle banjo" and a plectrum banjo. With headphones I can hear two distinct voices. The second piece is pure fingerstyle banjo complete with rasps or drum slides, the old drumming on the head trick (difficult to do with a plectrum) and chord tremolo at the end (finger waggle tremolo has a very different timbre from plectrum playing).</p>
<p>I can't rule out the possibility that he is finger picking on four strings (like Frank Lawes did) but that is unlikely. The fifth string makes position jumps seamless and efficient. His playing is very lively and polished. I don't see why he would handicap himself by removing the 5th string.</p>
<p>The "metallic" sound of the 4th string could be due to him over playing it causing it to buzz. He is picking the heck out of those strings with a very strong attack. The strings will often not only buzz against the frets but the fourth can buzz against the 5th string on a fortissimo bass solo.</p>
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</blockquote> My late judgment after finall…tag:classic-banjo.ning.com,2018-10-30:2667446:Comment:1328812018-10-30T17:35:13.692ZTony Thomas MFA Black Banjoisthttps://classic-banjo.ning.com/profile/TonyThomasMFABlackBanjoist
<p>My late judgment after finally figuring out how to record the selections from the french web site after years, is not as astitute as those offered here. Lowry began playing banjo as a child or teenager. I have a newspaper article from 1906 of his playing in the streets of Topeka Kansas for tips with his father playing guitar to accompany him and the newspaper hailing him as a prodigy although he was 15 years old. He was a professional show business banjo performer at least by 1910 but…</p>
<p>My late judgment after finally figuring out how to record the selections from the french web site after years, is not as astitute as those offered here. Lowry began playing banjo as a child or teenager. I have a newspaper article from 1906 of his playing in the streets of Topeka Kansas for tips with his father playing guitar to accompany him and the newspaper hailing him as a prodigy although he was 15 years old. He was a professional show business banjo performer at least by 1910 but probably 1909 touring with a vaudeville act led by "Kid Brown." making United Time, refering to the main national vaudeville organization. Already notices and articles on--where performers are-- in Black newspapers like the New York Age and the Indianapolis Freemen whose show business coverage was followed nationally, refer to Lowry's engagements or moves from on act to another as if the reader is expected to know who he was.</p>
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<p> He was certainly a performing banjoist before the tenor banjo became standardized or before it became popular. At least reading lots of black newspapers over the years from this period. you dont hear a lot about mandolin banjos and tenor banjos until around 1910-12. When I studied Jazz guitar, I was taught to play certain tunes holding the plectrum with thumb and index finger and doing finger rolls with my remaining fingers. However, as I detail in my article on Gus Cannon, this really only works on slow tunes, I think my teacher taught me Nat Cole"s "Christmas Song" that way, or at least struggle to teach me, LOL.</p>
<p>One notice I read yesterday from a British newspaper review of the Ciro Club band after Lowry joined it in 1916 speak of an unidentified banjoist's amazing play with thumb and fore finger.</p>
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<p>LOL since in other cases even the great and fairly decisively opinionated ELI KAUFMAN the GReat has said there are some recordings he cannot tell are plectrum or guitar-banjo style, I leave it for great minds than mine,. '</p>
<p>Lowry played a variety of banjos five string back when there were only five strings, four string mandolin banjo, bandolins, and tenor banjos with both plectrum and finger style. </p>
<p>I think it is close.<br/> <br/> <cite>Trapdoor2 said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="http://classic-banjo.ning.com/forum/topics/vance-lowry-and-the-classic-banjo?id=2667446%3ATopic%3A97254&page=4#2667446Comment131908"><div><div class="xg_user_generated"><p>I would agree with Joel (and Ian)...although I cannot hear a second banjo.</p>
<p>In the photograph of Lowry, compare his right hand with that of the banjolin player. The banjolin player is obviously holding a plectrum between his thumb and forefinger, his index and middle fingers are split exactly as expected since he's anchored to the head with his remaining fingers. Lowery's thumb is advanced further out, in textbook classic fingerstyle position. Awkward to hold a plectrum this way (although I've seen it done).</p>
<p>In looking closely a the banjo (Weaver or Essex, I dunno), The tension hoop where the strings pass over is reflective and appears to have 5 lines (reflections of strings). I don't know if this model has a relief cut out for the strings at the heel of the neck...if it does, that top string reflection might be the top of the cut-out.</p>
<p>Tony, I'm looking forward to hearing your presentation in November. I'll be there!</p>
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