John Cunninghame and Stream of Consciousness....and a little Bushmills 1608

[Chris Cioffi]

My lineage on my mother's side being from Wales and having come to the USA through life on the London stage at the turn of the century...about the time Little Bill was just being able to tune his banjo and wipe himself by himself both..... I've always been sort of an Anglophile ("genetic memory"?).

Growing up torn between the interests of aviation and the banjo, I've been fascinated later in life by the various connections between the two down through history, especially with the RFC/RAF and Joe Morley, John Cunninghame, and Tom Harribal.....not to mention Charlie Rogers, who though not in the RFC, certainly was exposed to it.

I just found this, and maybe they are still willing to talk more about John/Jack with someone on this forum closer physically to them than I:

http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/bury_st_edmunds_rosie_gets_inside_story_...

Were I in the UK, I would rush to the nursing home to interview her/them.

John seems to be somewhat elusive (to me)....maybe Pat Doyle and/or Chris Ware could help me on my quest?

I would be very interested to learn more about John, but this article I thought was fascinating....and some here may really be interested as well.

Model airplanes have been an interest of mine since childhood, as they were to many of the RFC/RAF personnel that I've read about.   I've experienced one thing that has impacted model flying since I grew up.....urban development and lack of wide open spaces to fly in.

When I was on some model airplane forums a few years ago, one very active fellow was from East Anglia.

A record dealer I have dealt with in the UK told me once that the best finds, especially banjo records AND banjos, came from East Anglia in the 70's and to an extent into the 80's.

He told me East Anglia was the rural farming area of England in the past...like the Appalachian region or the Dust Bowl in the depression era of the USA....where all the "hillbillies" lived.

The model airplane thing was about East Anglia being one of the last "wide open spaces" to fly models in....but maybe not now as development....in the USA and likely abroad as well.....seems to have led to "paving the Earth".

Anyway, my thoughts had these things rolling through them as I read the link above.

Guess I need to get out my map and figure where Bath, etc...is...was "The Bath Chair" in East Anglia?

It's been said on this forum somewhere that most "newbies" wouldn't like the old records of classic banjo with the "poor" recording quality and surface noise......

I can't see any other way of so directly accessing the music and the people that made it without a time machine....which to me, the records mystically serve the same purpose as. (If you were really serious, you would realize in your journey after much expenditure and trial and error that the playback equipment available since the 50's could suck much more music and less noise out of those discs and cylinders than most realize since recording equipment of any given time has always been better than the playback equipment of the same time...and that digitizing the old recordings frequently compromises the "presence" that the originals have to offer).

These were all thoughts going through my head as I read Chris Sand's Tarrant Bailey book and look at the picture of John Cunninghame and read how he played with Joe Morley regularly at a time that was very influential to Tarrant Jr.

Where are the remnants of John Cunninghame's existance and music and legacy apart from the others' output that was influenced by him?

Anyone?

Chris

[Richard William Ineson]

[Richard William Ineson]

[Richard William Ineson]

[Chris Cioffi]

Richard-

THANK YOU SO MUCH for your post and this music....I deeply appreciate it!

I wish I had BMG's that far back, but I don't...always looking though....

That's really interesting that he is purported to have helped Joe Morley with his tutor....that is really something.

From what I've gathered and read between the lines, JP Cunninghame and Joe Morley must have been GREAT friends and very active together with the banjo....that is so great.

By the way, on my email notification of these posts, I mistakenly hit "stop subscribing to this thread" instead of "see Richard's new posts"......

My profile still shows I should get notifications, so with this new post of mine, am I back in the game for being notified on this thread of new posts????

Anyone?

Thanks Richard!

Chris

[Chris Cioffi]

I hate to trouble you, Richard, but do you have the ability to post the music to the 2 others you mentioned:

Keynotes Club March

and

Minuet

If not, no biggie just now...it's not like my music stand or my banjos are ready for me to start working on new pieces just yet.

Maybe this is a good time, Ian, to start a composer section for music like this for JPC....????

Chris

[Richard William Ineson]

I'll have a look for the two other pieces, JPC started the Keynotes Club Banjo Orchestra in about 1925, I think, this later became the London Banjo Club. JPC must have been quite a player in his time. His son Gary loaned the cylinders to Steve Walker, I think.

[Joel Hooks]

Let me see if this works.

[Joel Hooks]

They are pretty bad copies, sorry about that.

[Joel Hooks]

I think I only have one page of the other one.

[Chris Cioffi]

Thanks, Richard.....don't kill yourself on it, but I'd love to have them.

Thanks, Joel!  That's great, I appreciate it.....the copies don't look bad at all on my screen.

I got an email notification of these posts, so I guess I'm still good......

Thanks guys!

Chris

[Richard William Ineson]

[Richard William Ineson]