J.A. Turner banjo list

[Richard William Ineson]

[Russ Chandler]

That's lovely!

[Richard William Ineson]

 

Russ Chandler said:

That's lovely! Glad you like it. There are a few gaps in the list as some solos were dropped from the list as time passed. This is probably the last list which Turner issued as it is the Store Street address (shop still standing when I last looked about 15 years ago) the annotations/updates were done by McNaghten (except for No.800 Sylvanesque, which I added)  I've had a few copies of 895. Diana by Morley, none of which looked as if they had ever been played, its an odd piece and quite difficult to play. The last Morley piece in the list is Desert Trail which we used to play, it's a bit more accessible than Diana, but again an odd tune.

[Russ Chandler]

Google Earth suggests it's not there anymore...

[Richard William Ineson]

So I see, pity as it was in a pretty row of houses c1820 and looked untouched since it was built. but the greed and avarice of the capitalists/property developers, must be satisfied. There was a nice cafe/delicatassen next door where we used to have breakfast. The shop itself at No. 28, was never open and I can't remember what they sold, I never got in it so don't know if there were any traces of JAT, I doubt it but you never know.

Russ Chandler said:

Google Earth suggests it's not there anymore...

[Jody Stecher]

Desert Trail #902 is supposed to have an "Oriental" ambience. I can't say I hear it but it's a nice piece, including the weird part which are weird harmonically. It sounds better than it looks. The JAT notation looks dangerous. But Diana.... that is a very strange piece of music. It starts off in a pleasant familiar way and then the harmonic rug is pulled out from below us. It keeps changing from chord to chord that seem to have no set pattern. Whenever I have asked for the meaning of a Joe Morley title the answer has always been " a horse".   There is an American thoroughbred race in Saratoga called The Diana Stakes. It began in 1939. The copyright on the sheet music is 1931 so.. no.. probably no connection to the race.

[Joel Hooks]

I've looked at Diana a couple of times... it looked like too much effort for the payoff. 

Jody Stecher said:

Desert Trail #902 is supposed to have an "Oriental" ambience. I can't say I hear it but it's a nice piece, including the weird part which are weird harmonically. It sounds better than it looks. The JAT notation looks dangerous. But Diana.... that is a very strange piece of music. It starts off in a pleasant familiar way and then the harmonic rug is pulled out from below us. It keeps changing from chord to chord that seem to have no set pattern. Whenever I have asked for the meaning of a Joe Morley title the answer has always been " a horse".   There is an American thoroughbred race in Saratoga called The Diana Stakes. It began in 1939. The copyright on the sheet music is 1931 so.. no.. probably no connection to the race.

[Richard William Ineson]

That's how I felt about it so I never played it. At speed it might come over but I cannot see it being worth the effort.

Joel Hooks said:

I've looked at Diana a couple of times... it looked like too much effort for the payoff. 

Jody Stecher said:

Desert Trail #902 is supposed to have an "Oriental" ambience. I can't say I hear it but it's a nice piece, including the weird part which are weird harmonically. It sounds better than it looks. The JAT notation looks dangerous. But Diana.... that is a very strange piece of music. It starts off in a pleasant familiar way and then the harmonic rug is pulled out from below us. It keeps changing from chord to chord that seem to have no set pattern. Whenever I have asked for the meaning of a Joe Morley title the answer has always been " a horse".   There is an American thoroughbred race in Saratoga called The Diana Stakes. It began in 1939. The copyright on the sheet music is 1931 so.. no.. probably no connection to the race.

[Trapdoor2]

I don't think it gets better at speed. I built a mp3 for it and after listening, simply put it away. In my mind, it is just one of Morley's lesser attempts.

[Jody Stecher]

It seems like he wrote down all the Forty Dollar Chords he could think of, each on a different piece of paper. Then he put them in a hat, and pulled the papers out one by one at random and that determined the chord sequence of Diana. Maybe if I studied it I would find meaning in the pattern but it seems random. There might be something in the fingering that makes some kind of sense.

Trapdoor2 said:

I don't think it gets better at speed. I built a mp3 for it and after listening, simply put it away. In my mind, it is just one of Morley's lesser attempts.

[Steve Harrison]

Back in the 1980s, I had the pleasure of spending a day with Bill Ball at his home in Bristol, he played through most of his repertoire and the stand out tune for me was his rendition of Desert Trail. I have one of his CDs on which it's recorded...Steve.

[Richard William Ineson]

Bernadette and I used to call on Bill whenever we were down that way, I too have his records and CDs and still think that he was the outstanding UK classic banjo player of the 20th century. His playing was faultless and his classical piano training was reflected in his sympathetic treatment of everything which he played. He had developed a very powerful thumb manipulation of the fourth string and used it to good effect, nobody has come close in this respect. Bill was also a very interesting person to talk to as he had a lot of experience of life. Mike Redman used to have lessons from Bill which is why we started playing 'Desert Trail', and other things like 'On the Ganges' by Bert Bassett. There will never be another Bill Ball.

Steve Harrison said:

Back in the 1980s, I had the pleasure of spending a day with Bill Ball at his home in Bristol, he played through most of his repertoire and the stand out tune for me was his rendition of Desert Trail. I have one of his CDs on which it's recorded...Steve.

[Joel Hooks]

No doubt Desert Trail is a good solo.  I have spent many hours with it but have never got it up to speed clarity where I would play it for anyone.