Herschel Freeman Agency

Banjo World: A 200 Year Musical Journey

 

“I’ve been playing five-string banjo for over forty years and this presentation is a gathering of many of the songs and approaches I’ve embraced in that time.

The show grew out of a 1993 recording project called World Turning.   Back then, I decided to organize materials that would explore the kaleidoscopic range of the banjo, tracing it from its origins in Africa, through the mid-1800s minstrel style, turn-of-the-century ragtime, Appalachian music of the ‘20s and ‘30s, then on to the bluegrass realm and beyond.

 Tony Trischka
Using a variety of styles and instruments, I became completely caught up in the roots and branches of this most

American of instruments.  I hoped to reach out to people who don’t usually listen much to banjo music and show them that there’s more going on than “Dueling Banjos” and  “The Ballad of Jed Clampett."  I also wanted them to have a good time, while getting turned on to some of the music that has excited me over the years. 

Once World Turning was released by Rounder Records, I decided to bring it to the stage.  To more accurately capture the scope of the project, I re-named the show TONY TRISHCKA: BANJO WORLD  a 200 Year Journey.  I found a narrator to read period quotes relating to the banjo, and assembled some of my favorite musicians.  I also worked with a film-maker to add rear-projection documentary footage on the banjo from different historical periods.  Some of the video is historic stills with voice-over and some is actually “live action” film.

I delved deeper into the instrument’s past and found a stronger African-American connection than I’d previously realized.   The show gradually developed into a confluence of intertwining black and white influences.   The presentation will feature a number of on-screen narrators, from William Burroughs to Earl Scruggs, and a cavalcade of musicians capable of covering a myriad of styles from antebellum through cutting-edge electric.

At heart, the show is a tribute to the individual players of the past and present who, through their unique stylistic contributions, have added to the rich musical and social heritage of the banjo.”

Tony Trischka


PROGRAM

Georgia Pig: An original tune in the bluegrass style.
Tourah Tourah Tour Kelilah: A tune from Morocco, played on the banza, a precursor to the banjo.
Alfa Ya Ya:  A Senegalese tune, originally played on the halam -- the African banjo.
Juba: An early minstrel tune, probably of African origins.   Text concerning a slave ship, by George Pinckard (1796).
Roaring River: A slave song following a text by Solomon Northrop.
The Banjo Song: An unaccompanied poem by Paul Lawrence Dunbar.
Betty Jones and Fanny Berry: This slave narrative, recorded in the 1930s, is backed by the earliest transcription of black banjo music, dating from around 1850.
Grapevine Twist, Going Over the Mountain/Money Musk/Sebastopol Breakdown: These minstrel tunes are taken note-for-note from the first banjo instruction book, written in 1855 by Thomas Briggs. 
Washington Post March: Played in the style of the turn-of-the-century classic banjoists. Feel free to march along in your seats.
Bring It With You When You Come/Madison Street Rag:  Two great jug band tunes recorded in the late twenties by Gus Cannon, the composer of  “Walk Right In."
I’m Going Across the Sea: A rousing offering from Uncle Dave Macon, the Tennessee born entertainer who started his professional musical career at the age of 50.
Gibson Catalog: This one speaks for itself.
Lulie Gal and Shoot That Buffalo:  A couple of delightful tunes from the repertoire of Elizabeth Cotten, the composer of the folk standard “Freight Train”.
Sally Johnson/Dear Old Dixie: These pre-bluegrass tunes—the first an old fiddle tune, the second a vaudeville hit--represent the playing of banjo patriarch Snuffy Jenkins.
Flint Hill Special: A twisting crowd pleaser from the fingerpicked pen of bluegrass banjo king, Earl Scruggs.
Shout Little Lulie/Clinch Mountain Backstep: Mountain style, old-time and bluegrass music from an early developer of the sound, Ralph Stanley.
Devil’s Dream/Sailor’s Hornpipe: Two Celtic bluegrass tunes in the melodic style, taken from the playing of Bill Keith, a leading innovator on the instrument (circa 1963).
Blue Skies: A surprisingly innovative arrangement from the mid-’50s by Pete Seeger.
Firststeps: An original by Tony Trischka, written for his son Sean, in a jazzy vein.
West Point of the Eno: Neo-bluegrass-classical by Tony Trischka, titled after a North Carolina locale
Ditzy and Zesty: A swingy Tony Trischka original

 “A Banjo player in Cincinnati killed a man by striking him on the head with his Banjo.  So even the banjo has its uses.  We have heard murders committed with it before.” -- S.S. Stewart (banjo maker & player), 1888

“THE BANJO -- Most Suitable of all Instruments for Women? Why? With the possible exception of the harp, no other instrument displays a well rounded arm to such perfection.” -- Alfred A. Farland (banjoist), 1898

“Between Nelly Furtado and the Dixie Chicks, banjo is becoming a new signal of female empowerment.”—Jon Pareles, The New York Times, 2003


TONY TRISCHKA BIO

Tony Trischka  has helped to reinvent the banjo, in terms of widened technical vocabulary, compositional range, and variety of contexts.  To date he has recorded twelve solo albums, featuring such folks as David Grisman, Pete Seeger, Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, William S. Burroughs, Charles Osgood, Alison Krauss, the Violent Femmes and members of REM. 

Tony’s musical travels have taken him from Broadway to Croatia to New Zealand, performing with bluegrass bands, avant garde jazz groups, symphony orchestras and percussion ensembles.  His radio appearances have included A Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage,  Fresh Air and Weekend Edition.  He’s performed with John Denver on the CBS Hallmark Hall of Fame production of Foxfire, also starring Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, and was profiled, along with Bela Fleck, on CBS Sunday Morning.  

Tony is in demand as a teacher as well, with countless instruction books and videos to his credit.  He’s also served as a columnist for numerous acoustic music publications, and has written liner notes for Bela Fleck, Allison Krauss, and many others.

Thanks to Tony’s vision, perhaps the banjo will start to move back into the forefront of American music -- where it belongs.
                                                            Folk Music Quarterly

Trischka’s work is a musical rainbow.
                                                                        Bluegrass Unlimited

 

Tour Schedule

Tony Trischka's Banjo World has open availability for the 2007-2008 touring season. 


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