American Music: Bluegrass (Part 3)
The banjo has a tonal quality that is not easy to mistake for something else. Its unique sound has a special place in the history of American music, and its role in bluegrass is definitive. I had the pleasure of speaking with Dan Mazer, scholar, musician, and one of its contemporary masters recently about a wide range of topics including its history, evolutions, technique, and major contributing artists. Mazer, (also known as BanjerDan) gave a breathtaking backstory with personal accounts of his encounters and relationships with some of the iconic figures in bluegrass music. Mazer had a wealth of information to share about the rich history behind this fascinating instrument. Our discussion, along with my own studies made for an incredible journey into the banjo and its role in American music. You can find Dan at http://banjerdan.net/.
The banjo derives from African roots, most likely descended from one or more of the many involving a body attached to a long neck with strings stretched from the base then looped over pegs at the end. The akonting, ubaw-akwala, xalam of Senega, and the ngoni of the Wassoulou region including parts of Mali, Guinea, and Ivory Coast, as well as a larger style of the ngoni, the gimbri, which was developed in Morocco by Black Sub-Saharan Africans are some contenders. Dana J. Epstien, the ethnomusicologist writes in her work, “The Folk Banjo: A Documentary History” of the banjo’s origins that “Between 1746 and 1757 a slave dealer named Nicholas Owen reported an instrument played by the blacks ‘up Sharbro’ in Sierra Leone, an instrument made of wood that sounded to him "like a bad fiddle;. .. called a Bangelo”. One of the earliest reports of a banjo-like instrument in the Western Hemisphere is in 1648. A record of a ban on negro dancing and playing of an instrument called the banza can be found in the records in Paris of the Minister of the Colonies (Epstein, p351). This would coincide with other records indicating that the French colony of New Orleans regularly banned negro music and dancing over the wide range of colonial occupation and foreign rule (NOLA-History@gonola.com).
Once in America, the banjo transferred from African slave to its plantation owners. White performers of the instrument were often featured in minstrel shows, further indicating its roots in African American heritage. The purpose of the minstrel shows has a history all of its own, but generally was a means to depict black culture to white audiences and typically showed blacks as docile, happy, childlike, and clumsy. While controversial, it allowed the banjo a prominent place in popular American society and allowed familiarity and admiration to be available to the general public. As the list of white artists grew and minstrelsy fell out of favor, the banjo would find its way into other expressive forms, including Dixieland and jazz.
One of the more fascinating subjects Mazer and I discussed was the use of the banjo in jazz music in the early 20th century. The tenor banjo is a 4-stringed version and was widely used in the American tango craze. According to the Deering Banjo Company, no one is sure where the name “tenor” came from, as it doesn’t refer to the pitch or key of the instrument, but rather is likely to be an erroneous reference to the ‘tango banjo’ that took hold along the line. This instrument was tuned the same as a viola or cello, with the hope that trained musicians would have an easier time adapting to it proficiently. The banjo’s popularity in early jazz and Dixieland music led to its more widespread use and knowledge, affording its presence in the country genre developing in the Appalachian areas of the south. (This is about as condensed a version as I could include in this article, and a much more in-depth look at this enthralling story is on the way.)
Bluegrass may have begun its genesis with the formation of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys, but it didn’t truly take shape until the banjo joined its main repertoire. Don Reno and Earl Scruggs are two players from the western regions of the Carolinas, and their new take on finger-picking a banjo learned from Snuffy Jenkins (and other three-finger players from the region) would add a major ingredient into its iconic sound. Prior to their influence, the banjo was commonly played with a clawhammer style, (this is the downstroke with the index or middle fingernail, and an upstroke with the thumb.) Reno auditioned with Monroe and was in the band but enlisted in the army and served in WWII, instead. Scruggs would take his place, using his three-finger technique and rolling arpeggiated progressions that would solidify the traditional bluegrass sound. The lineage of this technique would pass through many other famous performers, like Bill Keith, Lamar Grier, Eddie Adcock, Béla Fleck, and Noam Pikelny and evolve as new sets of hands continued to add their take on this essential practice.
Here is an example of Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs on the Grand Ole’ Opry in 1946: https://youtu.be/uraDyFU1zY8
The banjo created a definition to the melodic passages that simply was not available to the other instruments in the repertoire. It’s ability to cut through along with its cultural background added the last piece of critical character needed to set bluegrass apart from other genres of the era. Don Reno would return from the war and be told, much to his surprise, that he had an excellent ‘Scruggs’ technique. He would partner with Red Smiley on guitar and perform on the Kroger TV show. Here is an example of his fingerpicking method in their rendition of Using My Bible for a Roadmap:
From these starting points, new pioneers would carve different methods of using the banjo to help broaden the bluegrass composition and help it into the modern era. Don Reno and Eddie Adcock are champions of the single-string style of picking and Bill Keith is known for his melodic approach. Tony Trischka, known for his innovative composition would influence people like Béla Fleck. The names and major visionaries are incredible, but among them, Fleck and banjoist Noam Pikelny now bring in a new age of bluegrass, new grass, and everything in-between. Dan Mazer’s personal chronicles of encountering these icons helps paint an incredible picture of their contributions and their impact on American music on the whole, not just bluegrass. I am excited to write more about our discussions and his own studies into this important part of American music history. What is as close to indisputable as a subject can get, is the importance of the banjo in helping bluegrass emerge as a definitive genre to add to the American tapestry of cultural creativity.
Noam Pikelny is the latest in a line of influential people, carving new stories into the annals of the banjo’s tale. Here he is a great interview with Pikelny discussing three key styles in his interview with Reverb.com: