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- Artist:
Various Artists - Release Date: August 23, 2005
- Type: Collection (various artists)
- Genre: Jazz
Review
The banjo is generally thought to have West African origins, and most likely showed up in the American South via the West Indies. Its simple design made it an easy instrument to construct and it became a centerpiece in the music of plantation blacks, and once steel strings were introduced in the early 19th century, the banjo made the leap to small string orchestras and jug bands, where it provided a kind of "continuo" effect. Southern blacks gradually made the shift to the acoustic guitar, leaving the banjo in the hands of white minstrel entertainers, and eventually it settled into isolated communities in the Appalachians, where the modal capabilities of the five-string banjo made it an ideal instrument to accompany the Americanized ballads and fiddle reels that had been carried across the Atlantic and down through the generations from Europe. Then bluegrass hit, and the banjo became typecast as a hillbilly instrument played at blazing speed by perceived savants who worked endless variations on Earl Scruggs-derived picking techniques. But the banjo always had other dimensions, as this wonderful collection of eccentric and jazz-oriented banjo pieces (most of them done with a tenor or plectrum banjo) recorded between 1902 and 1947 makes clear. The old banjo joke that anyone can play the banjo but no one can make it sound good is belied here by track after amazing track, including Vess Ossman's "The Mosquitos' Parade" from 1902, Ernest Jones' assured "A Ragtime Episode" from 1930, and Fred Van Eps' uptown "Persiflage" from 1921. The great Harry Reser has two pieces here, including the eerie "Heebie Jeebies" from 1925 and the astounding "Crackerjax" from 1922, two of the greatest plectrum banjo recordings ever made. Then there is Eddie Peabody's jaw-dropping version of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" from 1931 and his wonderful take on W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues," also recorded in 1931, that comes complete with banjo percussion and some joyous whistling from Peabody. In the 21st century musicians like Béla Fleck have taken souped-up electric banjos into the realm of funk and beyond, but for their time, the recordings collected on Ring, Ring de Banjo were equally as startling. The banjo is a simple instrument -- little more than a tambourine with a fretboard -- but like a Zen koan, there is more there than meets the eye, and this delightful anthology is proof of that. ~ Steve Leggett, All Music GuideTracks
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| Blaze Away | (3:25) | ||
| Minstrel Medley: So Early in the Morning/De Camptown Races/Poor ... | Stephen Foster, |
(2:45) | |
| The Mosquito's Parade | Vess L. Ossman | (1:34) | |
| Persiflage | Fred Van Eps | (2:57) | |
| Queen of the Burlesque | (3:21) | ||
| Heebie Jeebies | Harry Reser | Harry Reser | (3:14) |
| Crackerjax | Harry Reser | Harry Reser | (3:03) |
| Get Goin' | (2:40) | ||
| Keyboard Kapers | (2:32) | ||
| Frivolous Joe | (2:46) | ||
| Tune Tonic | (2:50) | ||
| A Swanee Sing Song (Medley): Oh! Susanna/Ring, Ring de Banjo/Who's ... | Stephen Foster | (3:10) | |
| Lollipops | Harry Reser | (2:56) | |
| Teasin' the Frets | (2:09) | ||
| The Blackthorns | (2:49) | ||
| Take Your Pick | (3:01) | ||
| Eccentric | J. Russel Robinson | (2:36) | |
| A Ragtime Episode | (2:50) | ||
| Rhapsody in Blue | George Gershwin | Eddie Peabody | (3:21) |
| St. Louis Blues | W.C. Handy | Eddie Peabody | (2:27) |
| On a Southern Plantation (Medley): Old Black Joe/Oh! Susanna/My ... | Stephen Foster, Daniel Decatur Emmett, Lewis F. Muir | (3:21) | |
| Melodies of Yesterday (Medley): Nobody's Sweetheart/Whispering/Avalon | Con Conrad, Vincent Rose, Elmer Schoebel, |
(3:03) | |
| Vodka | (2:59) | ||
| March Medley: Marche Militaire/El Capitán/Blaze Away/Marche Lorraine | Franz Schubert, John Philip Sousa, |
(2:44) | |
| Snakes and Ladders/All's Well | (3:16) | ||
| That Banjo Rag | The Banjo Kings | (2:29) | |
| Stephen Foster Medley No. 1: My Old Kentucky Home/Old Folks at Home | Stephen Foster | The Banjo Kings | (2:29) |
