Tony Trischka’s banjo trip

by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Oct. 25, 1998) -- Perhaps more than any other instrument, the banjo lacks respect, as much for the style of music it is typically associated with as for its peculiar sound.

While Tony Trischka’s “World Turning” program -- a sort of tribute to the banjo -- at the Clark Art Institute on Saturday night might not have made instant converts to the banjo of all those who attended, it certainly must have opened more than a few eyes and ears to the rich legacy of the instrument and its music.

With the help of a virtuoso crew of musicians, Trischka took listeners on a guided tour through the banjo’s history, from its roots as a hollow-gourd instrument in Africa through its journey through American history, a journey which mirrors that history in its racial tension and ambivalence.

Alternating musical selections with spoken-word narration provided by actress/singer Brenda Presley, Trischka and his group traced the development of the instrument itself and the music it played, starting with its origins among the Wolof in Senegal, where an animal skin was stretched over a hollow gourd -- hence, the banza.

That instrument was brought to these shores by African slaves, who used it to accompany their own social gatherings. The banjo made its first leap into white hands via minstrelsy, the popular, mid-19th century entertainment which first brought African culture to white audiences. By the turn of the century, American blacks were viewing the banjo as “the instrument of slavery” while in white culture it had made the transition to high society. Tuxedo-clad musicians used it to play light classical, ragtime and marches.

The banjo continued its cross-cultural journey in the hands of African-American jug-band musicians such as “Banjo Joe” Cannon at approximately the same time that Tennessee comic entertainer “Uncle Dave” Macon was popularizing string-band tunes such as “Turkey in the Straw.”

Folk musician Dock Boggs invested the instrument with a dark, soulful quality which Trischka demonstrated in a searing version of the murder ballad “Pretty Polly.” In mid-century, bluegrass players including Earl Scruggs and Ralph Stanley codified the three-finger, “clawhammer”-style of playing which is probably most familiar to general audiences today. In the 1960s, playing with Bill Monroe’s bluegrass group, banjoist Bill Keith used the instrument to play fiddle lines, while Pete Seeger was exposing the instrument to mainstream audiences during the great folk scare of that decade.

Finally, musicians like Trischka combined all this history and various influences, as well as non-banjo influences from jazz, rock and classical music, to forge a new, progressive fusion for the banjo. Trischka and his ensemble, which included percussionist Jeff Berman, bassist Larry Cohen, mandolinist Barry Mitterhoff and fiddler Matt Glaser, aptly demonstrated the evolution of this music with equal parts of versatility, virtuosity and wit -- enough to toss in a version of the “Beverly Hillbillies” TV theme song at the end, affably acknowledging the banjo’s cornier history and reputation.

In the end, you might not like the banjo any more than you did at the beginning, but you couldn’t help but respect it.

If you would like to purchase Tony Trischka’s latest CD on-line, please click on the SoundStone logo to the right.