Banjo Roots and Branches

by Robert B Winans (Editor), Greg C Adams (Contribution by), Nick Bamber (Contribution by), Jim Dalton (Contribution by), George R Gibson (Contribution by)

Overview

The story of the banjo's journey from Africa to the western hemisphere blends music, history, and a union of cultures. In Banjo Roots and Branches, Robert B. Winans presents cutting-edge scholarship that covers the instrument's West African origins and its adaptations and circulation in the Caribbean and United States. The contributors provide detailed ethnographic and technical research on gourd lutes and ekonting in Africa and the banza in Haiti while also investigating tuning practices and regional playing styles. Other essays place the instrument within the context of slavery, tell the stories of black banjoists, and shed light on the banjo's introduction into the African- and Anglo-American folk milieus.

Wide-ranging and illustrated with twenty color images, Banjo Roots and Branches offers a wealth of new information to scholars of African American and folk musics as well as the worldwide community of banjo aficionados.

Contributors: Greg C. Adams, Nick Bamber, Jim Dalton, George R. Gibson, Chuck Levy, Shlomo Pestcoe, Pete Ross, Tony Thomas, Saskia Willaert, and Robert B. Winans.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780252050640
Publisher:	University of Illinois Press
Publication date:	08/15/2018
Series:	Music in American Life
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	360
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Robert B. Winans is a professor emeritus of American literature and folklore at Gettysburg College.

Table of Contents

Cover Title Copyright Contents Editor's Introduction Part I: Setting the Scene 1. Changing Perspectives on the Banjo’s African American Origins and West African Heritage Shlomo P Part II: Exploring the African Roots 2. Banjo Ancestors: West African Plucked Spike Lutes Shlomo Pestcoe 3. List of West African Plucked Spike Lutes Shlomo Pestcoe and Greg C. Adams 4. Searching for Gourd Lutes in the Bijago Islands of Guinea-Bissau Nick Bamber 5. Interviews with Ekona Diatta and Sana Ndiaye, Master Musicians Playing within Traditional and C 6. The Down-Stroke Connection: Comparing Techniques Between the Jola Ekonting and the Five-String B Part III: Into the New World—Caribbean Developments 7. “Strum Strumps” and “Sheepskin” Guitars: The Early Gourd Banjo and Clues to its West African Roo 8. “Finding” the Haitian Banza Saskia Willaert 9. The Haitian Banza and the American Banjo Lineage Pete Ross Part IV: Into North America—Early Banjo Sightings 10. Zenger’s “Banger”: Contextualizing the Banjo in Early New York City, 1736 Shlomo Pestcoe and Gr 11. The Banjar Pictured: The Depiction of the African American Early Gourd Banjo in The Old Plantat 12. Black Musicians in Eighteenth-Century America: Evidence from Runaway Slave Advertisements Rober 13. Mapping Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century Citations of Banjo Playing, 1736–1840 Robert B Illustrations Part V: Inquiries into White and Black Banjo in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century America 14. Black Banjo, Fiddle, and Dance in Kentucky and the Amalgamation of African American and Anglo-A 15. The Changing Intonational Practice of Mid-Nineteenth-Century Banjo Jim Dalton 16. Gus Cannon—“The Colored Champion Banjo Pugilist of the World” and the Big World of the Banjo To 17. Defining a Regional Banjo Style: “Old Country Style” Banjo or Piedmont Two-Finger Picking Rober Contributors Index

Editorial Reviews

Nicholas Bessaraboff Prize, American Musical Instrument Society, 2020

"Anyone with a strong interest in the early history of the banjo or in the broader history of American instrumental music in oral tradition will want a copy of this fine collection. All the work is imaginative, careful, and thoroughly documented. The essays flow smoothly." —Western Folklore


"Banjo Roots and Branches is a comprehensively researched and pathbreaking piece of banjo roots scholarship. " —Music in American Life

"Inspired by Dena Epstein, this is the first book to use a holistic approach in exploring the history of the banjo; it is an excellent compilation of articles for those interested in the music of Africa and the Americas."—Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje, author of Fiddling in West Africa: Touching the Spirit in Fulbe, Hausa, and Dagbamba Cultures

"Winans makes a rich addition to the literature. Recommended." —Choice

"As far as I know this book has no real equivalents. Several of the essays are pioneering contributions to the esoteric but intriguing field of banjo research and folklore and ethnomusicology generally."—Robert S. Cantwell, author of Bluegrass Breakdown: The Making of the Old Southern Sound

"An excellent book with plenty of material for both specialist and casual readers." —Galpin Society Journal

"Roots and Branches collects an extraordinary amount of research into the ongoing discovery of the banjo's Byzantine history. . . .Each essay speaks directly to all others, lending the book an unusual level of cohesion for an edited volume." —The World of Music

"A significant contribution to our understanding of the history and current significance of the banjo." —Ethnomusicology

From the Publisher