[Dixielandjazz] Banjitar in early trad jazz

[Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis]

Some years ago a fellow teacher gave me two banjos and a tear drop mandolin. 
One Banjo was an antique hand made instrument and was pretty crude but 
playable.  The other was a Banjo Uke.   I kind of got a kick out of the uke. 
About three years after she gave them to me she figured out that they might 
be valuable, maybe she found a buyer or maybe she just thought they were 
worth a buck.  Anyway she came into my band room and demanded them back and 
told me she had just loaned them to me when I told her she had given them to 
me.  One of the kids had dropped the Mandolin and broke out a section.  She 
wasn't happy about that.

When she gave them to me they were so much trash and in her way.  It's funny 
how clutter that you are glad to get rid of suddenly becomes valuable 
antiques.  I gave them back but I wasn't real happy about it.  Not because 
they were valuable but because she had given them to me.
Larry
StL
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
To: "Larry Walton" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Monday, December 03, 2007 3:23 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Banjitar in early trad jazz


> There were plenty of banjo variants in early jazz. Most of them used the
> body of a banjo, often with a resonator, and the neck of the other
> instrument, like a guitar, uke, or mandolin. Examples are the guitar banjo
> ('banjitar') the banjo mandolin and the banjo ukulele (banjolele). All 
> were
> very popular in the early part of the twentieth century, and were probably 
> a
> result of a desire either to allow players of other instruments (like
> guitar) to take advantage of the banjo bandwagon at the time, or to get
> increased natural amplification from the banjo resonator in the years 
> before
> electronic amplification became the norm.
>
> NOTE: The six-string or guitar-banjo was the instrument of the early jazz
> great Johnny St. Cyr, as well as of jazzmen Danny Barker, Papa Charlie
> Jackson and Clancy Hayes.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
>
>
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