[Dixielandjazz] Skiffle bands

[Bill Hildebrandt]

Skiffle bands go back to the 1890s-early 1900s: This from "A Pictorial 
History of Classic Jazz" by Orren Keepnews & Bill Grauer, Jr.  1955: 
(caption of a photo taken in the West End area of New Orleans c.1900:
"...Abbie Brunies, Charles Cordilla and Emil Lacoumbe, nick-named 'Stale 
Bread' who played zither, piano , banjo and guitar, and lead various 
'Spasm" bands consisting of such home-made instruments as cheese box 
banjo and soap box guitar."

Also paraphrased from "Jazzmen" , Frederick Ramsey, Jr., & Charles 
Edward Smith, 1939, pp 52:
Stale bread had his first band in 1896: zither, whisky barrel bass with 
clothes line string and cypress stick bow, 4 string cheese box banjo, 
soap box 4 string guitar. The 1903 line-up: zither & piano, banjo, 
guitar & mandolin, sweet potato, tambourine & cornet. Later they played 
on riverboats and at the Halfway House with Brunies & Leon Rappolo. Emil 
Lacounbe was blind. "He wore dark glasses and most of the time no one 
seemed to notice it. The boys didn't read music anyway"

BTW, the spasm/skiffle band idea went over to England with the early 78 
RPM records, and did not originate in England, but in our own New Orleans.

My group, The New Farmington River Royal Ragtime Ramblers, (NFRRRR): 
four men: Banjo/kazoo/vocals, wash board, bass (sometimes string, 
sometimes gut bucket) trombone. We play early 1900s up to 1940s, by ear, 
no charts, head arrangements (if you can call them that).

Bill Hildebrandt
Banjo/ kazoo/ vocals
The NFRRRR