[Dixielandjazz] Give Me The Banjo (from a Mark Twain quote)

[Gluetje1 at aol.com]

Hi Ross,
This entire production was about 5-string banjo.  There was no  reference 
to Dixieland, to jazz banjo, to the Roaring '20's, to Western Swing,  etc.  
There was a well-done, I thought, historical review of the plantation  and 
minstrel origins of banjo.
 
I'm not certain how many of us from this "other banjo world" were  
recruited as financial donors with the understanding that our passions  would also 
be represented at least to some extent.  For example, some  nice filming was 
done of Cynthia Sayer on New York "Swing Banjo".  She  referred to the 
influence on Elmer Snowden on her approach to banjo, was shown  playing with a 
swing quartet in NYC.  But none of that made the final  cut.  I believe there 
was also some filming done of Buddy Wachter, for  example.  There is a, 
probably futile, negative outcry  from jazz banjoists over the result.  I'm 
presuming there were  far bigger dollars than ours supporting this project.  One 
thinks of one  of the U.S.'s biggest  promoters of bluegrass, Steve Martin, 
 who was the narrator.
 
>From my perspective, there were some interesting historical sections and  
some nice footage on the limited number of black banjoists in today's  world. 
 But I also suspect that much of this film was meaningful  only to devotees 
of five-string history and resulted in channel switching  by general 
audiences.  I would have rather seen a program focused on  presenting the top 
entertainers throughout the spectrum of banjo playing.   I think that would have 
had far more audience appeal.
Ginny
 
 
In a message dated 11/5/2011 9:00:38 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
rossanmjband at iprimus.com.au writes:

Dear Steve and  Ginny,
Please let me know if  it does come out on DVD.
Thank you both for your  time,
Best wishes,  Ross