International Jazz Banjo Newsletter

It has been quite a busy time for my wife (Sally Logan) and myself, which I’m glad to say! We have being doing a lot of theatre shows and concerts and although our act is mainly Scottish, I always try and give the banjo an airing with a Scott Joplin rag or two and recently at one show, I included a tribute to Lonnie Donegan with a ‘Skiffle medley’. It went down so well that Sally said, ”We must keep that in!" It’s amazing how many people seem to know most of the words!
Away from the theatre shows, it was great to play the Edinburgh International Jazz Festival for the fourth time with my “Joe Gordon's Ragtime Banjos!” set up. It was a bit of a worry, because my old banjo…a “BITSA”… (It has ‘bitsa this and bitsa that!’) but it has a wonderful action and a surprisingly good sound. Unfortunately the head broke just a few days before the gig and a replacement head did not sound too good. Also, somehow several frets sprung up and the neck developed a ‘kink’, so I did not have the greatest confidence in the action and sound for Ragtime solos! However, I bumped up the sound a bit, (I use a little Microvox condensor micrphone which attaches by Velcro to the banjo) and I had the monitor close to me for the banjo solos. My wife was in the audience and said it sounded “Fine”!
Speaking of the audience, we had a big crowd again at the Royal Overseas League, in Princes Street and they were very friendly and warm. I had the help of fine musicians, with Eoin Millar on double bass, Bob Busby on clarinet and sax, Robert White on trumpet and Jock Westwater on second banjo (playing one of his many banjos!) a Bacon & Day Silver Bell No. 1. All the guys featured with popular solos including Jock’s special version of ‘I want to be happy!’
It was nice to discover that my mixture of banjo solos and Dixieland vocals with the guys seemed to be what was wanted. Our last two numbers went down a storm!…’Bourbon Street Parade’ and………you’ve guessed it!…the ‘Skiffle medley’…and again everyone seemed to know the words. Thanks Lonnie!
It’s back to the ‘bread and butter’ work next week. Sally and I are at the Pavillion Theatre in Glasgow. Guess what one of the numbers is going to be????!!
Oh! One more thing, I bought the Bacon and Day Silver Bell from Jock a couple of weeks ago and I’m still trying to get used to it after so many years with the ‘BITSA’!
Regards to all my banjo friends!
From Scotland,
Joe Gordon.