International Jazz Banjo Newsletter

Eddy Davis announces his new website is now active at www.theeddydavis.com.
Eddy was born in Indiana in 1940 he took an early interest to music. When he was only three of four years old he began listening to jazz records. In high school he took it upon himself to learn about every instrument there was. He finally took up the banjo when the only job open in a band that he wanted to work with was the banjo.
In college Davis majored in music playing bass. While studying in Chicago there were numerous opportunities to continue working playing tenor banjo. After college his banjo career took off in a new direction playing for the touring company of Hello Dolly and Mame. Over the years he was worked with most of the great jazz players. Other notable groups that he has worked with include the Best of Spike Jones presented by "The New York Society for the Preservation of Illegitimate Music" with Cynthia Sayer and the Village Stompers. In recent years Davis has been involved with musical and acting projects with Woody Allen.

The 2006 GLIB convention (which was billed as the last) after 17 years, was full of rumours, that the program might continue, after all. Finally, chairman Bill Jackson announced during the concerts that because of re-negotiations with the hotel, there might be a GLIB convention in 2007. There are still many open issues and the GLIB committee will decide on whether or not to continue by June 2006.
Probably because it was published as the last GLIB convention, there was a record attendance from all over North America. The convention continued to be “the best GLIB convention” ever, as it has done progressively, each year. Every aspect this year was better than last year, the jamming, the workshops, the display rooms, the play outs, the concerts, even the weather.
Most considered that the Doubletree Hotel renovations and changes, made the hotel an improvement over the previous Holiday Inn décor and set-up. The rooms had been renovated, there were no complaints about room service. Highlights of the concerts were the club bands, including the Windsor Banjo Club band, which put on a great and different musical program after the break on Friday evening. Most of the SE Michigan clubs had bands playing, plus a good entourage from the Toronto Banjo Band, Canada. The Jackson Banjo Club did their usual excellent service as stage hands, they are the best in the business.
The other big groups like the GLIB band and Girls, Girls, Girls were great too. The second line dancers from Petoskey, Michigan stole the show with their bikini costumes. The GLIB police had to arrest a couple of cross dressers attempting to join the Girls band lineup. Many of the girls in the band made a real effort and were considerably more attractive than their beautiful gold plated banjo’s!
All of the concert acts were excellent, but special mention should go to some. Picks N’Sticks, with their star singer Bruno (a dog!) from Mexico had the audience totally captured. The Riverboat Rats got the audience involved with “Those Were the Days”. The Dixieland Swingers closed the Friday night show with the usual outstanding performance by young David Bennett on clarinet. Dave has played at every GLIB concert, since he was 13 years old. He is now 21. Regular performers on Friday included Charlie Khederian, Mal Cooper, Dr. Jeff Grosser and Ernie May.
On Saturday afternoon the early emphasis was on youth, with “the Next generation Banjo Band” (who after a flawless performance, were asked for an encore), followed by 17 year old Paul Dernier, from the “Capital Kids” band in California. Paul also performed in the Friday night concert. The matinee also included “Side by Side” and “Spur of the Moment”. Dick and Helen Martin closed the matinee.
Special guest, Jack Convery from California, put on an excellent performance both Friday evening and during the Saturday afternoon matinee. Jack has recently released a new CD, “Beatles on the Banjo”, he played some selections from the CD, as well as the normal “tin pan alley” music.
Highlights of the Saturday evening concert was again, Dick and Helen Martin, plus the “Appearing Together” quartet, who played some interesting music from Simon and Garfunkel. Also performing were Frank Costa, Ralph Martin with his “Oregon Trail Riders” and John Ruskinoff. The Saturday night concert was closed at breathtaking speed, with a fantastic performance by Greg Allen and friends.
After the Saturday night concert intermission, the GLIB committee were introduced, as they are every year. Special this year (because it was assumed to be the last), GLIB Chairman Bill Jackson and his wife Sandy, were presented with a commemorative plaque of the GLIB logo, from the committee, to thank them for 15 years of dedicated service to GLIB. Vern and Avis Nelson were also presented with a similar plaque, for their forethought and hard work, bringing together the six Great Lakes area banjo Clubs, to get this event off of the ground in 1989. The now very familiar and distinctive logo, was designed at that time by the late Lou Marvicsin. Notable honoured guests attending the concerts, with reserved front row seats, were Charlie and Virginia Khederian, as well as Dr. Ford Topping and his wife Laura, now from Lansing, Michigan.
On Friday and Saturday after the concerts, jamming went on until the small hours. The hotel atrium had people standing in the walkways, both nights. Jamming also went on during the day, except during the concerts. The display rooms buzzed with activity and several instruments changed hands. There was also lots of activity with luthiers adjusting instruments for attendees. Outside activities included a trip to the Dearborn Commodores Club, as well as a Dearborn Nursing Home. There were also activities for the “banjo widows”, along with the dedicated card room.
The possibility that there will be a Great Lakes Banjo Convention in 2007, is a "definite maybe".
Submitted by Derek Channing

Hootenanny 3 featuring David Grier.
Well... Daily Planet's third album is now well under way and due for release/escape towards the end of the year - watch this space. The band will continue their touring hiatus until that time. Three of its members -
Henry (fiddle), Leon (banjo) and Dom (bass), will be touring throughout May, as Hootenanny 3 with the award winning American guitar virtuoso, David Grier. It would be great to see you at one (or more) of the following shows...
Thurs 11th - South Parade Pier, Southsea. 07970 959793
Fri 12th - Kalamazoo Club, Crouch End, London. 0208 3408752
Wed 17th - Nettlebed American Acoustic Music Club, Oxon. 0118 9423535
Thurs 18th - Plantation Lakes Acoustic Club, Nr. Clevedon. 01275 791750
Fri 19th - Devizes Acoustic Club, Cellar Bar, Bear Hotel Market Place, Devizes. 01380 722444
Sat 20th - Green Park Tavern (function room), Lower Bristol Road, Bath (all-day workshop and eve concert). 01373 813590
Tue 23rd - The Iswlyn Acoustic Guitar Club, Crosskeys Hotel, South Wales. robert.southall1@btopenworld.com
Wed 24th - The Social And Forces Club, Marple. 0161 2219683.
Advance tickets are available from Big Pink Records, 63 Thomas St, Manchester. 0161 833 0003.
Thurs 25th - Leeds Bluegrass Club. 01132 677040
Fri 26th - The Cannon, 50 High Street, Newport Pagnell, Bucks. 01908 610919
Sat 27th - Jamboree Strackonice (Nr. Prague), Czech Republic

Leon Hunt & Daily Planet
info@dailyplanet.co.uk
www.dailyplanet.co.uk/

On December 10th, 2005, at the 8th Annual Banjo Collectors Gathering, Gambian Jola folk music scholar Daniel Laemouahuma Jatta and Swedish banjo historian Ulf Jägfors met with two American roots music advocates Shlomo Pestcoe and Professor Tony Thomas (who is the Founder/Coordinator of the Black Banjo Then & Now and The Association of Traditional Association of Tradiitional Black String Players\String Players) to discuss ways of supporting the ongoing fieldwork by Jatta and Jägfors studying the Jola akonting, the West African folk lute considered to be a possible living ancestor of the banjo, and other lute traditions found throughout West Africa. It quickly became clear that the most pressing need was to aid The Akonting Center: The Senegambia Center for Folk Music Research and Education(SCFMRE), a non-governmental grassroots cultural initiative in Mandinary, Gambia, started by Jatta to research, document, and perpetuate the various string instrument traditions of the Senegambia region.
The result was the creation of a North American support group, Friends of the Akonting Center (FOAC). Others from the American banjo community active in FOAC include: Ed Britt, Dr. Joan P. Dickerson (a pioneer of the recent movement of African American musicians and scholars to reintroduce the banjo into their
community's rich musical culture), Rebecca Dixon, Paul Sedgwick and Eli Smith.
The first task FOAC has set for itself is raising funds for The Akonting Center. Its most immediate goal is to provide economic support for Daniel Jatta's effort to record and document Sagari Sambo, the oldest living master and tradition-bearer of the Jola akonting. Likewise, FOAC will be supporting The Akonting Center's International Conference on the African Origin of the Banjo, July 14-16, 2006, which will mark the official opening of the Gambian cultural institution.
For more information, please contact:
Shlomo Pestcoe
135 Amity Street, #1A
Brooklyn, NY 11201, USA
(718) 875-8847
or visit www.shlomomusic.com

The Strummers held their 14th annual Spring Fling the weekend of March 23-26,2006 at the Holiday Inn in Mansfield, Massachusetts. Our Headliner this year was Kurt Abell.
He did a great job at the Spring Fling with all his medleys. Songs you never hear! One of them was a big hit with all of us "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road" only Kurt could pull that off, with a special skunk hat and all! I still have it stuck in my head! However, the way he plays banjo is different than most other banjoists. Not only complex songs in medleys, but also lots of very musical ideas and passages of moving bass lines and inner voices to color and accompany himself. His alternative chords come from moving those inner voices so that not only does the melody sound wonderful, the way he moves from one chord to another in his chord melody's is just astounding! I have never seen someone with such a great ability to stretch for those notes he gets, but the notes and the way he uses them convinces me he is one of the few masters of that art form on any instrument! His workshop was one of the best we have had. All who attended walked away with a new sense of how rythum should be done and how to listen to it also.
We started off on Thursday evening with a Lobby performance by Dave Frey and Paul Doerner. As our attendees were heading for the Main Ballroom for the Strummers concert, they entertained on their plectrum banjos. The concert by the Strummers was held for the local area Senior Centers and Retirement homes. We had a full house with about 500 people in attendance for the concert. Tom Fee directed the band through memory lane on over 40 songs from the Tin Pan Alley era. Kurt gave us a teaser mini-concert for 15 minutes to show what people some of what they could expect in his one and a half hour concert on Saturday night.
Friday afternoon and we opened the registration table and had the first 4 of our lobby performances. Paul and I have the philosophy that as soon as you walk in the door of the hotel, there should be something happening musically from that point on. We had Dr Jeff Grosser and Friends play for an hour and then Steve Caddick and Friends play for an hour and then the Ross Hubbell Trio from Chicago play Gypsy Jazz for an hour. To finish off for the afternoon lobby performances we had Kurt Abell play for an hour.
Friday night we had the Providence Mandolin Orchestra, directed by Mr. Mark Davis, play in concert on the main stage followed by the Ross Hubbell Trio. Ross and Larry were accompanied by a local jazz great on bass,Mr. Steve Morawiec. Jamming followed the concert until the wee hours of the morning.
Saturday morning we had the 3 workshops. Eric Anderson gave a workshop on: "The Bass Line, the Foundation, Where it all Begins" He is Tubist from Maine. Also from Maine this year Dr. Jeff Grosser gave a workshop on "Banjo Playing is a Right and Left Brain Exercise: A Left Hand, Right Hand, Science, Art, Knowledge, and Technique Activity" Kurt Abell gave a 2 part workshop on: 1. "Slaying The Frustration Dragon" and 2."Rhythm Is Our Business" During this same time we continued with our lobby performances. They included: The Red
Suspenders, Dave Frey and Friends and a wonderful performance by Mike Hashem and friends. Mike played banjo and had 2 cornets and a bass with him. Great stuff!
At 1pm the "All Star Concert" was held in the main ballroom where all who wanted to participate were given a 12 minute time slot to show their stuff! Many played in this concert as it lasted over 5 hours! Many local singles, duos, trios etc played their hearts out for the overflow audience.During the weekend we had a vendor room with many people selling their music related items. Among them was Dr Gil O'Gawa who spent many hours fixing and adjusting banjos for many players. In the main lobby we had Gary and Maria Hicken taking photos of anyone who wanted to have a good photo of themselves made and also Kurt stood for 2 hours to have his picture taken with many of our attendees. This was a new idea for the Spring Fling and I think it just might catch on. Nothing says great memory like a photo.
Saturday night had only the one concert with Kurt Abell on stage as described at the beginning of this article. After Kurt's concert, the jamming started up in full swing in several areas. Once again it went on into the early hours of the morning. Sunday morning and it was time for Tom Fee's annual "Gospel Jam" where he projects hymns, gospel tunes etc up onto the big screen. In between the songs out come the stories and jokes. We many of those this year also.
One of the highlights was to see Dave Frey's new banjo created by Renee Karnes. Solid Ebony with engravings and carvings and over a pound of mother of pearl and abalone in it. What a graveyard for shell it is! Someone said that we had so much going on, you could not possibly see it all.
Well that is about it for the Spring Fling for this year. Paul and I would like to extend our personal invitation to you all to come next year. The dates
are: March 22-25, 2007 right at the Holiday Inn in Mansfield Massachusetts, USA.
My best,
Steve Caddick.

String Trio, Speicher, Husum, So., 07. Mai 2006, 11. 00 Uhr (Frühschoppen).
Drei Männer spielen Melodien aus Ragtime, Swing, Musical, Klassik und Blues.
Stücke von Scott Joplin, J.S. Bach und Karasz wie auch die weniger bekannten Novelty - Rags der 1930 - Jahre der Banjoisten Harry Reser bis Pete Mandell und dem Savoy Orpheans Orchestra. Feinste Salonmusik, die in keine Schublade passt -
ein Ohrenschmaus ohne Gleichen in einer Besetzung die man nicht
alle Tage hört. Im Speicher ist die Band von kurzen Auftritten im Rahmen des
Schleswig - Holstein Amateur - Jazz - Festivals bekannt.
Heute präsentiert String Trio zum Frühschoppen am 07. Mai sein neues Repertoire.
Christoph Cringle: Banjo & voc.; Lars Vagt: Tuba & voc.; Karl-Heinz Kircher: Gitarre & voc.
Grüße,
Cristoph Cringle

Since my wife , Nida, and I will be travelling in Europe for May and June, we will unfortunately be missing the Guthrie, Oklahoma, festivities . On May 25, banjo honorees will be inducted into the Hall of Fame, and the song, “The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise”, will be recognized and honored as a mainstay in every banjo player’s repertoire. Interestingly enough, this song was written in my hometown, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, back in 1919. In fact, I performed “The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise” for the widow of the music composer, Ernest Seitz, at a park- opening ceremony in Toronto about 25 years ago. Attending the ceremony were the Mayor of Toronto and dignitaries and historians, as well as Mrs. Seitz. The small park was named “Sunrise Parkette”, since it was the backyard of the small apartment building where Mr. And Mrs. Seitz lived when Ernest wrote this melody. June Lockhart, the famous daughter of this song’s lyricist, Eugene Lockhart, will be in Guthrie on May 25 to accept the honors on behalf of the two song composers. I’m sure she will have many interesting details to tell the Guthrie audience. If you are interested, you can hear my version of “The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise” on my “By Request” CD, or on my new 90 minute DVD, “In Concert”, found online at www.timallan.com .
Talking about Toronto, the Toronto Banjo Band just celebrated their 20th anniversary in February 2006. I was the first musical director of the band for about six months back in 1986. I’m happy to see that the TBB is flourishing and has a busy performance schedule around the Toronto area. Congratulations to the Toronto Banjo Band.
This May 22 and 23, I’ll be performing again on banjo and guitar in downtown Pforzheim, Germany, at the Bottich-Ratskeller in the Rathaus, Pforzheim, from 8:00 pm till 11:00 pm . For anyone interested in tickets (15 Euros) for either concert date, please contact Rainer Daub at (49) 723-135-6500. On Thursday, May 25, I shall be offering a 6-string guitar workshop at “Musik-City Steinbrecher”, also in downtown Pforzheim. For those banjo players interested in guitar, or at least, 6-string tuning, this guitar class will be very helpful. You can reserve a place at my all day guitar workshop by contacting store owner, Frank Steinbrecher, at info@musicmedia.de or telephone Frank at Musik-City Steinbrecher at (49) 7231-154390. The workshop fee will be only 50 Euros.
Tenor banjoists should note that I will be giving a tenor banjo workshop near Zurich, Switzerland, at the Banjo Festival Switzerland, on Saturday June 10, in the morning. I will be providing 2 hours of challenging instruction suitable for the moderate to advanced tenor banjoist, but everyone is welcome. The workshop fee will be only 40chf. I will also offer private lessons for 60chf. This first ever Swiss Banjo Festival will be held on June 9 and 10 at the Hotel zum goldenen Kopf in Bulach, just north of Zurich. The organizer of the Festival is plectrum banjo virtuoso, Ruedi Bleuer. He is turning 60 around then, so come to the Banjo Festival and celebrate his birthday! For Banjo Festival information, please go to www.banjomen.ch .
Tim Allan.