Here I am in West Africa with Remi Jatta (left) and Ekona Jatta (right, Remi's uncle), traditional Jola master musicians from Casamance (southern Senegal), the heartland of the Jola people and culture. They taught me their people's folk lute, the banjo-like akonting at The Akonting Center for Senegambian Folk Music .
Mandinary, Gambia, July 2006.
(Photo by Maggie Adams )
I'm a musician, archivist, and researcher with an intense interest in the history of the banjo. By day I work as a photo-archivist in Washington, D.C. and at most other times I research and perform early banjo music. I play 5-string banjo and specialize in 19th century stroke style, the earliest known banjo technique and the progenitor of the traditional folk banjo "down-picking" styles known as clawhammer and frailing .
In addition, I also play a traditional West African string instrument called the akonting (also spelled ekonting in Senegal). It's a banjo-like 3-stringed folk lute of the Jola (also known as the Diola), a people based primarily in Casamance (southern Senegal), Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau.
I've been studying and playing the 5-string banjo since 1994. When I finally decided to go to college to study music, I actually studied classical guitar because I couldn’t major in banjo studies. Although my academic interests drew me to complete my undergraduate degree in music history, I have been able to apply all the skills I developed to my unwavering passion for the banjo. While working through my masters in library and information sciences, my interest in early banjo artifacts was only reinforced by work as an archivist
My performance at the 2006 Early Banjo Gathering,
Pry House, Antietam Battle Field, Sharpsburg, MD.
(Video by James Hartel )
LIVING HISTORY THROUGH THE BANJO
My interest in the period music of the American Civil War era led me to focus on banjo playing styles and repertoire of the 1850s and 1860s. I’ve been fortunate to meet a number of other banjo players who are also interested in mid-19th century banjo playing and who are part of a growing early banjo community . At the 2006 Antietam Early Banjo Conference, held at Pry House, Antietam Battle Field, Sharpsburg, MD, I was given the opportunity to present some aspects of my research and perform in a banjo concert/contest (see the video above). For my performance, I had won the grand prize, a fine handmade replica of a mid-19th century banjo made by The Wunder Banjo Company .
For the past 12 years, I've been performing at historic sites, reenactments, and other events. I am a founding member of the ACW music ensemble Acoustic Shadows of the Blue & Gray where we perform modernized interpretations of 19th century music. In addition, I've also been doing more historically accurate performances with another 19th century period music group called Home Front .
In recent years I've been active in ongoing work tracing the banjo's roots and history. Drawing on my background as a music historian and archivist, I'm currently developing a musicological analysis of 19th century banjo repertoire and playing practice.
Currently, one of my principal areas of research is examining what is known of early banjo playing techniques in juxtaposition to those of extant West African plucked lute traditions such as the Jola o'teck style of "down-picking" the akonting . I'm also researching the role of the instrument in the context of minstrelsy -- America's first homegrown "pop" music form and the genre which first spotlighted the banjo--as well as the general popular and vernacular music of the period.
Me & My Main Axes.
A replica of a 19th century double tack head banjo and a Jola akonting.
2006 Early Banjo Gathering. Pry House, Antietam Battle Field, Sharpsburg, MD.
(Photo by Tim Twiss )
THE BANJO SIGHTINGS DATABASE: DOCUMENTING THE EARLY BANJO
In 2002, I entered into collaboration with renowned early banjo maker and historian George Wunderlich to create The Banjo Sightings Database . It's an online database and resource center to "accumulate specific information about every instance of the early banjo, regardless of format, including coverage of the earliest New World instruments through the American Civil War...." The Banjo Sightings Database's mission is "to collect, document, and centralize information about the construction and development of the early banjo and to act as a reference tool and clearinghouse for information about the early banjo."
For more information, please visit: The Banjo Sightings Database
Banjo & Akonting Summit.
Jola akonting master Ekona Jatta and I share a moment.
The Akonting Center , Mandinary, Gambia (West Africa), July 2006.
(Photo by Maggie Adams )
RECONNECTING THE BANJO TO ITS AFRICAN ROOTS
Back in July 2006, my wife, Maggie, and I traveled to West Africa for the festivities which marked the opening of The Akonting Center for Senegambian Folk Music . Initiated by Gambian Jola folk music scholar Daniel Laemouahuma Jatta and Swedish banjo historian Ulf Jägfors , The Akonting Center is a grassroots, community-based cultural institution located in the rural village of Mandinary, Gambia. Its primary mission is to serve a focal point for the research, documentation, and perpetuation of the many different endangered string instrument traditions of the various peoples of West Africa's Upper Guinea Coast region.
There we participated in The First International Conference on the African Origins of the Banjo, one of The Akonting Center's inaugural events. This conference was a historic occasion in that it was the first ever meeting on African soil of American and European scholars and musicians with their West African counterparts that focused specifically on local traditional string instruments and their kinship with the banjo.
Participants were afforded a rare opportunity to take one-on-one private lessons with Jola akonting masters who had journeyed up to Gambia from their villages in neighboring Casamance for the opening. I spent as much time as I could studying the akonting and its repertoire first-hand from master players like Remi Jatta and his uncle, Ekona Jatta .
Upon our return to the United States, I wanted to be sure that our trip continued to have meaning not only to those of us who made the long journey, but also to those in the traditional music communities here in the United States. In order to educate people about the Jola akonting and other West African "living ancestors" of the banjo, I am planning performances, workshops, and lectures in which I will present both the banjo and the Jola akonting.
So far, these efforts have materialized in the following ways. I recently co-authored two articles with Paul Sedgwick , an American banjoist who plays, teaches and makes Jola akontings. One article in The Banjo Newsletter: America's Premiere 5-String Banjo Magazine comparing banjo and akonting playing techniques; and the other in The Old-Time Herald: A Magazine Dedicated to Old-Time Music on the 2006 opening of The Akonting Center , entitled Encountering the Akonting: A Cultural Exchange . I also co-wrote The Jola Akonting: Reconnecting the Banjo to Its West African Roots, a feature piece for Sing Out! The Folk Song Magazine (Volume 511 Spring '07) with Shlomo Pestcoe , banjo historian and scholar of the African and African Diasporic roots of the banjo.
Finally, I also wanted to do my part in raising funds and practical support for The Akonting Center . So, on behalf of the attendees of the Antietam Early Banjo Conference, I auctioned off on eBay the banjo I was awarded for my performance at the 2006 conference (see above) and donated the money to The Akonting Center.