gypsy jazz banjo

jayjay

Not sure if this is the place to post this but I will give it a shot. My brother and myself wanted to play some Django tunes together and originally planned on using two guitars. My brother, being that he is primarily a banjo player decided to try the lead part for "Honysuckle Rose" on banjo, which he did and with great results. I understand that Django was originally a banjo player and I am now wondering, just out of curiosity, how much that has influenced his guitar playing. My brother claims that "Honysuckle Rose" translated really well onto the banjo and it sounds great. This makes sense to me considering Django's history as a banjo player but oddly enough I have not found any discussion of this. Does any one else play gypsy jazz on the banjo or know of anyone who does?
(ps, I also posted this in "History" sorry for the reduntency)

delsbrother

Didn't Django play guitar-banjo? Or was it a tenor?

What kind of banjo did your brother play? I mean, 5 string Scruggs style banjo rolls didn't exist when Django played banjo, so it couldn't have been an influence...

jayjay

"Didn't Django play guitar-banjo? Or was it a tenor?"

I did some more research and it looks like you are right, it was a six stringed "banjo-guitar." My brother plays the standard five stringed banjo popular in bluegrass and it seems to work well. I am still interested to hear about anyone's experiences playing gypsy jazz on the five string banjo.

djangolin

Bela Fleck is provides ample evidence that almost any style of music can be played on the 5 string banjo - old time, jazz, classical, blues, Irish, new acoustic, bluegrass, etc. There is also an LP from the 70's by Larry McNeely called Banjo Rhapsody which includes several GJ or GJ influenced tunes on banjo, including "To Django", "Honeysuckle Rose," and "Limehouse Blues". Probably not acceptable to the purists but it can be done effectively.

Joli Gadjo

The French Jazz guitarist / singer Sanseverino, who plays a Dupont custom, alternates Banjo and guitar back and forth... and it sounds great.
His banjo, made by Mr. Dupont himself has been built with the neck of a GJ guitar... maybe it's been inspired by Django himself.
Check it out :
http://www.acoustic-guitars.com/galerie ... verino.php

CalebFSU

Thats cool as hell. i am not a huge banjo fan (ducks stones) but the shop I used to work for had a Deering guitar banjo andI used to play waltzes on it a lot. The bluegrass guys that came in the shop hated it. The Banjotar not my playing they actually liked that but I could never show them what to play on a five string.

Korat

As far as I know the banjo-guitar was specifically designed to make the transition from banjo to guitar easier, thus luring banjo players away from the banjo to the guitar.
To me it's obvious Django incorporated banjo influences in his style.
You'd probably do the same yourself, perhaps even without being aware of it.