Unknown faces of Django's Legend (1)

scot · October 2012

Although Vaissade received credit for it, Julien Latorre was supposed to be the true composer of "Sombreros et Mantilles".

Django played a six-string banjo when he started and it was popular in the bal-musette world until the late '20s when the guitars took over, thanks to Django and the Ferres. Over here, these banjos were never as popular for jazz as the tenor and plectrum banjo were. But those loose 5th and 6th strings made them good for blues and many popular players like Papa Charley Jackson and Rev. Gary Davis played them. I had a vintage Gibson 6-string banjo back in the 80s and used it for ragtime-style blues and old-timey music, it worked great for that.

François RAVEZ · March 2014

http://www.djangobooks.com/forum/uploads/FileUpload/08/7e5997887b5fc4d31c007b02db48df.jpg
Here is a rare photo of a 9-string banjo played by Umberto BADIALI (who later changed his name to BADIALE so that it sounded more french).

Best

François RAVEZ

MichaelHorowitz · March 2014

Francois, that file doesn't seem to be there anymore. Can you please re-upload it?

Russell Letson · March 2014

The banjo-guitar was not all that obscure in dance music, jazz, and blues, especially in the New Orleans tradition--you can hear it on early Armstrong records, played by Johnny St. Cyr. There's a famous photo of the Hot Five that includes him with his banjo here:

http://sites.duke.edu/banjology/banjo-and-jazz/jazz-banjo-ists-of-new-orleans/johnny-st-cyr/.

Also a YouTube video of Armstrong playing on Disneyland's Mark Twain--around 2:50 they finally show the band, and St. Cyr is playing a six-string:

In fact, before the advent of electric recording and then amplification, the string guy in a jazz/dance band often tripled on tenor banjo, guitar banjo, and guitar. Danny Barker played six-string throughout his long career--look up "The Fabulous Banjo Of Danny Barker" on Amazon. Tenor had an edge, perhaps because its four-string voicings allowed really strong chord solos (and didn't get in the way of the bass/tuba/piano-left-hand).

I don't know where the "flabby strings" proposition comes from--I've played a late-1920s Gibson Mastertone that was anything but (Rev. Gary Davis eventually bought it), and I've owned a two modern Deerings that will blast the fillings right out of your molars.