Silverleaf Travolin Travel Mandolin

Luckily I was home this morning when my Travolin mandolin by Silverleaf Instruments arrived a day early!  The Travolin is a high quality travel mandolin made by Steve Hallee in Maine.  Mine is a custom 4-string left-handed version (normally they have 8-strings just like a regular mandolin).

For reasons unknown I woke up this morning wanting to learn the Monty Norman song Under the Mango Tree from the James Bond movie Dr. No.  When the Travolin was delivered I had just about gotten the tune of it so Under the Mango Tree was the first thing I played on the Travolin.  That islandy song seems well suited to this instrument.  Here's an overdubbed recording I made today with the Travolin as lead melody, my Romero tenor banjo for the chords, and a metal scraper on a metal patio table to "approximate" the sound of a snare drum.

This 4-string version of the Travolin is 20 inches long and 5.5 inches wide.  It has a scale length of about 13.25 inches.  It's the best feeling, sounding and playing travel mandolin I've had, and the most compact.

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The Jazz Pirates and other sources for Caribbean melodies

In my previous post I mentioned how the Etcetera String Band and now Martiniquan musician Kali have become primary sources in the ongoing search for Caribbean trad tunes.  I also want to recognize a Swedish ensemble called the Jazz Pirates who are proving to be a great resource.

The Jazz Pirates of Gothenburg, Sweden

I don't know much about the Jazz Pirates other than that their clarinetist Lasse Collin has uploaded hundreds upon hundreds of lead sheets for "jazz age" type tunes along with home-made jam recordings and YouTube videos of the Jazz Pirates playing them.  The Jazz Pirates feature a tenor banjo as a chord instrument, while Collin plays the melodies and improvises on clarinet.

I've only just begun perusing the list of lead sheets in the Jazz Pirates' New Orleans Jambook, but have already found several Creole/Caribbean tunes including Adieu Foulard, Black Orpheus, Ce Filon, Femme Matinik Dou, Touloulou, and West Indies Blues.  For reasons I can't understand - it has something to do with Bb instruments vs. C instruments - the lead sheets are a whole step off from the audio, so I just saved the files and adjusted the pitch so that they would line up with the written music.

Another group who has recorded many tunes from the French West Indies is the Panorama Jazz Band of New Orleans.  Not surprisingly, they also have a tenor banjo in the band.  I enjoy listening to their hot jazz versions of Serpent Maigre, Mettez I Dehro, Pani Ti Mou, Asi Pare, and Ba Moin En Ti Bo to hear alternate takes on these classics.

Still another musician who draws from Caribbean sources is Leyla McCalla.  Even better...she plays them on cello and tenor banjo!  Leyla has recorded several Haitian folk songs on her two albums thus far.  Her debut Vari-Colored Songs features Latibonit, Kamen Sa W Fe, ManMan Mwen, Mesi Bondye, and Rose Marie.  The followup - A Day for the Hunter, A Day for the Prey - contains Fey-O, Minis Azaka, Peze Cafe, and ManMan.  Of these, at the very least, Kamen Sa W Fe is going to be a favorite of mine to play on my own.

Leyla McCalla with tenor banjo

When thinking of the 4-string banjo in Caribbean music, it doesn't hurt to include Jamaican Mento.  Mento songs don't always make for the best "tunes", but Jamaican 4-string banjo greats like Nelson Chambers of the Blue Glaze Mento Band and Moses Deans of the Jolly Boys are musicians worth checking out and returning to for inspiration.

Lastly, I've been digging something called Zouk Vol. 1: Féérie Antillaise by Honoré Bienvenu Et Son Orchestre.  I'm not sure what this is or who they are, but there are some strong melodies on here, one of which called Mi Un Marchand De Mangue I actually figured out by ear.

Kali: Traditional Music of the French West Indies Played on Banjo (Banjo-Mandolin?)

Martinique roots musician Kali and his banjo in early 2017

Learning of and gaining access to the Etcetera String Band's Bonne Humeur CD in 2012 significantly changed the trajectory of my music playing interests.  On that 1990 release, the then Kansas-City based string ragtime ensemble interpreted rare, early dance music from the Caribbean - Haiti, Trinidad, the Virgin Islands, Martinique, Venezuela, Creole Louisiana, and more.  What was really special about that recording to me was that the lead melodies were played on banjo-mandolin by the virtuoso Dennis Pash.  This meant it directly translated to "Irish" tenor banjo.

Now I've become aware another source for West Indies tunes played with equal skill on a 4-string banjo or banjo-mandolin in the lead.  This musician is named Kali and, ironically, his primary recordings in this style were also done around 1988 to 1990.  The albums are called Racines, Volume 1 and Volume 2.  Racines means "Roots" and Kali is a Martiniquan who took up the banjo and returned to his roots after having gone in a more contemporary French-Caribbean pop direction during the 1970's and 80's.

One or two generations prior to Kali, Martinique musicians living in Paris - including the clarinetist Alexandre Stellio - recorded 78's of biguines and mazurkas that paralleled but differentiated from the Calypso and New Orleans jazz music going on elsewhere in the world.  It is this traditional music heritage that Kali chose to honor on his Racines series.  What I find to be great about these recordings is Kali is faithful to the original melodies, but of course uses modern recording techniques and sensibilities to give it a superior audio fidelity when compared to the 78's of the 1930's.  Additionally, Kali's banjo playing is second to none; his tremolo would make Grisman proud!

From what I am learning, songs such as Mwen Desann St Pie, Manicou Volan, Vlope Mwen Doudou, Serpent Maigre, Ti Citron, Femme Martinique Dou, Fok ni tche, Mettez I Dehro, A Si Pare, Ba Moin Un Tibo and Pani Ti Moun are standards of the French Caribbean trad repertoire.  As such, they are on my list of tunes to learn.  

Tenner: Ten Years Playing Tenor Banjo

It was almost ten years ago to this day - Memorial Day Weekend 2006 - that I began playing tenor banjo.  Even though I had never played an instrument before, I decided out of the blue at age 32 that I was going to begin playing 4-string tenor banjo.

Ever since I received that first banjo and had it set up left-handed with new tuners in the "Irish" GDAE tuning, I have rarely wavered in thinking that the tenor banjo is the instrument for me.  What I have struggled with is finding the right music to play on it.  My favorite music to listen to at that time - John Prine, Neil Young, Ween, Phish, Grateful Dead - either wasn't fun to play or was too advanced harmonically to translate into single-note tenor banjo plucking.

I soon learned that I wanted to play instrumental melodies -- not strum and sing.  Irish music made the most sense: an endless repertoire of tunes - no chording required - in a style of music where the instrument I held in my hands was commonly used.  Delving in to Irish and old-time fiddle tunes forced me to learn about tenor banjo "flatpicking" and also a little bit about music theory due to my curiosity about the modes and scales.

Fast forward to now...it's taken me about ten years but I finally think I've cobbled together a personal repertoire of tunes that I endlessly enjoy playing.  I like to think of it as an "East/West" repertoire.  East being music with an Eastern European sound, and West being music with origins in the West Indies and therefore a more Caribbean sound.

The core of the "Western" repertoire is the music from an album called Bonne Humeur by The Etcetera String Band.  Around 1990, this ragtime string band from Kansas City recorded an album of early Caribbean music - dance tunes and other melodies from the 19th and 20th centuries.  The lead instrument is a banjo-mandolin.  My favorites from this CD include:  Aurore Bradaire, Bad Woman, Carnaval En Margarita, Dessan Mouillage, La Douceur, Lisette, and many more.  The majority of the 18 tracks, actually.

The core of the "Eastern" repertoire are the faux ethnic original tunes recorded by the band Camper Van Beethoven, primarily those from their 1985 debut album Telephone Free Landslide Victory.  My favorites are Balalaika Gap, Border Ska, Mao Reminisces About His Days In Southern China, Payed Vacation: Greece, Skinhead Stomp, Tina and Yanqui Go Home.

  

Add in a few other East or West type tunes from these and other sources and there are well over 40 tunes I'm trying to keep up with!

Lionel Belasco's Song of the Jumbies and Back Down to the Tropics (as recorded by Nick DiSebastian)

BTL Music Notes chart for Song of the Jumbies

In 2013 I hired musician Nick DiSebastian of Built To Last Music Notes to transcribe all 18 tracks from the rare, out-of-print Bonne Humeur album by The Etcetera String Band.  I sent him mp3s from the CD (early string band music of the Caribbean: Creole Louisiana, Haiti, Trinidad, Martinique, Venezuela and the Virgin Islands) and Nick transcribed the music, sending back pdfs containing chords, notation and mandolin tab, per my request.

BTL Music Notes chart for Back Down to the Tropics

The tunes from that CD have become some of my favorite music to play.  One discovery made via this Bonne Humeur CD was orchestra leader and composer Lionel Belasco.  Born around 1882, Belasco grew up in Venezuela and Trinidad. He was classically trained, but composed indigenous pieces such as joropos, paseos and danzas.  I learned from the Bonne Humeur liner notes that a couple collections of his music were published over 70 years ago.

Recently I was able to obtain a copy of one of those volumes: the 1944 booklet Calypso Rhythm Songs: Authentic Tropical Novelty Melodies by Lionel Belasco and Leighla Whipper.  The booklet contains fifteen "authenticated West Indian calypsos".

I like to have audio and sheet music when learning a new song.  In this case I had the sheet music but no audio, so I asked Nick if he could make source recordings of a couple of the pieces from this collection and he said yes.  Sort of a transcription in reverse!  I sent Nick copies of the sheet music and not only did he make professional sounding overdubbed recordings for me (adding some embellishments and arpeggios where it fit), but he also created his own charts with some minor revisions to the chords and melody where it seemed to make sense.

Below are the recordings Nick made for me.  I have his permission to share them here.

I think these sound great!  Now I have clean sounding basic recordings featuring lead melody plus rhythm backup to get the sound of the tune into my head.  Without this I would be relying on my own somewhat unreliable reading skills and sense of timing.  If you have a similar need I encourage you to reach out to Nick to see if he can help.

See below for the original images that Nick had to work with.

Song of the Jumbies page 1 of 2

Song of the Jumbies page 2 of 2

Back Down to the Tropics page 1 of 3

Back Down to the Tropics page 2 of 3

Back Down to the Tropics page 3 of 3

Calypso Rhythm Songs front cover

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JAZZed "What's On Your Playlist" - Clave Patterns by Los Munequitos de Matanzas

JAZZed Magazine has a regular segment called What’s On Your Playlist where a featured musician will list what he or she has been listening to. These artists usually select current releases and/or things they’ve discovered recently, but in the August/September 2015 issue baritone saxophonist Brian Landrus took a different route: he listed five recordings that have had a big influence on his playing.

Brian Landrus on contra alto clarinet

One of the albums he mentions is Rumba Caliente by Los Munequitos de Matanzas. Landrus says “While at the New England Conservatory I was fortunate to study with Danilo Perez. Danilo was working on my rhythmic groove. Danilo had me tapping various clave patterns with my foot and playing bebop heads. It was, and is, very difficult, but it took my internal groove to the next level. He told me about Los Munequitos so I listened to all of their recordings available and transcribed as many of the clave patterns I could find. They’re a great source of compositional inspiration for me.”

I had not heard of this Cuban group so I looked them up. The music is good and I can see how Landrus found it to be a great source of compositional inspiration. The idea of tapping various clave rhythms while playing head melodies sounds very challenging, but worth trying. You can read the full article – and the entire issue – here: http://digitaleditiononline.com/publication/?m=27630&l=1

The JAZZed interview with Ran Blake in the same issue is also worth checking out.

Practicing a Two Bar Section of the Haitian Meringue La Douceur

There's a tune I've been learning called La Douceur.  It was written by the Haitian composer/violinist Arthur Duroseau who was part of the Duroseau musical family from Port-au-Prince who made some recordings in the early 1950's.  La Douceur is a Meringue type of tune.  It has some syncopated timing that takes some getting used to and a seemingly difficult sequence of 8th notes at the end of the B-part which can feel very sped up when compared to the rest of the piece.

I wrote that two-bar lick out in the notation form that I have recently adopted which uses major scale note numbers which can then be applied to any key or tonal center you want.  See image below.  The note numbers correspond to the notes of the major scale.  This morning I was practicing that lick in the key of B, which means that my note "2" is a C# note and 2b (flat 2 or "doo" for diminished two) is the note C in the key of B.  With this kind of notation it's pretty easy to transpose.  All you have to do is know a major scale and then apply that knowledge to the sequence of notes.  After I'm done writing this I will try it in a different key.

La Douceur "lick" at end of B part

Michael Doucet recorded La Douceur on the 2013 BeauSoleil album From Bamako to Carencro.  Here's a link to that recording.  The lick starts just after 50 seconds and is only a couple seconds long:  https://soundcloud.com/airshowmastering/beausoleil-avec-michael

And here's a video of the amazing banjo-mandolin player Dennis Pash of the Etcetera String Band and the Ragtime Skedaddlers playing it.  Dennis' version is where I first heard La Douceur and it made me want to learn this tune!  The section transcribed above starts at about 33 seconds into this video.



Remember, this method of notating is not like a tab or treble clef anything like that.  The numbers correspond to major scale notes, not finger placement, so it's not instrument specific or key specific.  You can use this notation system for any melodic instrument....saxophone, flute, guitar, mandolin, et cetera, and you can use it for any mode.  A tune in Dorian would probably have 2 as the tonal center.  Makes sense, right?

Caribbean Jazz Standards: My Little Suede Shoes and St. Thomas

My Little Suede Shoes is a Charlie Parker tune with a Latin flavor and samba groove, although Parker didn't actually write it.  According to Brian Priestly, author of Chasin' the Bird, My Little Suede shoes is a French Caribbean tune called "Mes Souliers De Daim" that Bird picked up in Paris.  Parker explored Latin, Mexican and Caribbean Afro-Cuban rhythms during the early 1950's.  My Little Suede Shoes has an extremely catchy rumba beat that would have fit right in on Guadeloupe or Martinique.

My Little Suede Shoes

St. Thomas is a tune said to have been "composed" by Sonny Rollins.  His mother was from the island of St. Thomas in the Caribbean and Rollins remembered hearing his mother signing a calypso song when he was a child.  The Rollins composition St. Thomas is based on the song his mother would sing, perhaps originally known as "The Carnival" from the West Indies and/or the song "Fire Down There" from Jamaica.  So, Rollins' version is more of an interpretation of these earlier traditional melodies than a full-on composition.  St. Thomas remains the most popular and well known of Rollins' calypso themed tunes.

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The 2015 Richmond Folk Festival Saturday Schedule

In previous years I’ve often gone to all 3 days of the Richmond Folk Festival – Friday, Saturday and Sunday. However, due to the way the 2015 lineup comes together, attendance could be condensed into one day this time around. The five bands I’m most interested in seeing all perform at non-overlapping times on Saturday, October 10.

First off, there’s Grupo Rebolú (1:15-2:00 Dominion Dance Pavilion) from New York who play Afro-Colombian music. Their highly danceable rhythms are rooted in the music of Colombia’s Caribbean coast. After their set, there's the “Masters of Rhythm” workshop also on Brown's Island (2:30-3:30 WestRock Foundation Stage), featuring members of many of the different world music groups performing at this year’s festival. I love these types of workshops where they talk to musicians from different regions and traditions and have them provide examples of their respective styles and then jam together.

Grupo Rebolú

I might cut out of this rhythm meetup a little early to walk just north of Brown’s Island for The Alt’s set (3:30-4:15 VCU Health Stage). The Alt is more artistically appealing than most Irish bands at this level.  They rely on songcraft more than showmanship, offering obscure, sometime eery ballads that will stick with you long after the playing is done.  Eamon O’Leary is one of my all around favorite musicians in any style, John Doyle is a living legend and stringed instrument master, and the lovely Nuala Kennedy is both charming and impressive on flute and vocals.

The Alt

After The Alt it’ll be time to head back over to Brown’s Island for more Latin/Caribbean music, this time presented by the New York based Amargue Bachata Quintet with Andre Veloz (4:30-5:15 Dominion Dance Pavilion). Bachata is a Latino music from the Dominican Republic. Andre Veloz is the band’s frontwoman, and from what I understand it is rare for there to be a female bachata singer. The bachata music ends by 5:15 which should leave ample time to get a good spot for The Alt’s 2nd set of the day (5:45-6:30 Westrock Foundation Stage). This stage, which is under a tent and seated, will be a good place to watch The Alt work their magic.

Andre Veloz

This day’s itinerary closes with two jazz ensembles: the Feedel Band (7:00-8:00 Dominion Dance Pavilion) and the Sun Ra Arkestra (8:30-9:30 Community Foundation Stage). Feedel Band plays Ethiopian Jazz out of Washington DC. I'm not sure what this will be but I'm eager to find out.  The Sun Ra Arkestra dates back to the 1950’s and is on the short-list of the most important jazz collectives of all time. Mr. Sun Ra himself returned to Saturn in 1993, but the Arkestra continues to explore the outer realms under the direction of alto-saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Marshall Allen.

Feedel Band

Sun Ra Arkestra

Another cool thing about this plan is that it is logistically easy to pull off. It doesn’t involve as much walking through the crowds as usual because of the multiple back-to-back performances all taking place on Brown’s Island on either the Dominion Dance Pavilion or the WestRock Foundation Stage. There are plenty of food and beer vendors in that vicinity. The only time it leaves the island is for The Alt on the nearby VCU Health Stage at 3:30 and then for Sun Ra Arkestra all the way over at Community Foundation Stage for the final set of the day. That too makes sense logistically.

2015 Richmond Folk Festival map showing the sets mentioned above

I will probably wake up on Sunday morning with the notion to head back down to the festival. Sunday's highlights include DJ Grandmaster Flash, a “Global Voices” workshop and Deacon John’s Jump Blues, along with bonus sets by some of the performers I will have seen on Saturday.  But, even without Friday or Sunday, Saturday is a strong enough day to be a stand alone.

Field Recordings from the Seychelles Islands

My discovery last year of the Etcetera String Band's Bonne Humeur album of early Creole/Caribbean dance tunes from Louisiana, Haiti, Trinidad, Martinique and the Virgin Islands whetted my appetite for this kind of music.  These are basically fiddle tunes of the sort I am already familiar with via my playing of Irish and oldtime, but with a tropical and exotic, "islandy" Afro-Caribbean twist to them.  I've been in search of more music like this and may have just found some by virtue of an album of late 1970's field recordings from the Seychelles; tiny islands in the Indian ocean.

The LP is called Seychelles 1: Danses et Romances de l'Ancienne France by a group called the Anse Boileau Kamtole Band.  I'm not quite sure what it'll sound like as I have only been able to sample one track online.  It is described by Keith Chandler from Musical Traditions as "archaic dance music, originally performed in England and thence throughout the European continent during the eighteenth century, filtered through the vernacular tradition and transformed beyond all recognition into something truly spectacular".  The instruments are listed as being fiddle, guitar, accordion (or melodeon), banjo-mandolin, bass drum with cymbal and triangle.

In his book Primacy of the Ear, Ran Blake talks of the benefits of learning an artist's overall work.  This might be a jazz player learning all of Monk's tunes, an Irish musician memorizing O'Carolan's pieces, or a guitarist in a Dead cover band ingesting all of Jerry's repertoire.  Myself, I've been going through Bonne Humeur tune by tune and hopefully the music on this Seychelles recording will have the same appeal.  One roadblock is it's being mailed to me as a vinyl album, which I have no means of playing, so I'll have to find someone with a record player and digitize the audio.  Then, hopefully, the music will be worth learning.

This is getting into some obscure territory - instrumental dance tunes with a Creole, Caribbean or island flair - so each new discovery is treasured.  If you know of more music like this - even modern artists who are creating original works in this style - please let me know because I would be interested in hearing it.  Sonny Rollins wrote a tune called St. Thomas which has this same kind of feel, so learning about more jazz tunes with a Caribbean melody would be something I'd be very open to as well.  Thanks!

Mandolin Tab for Ten Early Caribbean Dance Tunes - Paseos, Meringues and more

In honor of an upcoming trip to the Spanish Virgin Island of Culebra in Puerto Rico, I've assembled ten Afro-Caribbean string band tunes from the recordings of the now defunct Etcetera String Band (Bonne Humeur) and Kansas City based The Rhythmia to work on while there.  Both bands have a knack for uncovering obscure tunes from Haiti, Trinidad, Louisiana, the Virgin Islands, Martinique and Venezuela.

Many of these tunes date back to the 1800's and share similarities to common fiddle tunes and rags, while still retaining a distinctly "island" feel that helps tag them as being from the Caribbean.  Guitarist Kevin Sanders - a member of both the Etcetera String Band and The Rhythmia - helped me obtain a copy of the out of print Bonne Humeur CD last year which is definitely worth seeking out if you're interested in this type of music.  All transcriptions shown below were done by Nick DiSebastian.  Here's a YouTube playlist where some of these tunes can be heard.

Aurore Bradaire is a Creole song named after a woman.  You can play it with a polka rhythm.  It comes from Slave Songs of the United States, the first authentic collection of slave songs ever published, where its transcription comes from a woman who heard it being sung in a time before the Civil War on the Good Hope Plantation, St. Charles Parish, Louisiana.

Aurore Bradaire – Coonjaille (Louisiana)

Bad Woman was written by Lionel Belasco, the pianist, composer and bandleader from Trinidad known as the Scott Joplin of calypso.  Belasco composed West Indian music from folk sources, which he found on his many travels throughout the islands, and was the first person to popularize calypso outside of Trinidad.

Bad Woman – Paseo

Blanche Toucatou/Can-Can (Creole Song) is medley of two Creole pieces from Louisiana originally recorded by the jazz trombonist Kid Ory. 

Blanche Toucatou/Can-Can (Creole Song)

Calinda is also known as Michie Preval.  A Calinda is a dance.  This tune is from Slave Songs of the United States.

Calinda – Louisiana

Carnaval En Margarita is a paseo by Lionel Belasco.  Margarita is an island off the Venezuelan coast which Belasco visited.  Belasco was classically trained, but preferred playing indigenous music.

Carnaval En Margarita – Paseo

Chai Bai comes from Cape Verde, an island group off the northwestern coast of Africa, with an African-Portuguese culture.  This tune was included in John Philip Sousa’s book National Patriotic and Typical Airs of All Lands (1890), published by H. Coleman in Philadelphia.

Chai Bai – Cape Verde

Dodo Li Pitite is a fun little Haitian folk tune, good for playing at a country ball.  It was found in Jean Price-Mars' book So Spoke the Uncle, a work on Haitian culture published in 1928.

Dodo Li Petite – Haiti

La Douceur is a hypnotic Meringue Hatienne written by Arthur L. Duroseau.  The music is featured in Tell My Horse by Zora Neale Hurston.  More recently, it was recorded by BeauSoleil on the album From Bamako to Carencro.

La Douceur – Meringue (Haiti)

Lisette was composed by Ludovic Lamothe, the "Black Chopin" of Haiti.  He composed several meringues and other dance and concert tunes based on local folklore.  He recorded 10 of his pieces on an album called Fleurs d'Haiti.

Lisette – Meringue (Haiti)

Souvenir d'Haiti was written by Othello Bayard and is considered to be his masterpiece.  It is one of the best known and loved meringues in Haiti.  Selden Rodman wrote about this tune in his book Haiti: The Black Republic.

Souvenir d’Haiti – Meringue Popular (Haiti)

Cabin A - new fireside field recordings by Cardinal Puffin

My wife Laura and I spent last weekend in a cabin in Spotsylvania County.  The idea was just to get away for a couple days and relax, read books and drink beer by the fire.  In addition, I thought it would be a good opportunity to play some of our current favorite songs and tunes without the distractions of everyday life getting in the way.  I like to periodically document our musical “progress”, so I kept the Olympus LS-14 on record whenever we were playing. 

Looking back, there were some definite flubs and missed notes, but we were able to work our way through over 15 tunes and songs, giving them all at least two takes each, and had a lot of fun doing it.  It we didn’t quite get it after three attempts, we moved on to something else.  The idea, as always, was to capture the sound we currently make, warts and all.  I played tenor banjo on all tracks.  Laura played baritone ukulele on the majority of them, but can be heard on bodhran on two tunes.

We are calling it Cabin A by Cardinal Puffin…Cardinal Puffin being the made up band name for the music we make together.  These are like field recordings.  I basically just split up the wav files as soon as I got back home and saved them as individual tracks.  No editing or sound engineering was done (quite obviously).  You can listen to it by clicking on the player below.  Below that is a track by track rundown.

Cardinal Puffin – Cabin A

Recorded November 23 and 24, 2013

Saturday Night Breakdown is a raggy little number in the key of C from the Leake County Revelers, although we got it from Celestial Mountain Music’s All-In-One Oldtime Jam Book/CD.

Good Guys and Bad Guys is a Camper Van Beethoven song.  I learned the little melodic bit in a lesson a few years ago, but only recently started playing it.

Johnny Mickey’s is an Irish polka, presumably written by a guy named Johnny Mickey.  I learned it from Steve Kaufman’s Four-Hour Celtic Workout, so my version is a bit watered down I’m sure.

Chinquapin Hunting is an oldtime fiddle tune.  This is Art Stamper’s version, but I memorized it second-hand from Celestial Mountain Music’s Celestial Slow Jam book/CD.  I love how this tune is in D but doesn’t require a D-chord in the B-part.

Brosna Slide is an Irish slide (slides like faster jigs in 12/8 time).  I actually just picked this one up by ear through going to sessions – for once the way you’re supposed to learn this music!  Laura plays bodhran here.

What Deaner Was Talking About is a song by Ween, one of my all-time favorite bands.  We also like to play the Ween song She Wanted To Leave, which I hope to share at a later date.

Coleman’s March is – I assume – an Appalachian tune but I’m not sure.  Marches also often have Celtic roots.  I kinda learned this one by ear as well.  When I look at the music I see notes that I’m not playing, so I prefer to just keep it simple and play it the way I play it.

Caroline is a Caribbean tune from the Etcetera Stringband’s Bonne Humeur CD.  A couple months ago I sent all 18 tracks from that album to a music transcriber named Nick Disebastian who put them all in mandolin tab.  I’m saving 3 or 4 of my favorite Caribbean/Creole numbers that album for a future project, but thought that Caroline would be a good one to include here.

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is a Flaming Lips song.  We were pretty heavy into a growler of red ale when we tried recording this, so all 3 takes were botched in some way.  Perhaps we should have rehearsed this song instead of trying it on the fly.  What you’re hearing is the first take, which ended up being the least butchered of the three.

Cha Bai comes from the Cape Verde islands and is included in John Philip Sousa’s 1890 book National Patriotic and Typical Airs of All Lands. However, we got it from The Rhythmia.  Nick Disebastian transcribed this for me, but we had never tried playing Cha Bai together until the day we recorded it!  For only having a quick practice, I think it came out pretty good.

My Darling Asleep was one of the first Irish tunes I ever tried to play, but it's taken me years to memorize it and I'll likely forget it again soon.  Even though it’s a very simple, repetitive melody, I always forget how it goes.  There were other jigs I could have chosen, but this one popped into my head and we actually played it halfway decent on this day.

The Banshee is an Irish reel.  I don’t necessarily play reels like “reels”; I just play them however I play them.  On the 2^nd day in the cabin it was very cold and the wind was howling outside, so it made sense to play The Banshee.

Devil Town is a song by Daniel Johnston.  It’s an easy three chorder with just two verses, which makes it the perfect, drunken campfire song.  I added some impromptu lyrics from the Phish song Cavern to give it a third verse.

LandN Rag comes from Alex Hood and His Railroad Boys.  However, I got interested in trying it after hearing someone playing it on tenor banjo.  I’ve been learning quite a few rags lately, and I’m probably not as polished on LandN Rag as I am on some of the others, but LandN Rag it is!  In hindsight it might have been better to try Hawkins Rag instead.

Belle Layotte is a short little Caribbean tune in the key of F.  It’s another one from that Bonne Humeur album by the Etcetera Stringband.  It’s deceptively complex but also very hypnotic if you can get into the groove of it.  I’m not sure if we got there but we sure tried.  Laura played bodhran here partly because ukulele doesn't really work on this unusual melody.

Let me know what you think of the music!

Carnaval En Margarita by Lionel Belasco

Lionel Belasco

I thought I'd share this recording Laura and I made earlier this evening of Carnaval En Margarita by Lionel Belasco.  That's me on tenor banjo and Laura on baritone uke.  We got the tune from the Etcetera String Band, who did a whole album of early Creole/Caribbean dance music called Bonne Humeur.

According to the liner notes in Bonne Humeur, Lionel "Lanky" Belasco was probably born in Caracas, Venezuela in about 1882 and grew up in Venezuela and Trinidad.  He was classically trained, but preferred playing indigenous music.

He formed a string band which played Venezuelan waltzes, joropos, paseos and danzas, many of which he composed himself.  Carnaval En Margarita is a paseo that Belasco wrote.  Margarita is an island off the Venezuelan coast which Belasco visited.



More to come soon!  Maybe even a rag or two.

Belle Layotte by the Etcetera String Band - mandolin tab and transcription

Here’s another transcription and audio posting of a tune off of the Etcetera String Band’s out-of-print Bonne Humeur album, which contained arrangements of early Caribbean dance/string band tunes.  The tune is called Belle Layotte and it’s a coonjaille from the book Slave Songs of the United States by William Allen, Charles Pickard Ware and Lucy McKim Garrison.  Belle Layotte was among seven Creole songs collected by a lady who heard them being sung before the Civil War on the Good Hope Plantation, St. Charles Parish, Louisiana.  The coonjaille dance is described as a sort of minuet. 

transcription by Nick DiSebastian

Belle Layotte a cool little tune in the key of F.  Very addictive.  You have to listen to it to really get the feel.  Note the call and response nature of the melody.  The blind mandolinist Kenny Hall said different keys make him think of different climates and F makes him think of ocean climates with the sun shining.  After playing Belle Layotte I kind of see what he means.  At first I thought I might want to transcribe it from F to G, but it’s actually a lot of fun to play in F.  I don’t have many tunes in this key but this is one that I’ve enjoyed learning.  Take a listen to it below and try to play along with it.  I’ve included a mandolin tab and sheet music transcription by Nick DiSebastian.

I hope you enjoy this tune as much as I do!

Sheet Music, Chords, Audio and Mandolin Tab for Caribbean Tune "Bonne Humeur" by The Etcetera String Band

I've received permission from Kevin Sanders (formerly of The Etcetera String Band) and music transcriber Nick DiSebastian to upload some audio and sheet music notation/mandolin tab for the out of print Etcetera String Band album Bonne Humeur.  This tune is the first one on the album and is also called "Bonne Humeur" -- a Haitian Meringue written by Arthur Duroseau.  Below are images containing the sheet music and a YouTube video with the audio.

Music transcription by Nick DiSebastian

Music transcription by Nick DiSebastian

I hope you enjoy learning to play this tune.  Check back soon for more uploads of audio and mandolin tab for tracks off the Bonne Humeur album.

Bonne Humeur by The Etcetera String Band - A Rare Musical Discovery

I love discovering a new band, album or style of music that I know is going to become one of my favorites for a long time to come.  Nowadays, I especially also love it if that discovery is something that is going to influence how and what I play on tenor banjo.  A few weeks ago I came across a previously unheard of recording that is one of the best discoveries I've made in years. That recording is Bonne Humeur by The Etcetera String Band.

The Etcetera String Band (Kevin Sanders and Dennis Pash, with Bob Ault and Pat Ireland) was a string ragtime ensemble from Kansas City active in the 1970's, 80's and 90's. At some point their banjo-mandolin player Dennis Pash began researching early Caribbean music to see if there would be any similarities between ragtime and the music of other places where there were African slaves.  Meanwhile, guitarist Kevin Sanders had taken an interest in the similarities between ragtime and some types of Cuban and Brazilian music.

This pursuit led them to the string band music of Creole Louisiana, Haiti, Trinidad, Martinique and the Virgin Islands.  Early Caribbean dance music blended European structure and melody with African rhythm and syncopation.  Bonne Humeur is their attempt to provide a sampling of instrumental string band music from various "New World Afro-French traditions": the meringue, beguine, paseo, coonjaille and more.  It is the only recording they made like this and I don't know of any others by anyone else quite like it.

On about half the tracks they had only written sources to work from - such as a basic melody-line from old books and folios like Slave Songs of the United States and Bayou Ballads, adding accompaniment and rhythm based on what they could surmise from recordings of related music. In other cases they worked from compositions by composers in the style such as Arthur Duroseau, Lionel Belasco and Ludovic Lamonthe.  Look those guys up.  Many books and recordings are referenced in Bonne Humeur's extensive liner notes and bibliography, so I have a lot more to learn about this subject.

The album features just Kevin Sanders and Dennis Pash, but they each play a wide variety of instruments to reconstruct the sound they envisioned these early string bands as having: Sanders on guitar, banjo-uke, trumpet and percussion, and Pash on mandolins, 4 and 5 string banjos, banjo-uke, accordion, pennywhistles, mbira, drums and percussion.  What I love about Bonne Humeur is it takes the "island" sound I became fond of through Jamaican Mento and puts it in the format of instrumental AA/BB tunes, which is the kind of music I like to play.

I'm currently working with a music transcriber named Nick DiSebastian to document the Etcetera String Band's arrangements in notation and mandolin tab, so as to more accurately begin playing them on tenor banjo (unfortunately I don't quite have the ear to do this on my own, but thankfully there are folks like Nick who can do this for a reasonable rate).  So far, Nick has transcribed 6 of the tunes and I'm impressed at the accuracy of his transcriptions and at how well these tunes sit on GDAE tuned tenor banjo.  That's probably a result of Dennis Pash being a banjo-mandolinist.  The melodies are no more complex than the Irish and Appalachian music I'm used to, and require less embellishment.

Finding more music of this sort would be great, but I haven't had much luck so far.  Kevin Sanders' new band The Rhythmia does a few of these kinds of tunes on each of their two albums, and I highly recommend those.  To hear more of Dennis Pash, check out his new band The Ragtime Skedaddlers, in which he presents ragtime banjo-mandolin about as good as it can possibly be done.  The videos I've included in this post are tunes from the Bonne Humeur album featuring Etcetera String Band alumni.  I think Bonne Humeur originally came out in 1990, although, sadly, it is now out print. However, you may be able to get a copy of it by contacting Kevin Sanders directly, as I did.