So I was in the music store the other day and in the back was a used banjo for sale. I’ve played guitar for a number of years but was never interested in the instrument. In fact no self-respecting, urban oriented black American would be. That twangy sound seems to transport you right back the plantation. It’s association with minstrelsy is also rather embarrassing and all the banjo music I ever heard before was country or folk. You might get your ass kicked listening to that kind of stuff in my neighborhood.

And yet something intrigued me. It was a nicely made, clean and polished instrument. I remember hearing it played on “One Nation Under a Groove” by Funkadelic back in the day and I remembered that funk is something you bring to the instrument. The instrument doesn’t bring the funk to you. I thought as well that it might look good hanging on the wall of the our house kind of like an art piece. While I looked at it this white dude walked in. He saw the banjo back there, picked it up and started playing it. He was pretty good though I really didn’t have anyone to compare him with. We struck up a conversation and I found out that a good banjo will run you a couple of grand. That surprised me. For some reason I thought the instruments would come cheap. The used one in the store was only about $120. Then again, I know you can buy a playable guitar for $120, but the good ones do cost a couple of grand (I’ve yet to own one of those).

In any case I didn’t buy the banjo, but when I got home I did a Google search on the banjo and what I found blew me away.

It turns out that the banjo was brought to the United States by enslaved Africans. It’s original form was that of a gourd like many other African instruments. Modern instrument makers are still making banjos in the original African style such as the ones pictured here.

Banjo Maker David Hyatt has a website with many pictures and historical info on the banjo. Here is an quote from his site:

That the banjo came to America from Africa with enslaved Africans has been thoroughly documented. The most famous quotation about the early banjo in America is from a footnote in Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia (1781-82):

“The instrument proper to them [Slaves] is the Banjar, which they brought hither from Africa, and which is the original of the guitar, its chords being precisely the four lower chords of the guitar.”

So once again I’m finding out about a bit of our cultural history that is not common knowledge. Are there African Americans who are carrying on the tradition of banjo playing? Not that I’m familiar with. The only musician who is playing banjo in a contemporary setting is Bela Fleck of the Flecktones. An awesome group with awesome musicians. So watch out for part two of this article where I review one of their latest albums.

For more on the the banjo see: this wikipedia entry

Related posts:

1. Pickin’ and Grinnin’, pt. 1