History Of The Banjo

Labor of love comes to life

Nineteen days. Six thousand miles. Over 100 hours of filmed interviews. And many, many about banjos.

It all adds up to the best early birthday present Craig Evans could have given himself.

Evans spent most of a month earlier this year at the wheel of a large circle around the eastern United States. He carried with him a binder filled with maps and directions and interview questions. He spoke to 14 banjo makers and slept in a lot of strange beds with lots of strange animals. Banjo makers, it seems, all animals love.

He’s spent a lot of his time since he got back to Rosemount crafting his video into a six hours worth of footage on a unique group of craftsmen. He hopes to have the editing work done this week, and the Smithsonian Museum has agreed to feature the finished product in its catalog.

Evans’ history with the banjo goes back a long way. He was an 8-year-old kid growing up in Iowa when he heard Earl Scruggs on the Beverly Hillbillies. From then on, whenever his family would travel to Sioux City Evans would buy a Flatt & Scruggs album. He’d slow it down on the record player and teach himself to play.

Evans continued to play through college, but when he got married and started to raise a family he put the banjo away and mostly forgot about it.

Then, as he was going through a divorce 10 years ago, Evans rediscovered the instrument. He took a three-day workshop to learn to play again, and he’s spent the years since playing in various bands around the Twin Cities. He gives the banjo a lot of credit for helping him through a difficult time.

“The banjo has contributed to my life beyond words,” Evans said. “I really can’t express what it’s meant to me for the past 10 years.”

If Evans can’t quite articulate the banjo’s impact on his life, he hopes his documentary can at least shed some light on a unique group of craftsmen that in many cases left behind more lucrative careers to chase their passions. One builder he talked to was a scientist until his father died. He moved to West Virginia and took up the banjo, then found someone to teach him how to build the instrument. Now he has a two-year waiting list for his creations. “(The banjo) makes people happy,” Evans said. “Playing apple orchards or coffee shops, I’ve never seen anything that has such an effect on people.”

The idea for the documentary just kind of popped into Evans’ head one day last year. He realized his 60th birthday was coming up in a couple of years and he wanted to do something special to celebrate. So he put together a plan. When he told his wife he wanted to spent 19 days alone in a car, then spend most of the summer in front of a computer editing footage, she told him to go for it.

Origins of the Banjo | The Pioneer Online

Guy de Chalus, professor at the Oakland Public banjo summer music camp (OPC), brings the narrative to instill the value of the instrument for cultural preservation and education.

One of 50 famous people who study the history of the banjo in the United States of Chalus embraces his African origins and the old style of playing time.

"As far as I know, there may be one or two on the West Coast playing the banjo style of old time outside of me," said Chalus. "I have not seen in these parts, I am.”

He purchased his first banjo for $50 from a man trying to get rid of it because he was moving out of town.

After connecting with a teacher, he eventually linked with other banjo players and scholars who felt the need to discuss the African origin and the black legacy of the banjo.

African — American participation in banjo up through the early period of jazz is significant.

Banjoist Tony Thomas — founder of “Then and Now,” a forum for old-time music players, scholars, and thinkers concerned for the history that pervade the banjo and its music — finds the black legacy of the instrument important to the musical community.

“We needed a place to express the explosion of African — American banjoists,” said Thomas, “including African — American Heritage Elder Etta Baker, Taj Mahal and Rex Ellis, all known in the old-time, blues, classic, and jazz banjo communities.”

Banjo teacher de Chalus talks to his students about people like folklorist Mike Seeger being one of the few enlightened experts who dug deeper into the roots and discovered that African — Americans had a history with the banjo.

The earliest was found in what is today known as Surinam, de Chalus believes.

“The banjo in the American colonies go back as early as the 16th century,” said de Chalus.  “An instrument transplanted by Africans to the Caribbean during the slave trade, it was brought to the United States and transformed through the relationship between blacks and whites in the South."

"The banjo is different from the guitar, I like that is more acute," said Rachel Stovall, a student at UCI.

"I enjoy learning about the roots and where it comes from and is native to America. It's the story, "said Carolina Gonzalez Navarro, a student at UCI.

"I tell people that he is a native instrument and its origins in Africa," said fellow UCI students Vinkya Hunter. "When you tell people you are learning the banjo at the beginning, they assume that you came from a farm or something.  Then after explaining the history they become intrigued, and that makes me feel happy.

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