Ace banjo player Jake Schepps sent along this fascinating report from his recent trip to Borneo with the Jeff and Vida Band, along with some photos and a video.

Two weeks ago, the Jeff and Vida Band performed at the 12th annual Rainforest World Music Festival. The festival is on the northwest tip of the island of Borneo, outside of Kuching, the capital of the Sarawak region of Malaysia. They host just one string band each year, and we were fortunate enough to be selected for this year’s festival.

Jeff Burke and Vida Wakeman have performed and toured actively as a duo for the last 8 years and most recently they recorded Selma Chalk, (to be released 10/1/09) with a Colorado-based band. The group includes myself on 5-string banjo, Justin Hoffenberg on fiddle, Greg Schochet on mandolin and archtop guitar, and Will Downes on bass.

The festival takes place at the Sarawak Cultural Village, an interactive center with exhibitions on the more than 20 local Borneo tribes, and over 20,000 attendees came to the festival. We were the only group from the US, while the rest came from Chile, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, China, Korea, France, Tanzania, Morocco, Finland, Indonesia, and Malaysia

The band made the 36-hour journey to Borneo, flying from Denver to Los Angeles to Taipei to Kuala Lumpur to Kuching and a bus to Santubong Resort. At the end of this journey we enjoyed the sunset while swimming in the South China Sea (still oblivious to the numerous stinging jellyfish in the area), a dinner of unpronounceable and unrecognizable local dishes, and a few pints of Tiger beer.

The festival begins each afternoon with a series of workshops, and each band member was placed in eclectic settings ranging from 10 guitarists in one group, or 12 women vocalists, or all the tiniest instruments at the festival (including a mandolin, a Brazilian cavaquinho, a Chinese pipa, an Andean charango, and more). “Funsionistas” was my first workshop and included a local tribesman playing a sape, a Malaysian percussionist, a Moroccan on Stratocaster, an Aussie guitarist, and a Korean man playing a clangy cymbal. We each discussed the history of our respective instruments, either in English or using a translator, and played a short solo piece. Then we tried to make music as an ensemble. (more…)

We got a note recently from progressive banjoist Jake Schepps, letting us know that he and his Expedition Quartet are heading from Boulder, CO to New York City for this week’s Arts Presenters Conference. The annual conference brings together performing artists and buyers in the worlds of music, dance, theater, family programming and comedy.

Jake tells us that a number of acoustic string acts will be showcasing as well this year, including Abigail Washburn’s Sparrow Quartet, Laurie Lewis and the RIght Hands, Bill Evan’s Soul Grass with Sam Bush, Bearfoot, and more.

A full conference schedule can be found online.

Colorado progressive banjoist Jake Schepps is releasing his latest CD next week (7/26). Entitled Ten Thousand Leaves, it features Schepps on 11 new compositions, both his own and pieces from his collaborators on this project, guitarist Greg Schochet, bassist Eric Thorin and mandolinist (and producer) Matt Flinner.

The music is adventurous and challenging, and will appeal strongly to fans of modern banjo music – and banjo players who pursue this style themselves. Among the more ambitious tracks is a Schepps string quartet, written for banjo, violin, guitar and bass.

Audio samples from several of the pieces can be found on Jake’s web site, where orders for Ten Thousand Leaves are being accepted now.

In addition to the players mentioned above, the new release also features Ryan Drickey on violin and Adam Aijala on guitar.

Jake also has a YouTube clip of himself and his band (Expedition) with Matt Flinner guesting from a show earlier this year.