Douglas performs a set of music from his latest CD, Glide, along with his band: Luke Bulla on fiddle, Todd Parks on bass, Chad Melton on drums, and Guthrie Trapp on guitar.

His entire 30 minute set can be heard online.

Banjoist Jayme Stone visited Mountain Stage with Malian kora player Mansa Sissoko, with whom he recorded his most recent album, Africa To Appalachia. That CD won a Juno Award for Best World Music Album of 2009.

Audio for his 25 minute set is also available online.

Hartford, of course, was both a celebrated songwriter and a genre-shattering live performer who dominated the bluegrass and folk festival circuit in the late 1970s and 1980s. His live show was almost always done solo with John switching between banjo and fiddle to accompany his distinctive baritone voice – with percusion provided by his amplified, non-stop clog dancing.

Stone’s concert outside Boulder on May 22 focused on the great songs Hartford has written, and some traditional songs he recorded. He was joined by Rich Zimmerman on mandolin and vocals, Ryan Drickey on fiddle and vocals, Brad Murphy on guitar, Ian Hutchison on bass, and KC Groves on vocals.

Audio from the show is available for free download from the Steam Powered Preservation Society.

Here’s a taste… the band playing what is surely Hartford’s most popular and successful song.

Down Beat has B?©la Fleck on the cover of its June issue, on newsstands now, with an article by Geoffrey Himes. The piece looks at Fleck’s busy touring and recording schedule, and how much pleasure he derives from his work.

As soon as he finished the Flecktones’ tour last winter, he recorded his new album with bassist Edgar Meyer and tabla player Zakir Hussain. Then he went back out on the road with the Sparrow Quartet, the chamber-music/old-time string band led by Fleck’s girlfriend, Abigail Washburn.

When that ended at the end of February, he went into rehearsal for his March/April tour with some of the African musicians on his new album, Throw Down Your Heart (Rounder). At the same time he had to prepare the theatrical release of the documentary film of the same name about his 2005 trip to Africa. In June and July, he will tour again with a different set of African musicians. In September and October, he’ll hit the road with Meyer and Hussain to support their album with shows as a trio and with local orchestras.

Having rattled off this schedule, Fleck seemed more tired than before. But when he talked about the prospect of playing with Hussain, Washburn and the South African singer Vusi Mahlasela, his weary grin spread wider. It was as if he couldn’t believe what he had gotten himself into but couldn’t wait to do it.

"There’s such pleasure in learning new music," he said. "I love busting my ass and feeling like I’ve got it. It’s hard for me to turn down the opportunities that come my way.

Look for the full piece in the print edition.

Canadian banjoist Jayme Stone is also featured in an interview this week at All About Jazz. He talks about how he retained his love for the banjo even as he became interested in performing as a jazz artist.

All About Jazz: What made you interested in jazz?

Jayme Stone: I love the spirit of invention, interaction and improvisation in jazz. Those qualities are something I try to bring to all of the music that I play and what I look for in other musicians.

AAJ: Besides banjo, what other instruments have you tried along the way?

JS: I played guitar initially but let it go as soon as I took up the banjo. The quirky physics of the banjo fascinated me and it seemed like there was so much unexplored territory on the instrument. Though I don’t play anything else, I am always getting new ideas from studying other instruments, all the while trying to expand the palette and possibilities of the banjo.

AAJ: Does banjo offer you creative ways to explore something new in jazz?

JS: Each of the banjo’s unique qualities has the potential to bring something new to a style of music. I love how the timbre of the banjo blends with trumpet for instance. When I played with Kevin Turcotte, we noticed that the trumpet’s range goes well below the banjo, so he would often play under me, which is an unusual sound. Trumpet is so often the instrument in jazz that cuts through and now we hear it differently.

The earthiness of banjo and the use of open strings can bring a folksiness and accessibility to more outside jazz harmony. I enjoy using harmonic ideas from jazz to re-imagine folk melodies or turn bluegrass tunes inside out. Bringing different traditions into dialogue is a fascinating process and reveals both the differences and the related underpinnings of each style.

You can read the full interview online.

Last night (3/29), he picked up his second award for the Best World Music Album of 2009 for his Africa To Appalachia project with Mansa Sissoko. The CD features Stone on banjo and Sissoko on the kora, a West African banjo-like instrument.

The Juno site describes the album as follows:

Jayme Stone went to Africa to explore a hide-covered instrument with an “extra” drone string called the banjo – it comes from West Africa. During his trip to Mali, Stone found himself sitting in with Toumani Diabate’s Symmetric Orchestra in downtown Bamako, lost in circles of Wassoulou polyrhythms and in a rural Dogon village with no electricity where he discovered a banjo predecessor unheard of in the West. From Africa to Appalachia is his new collaborative album with griot singer and kora player Mansa Sissoko, featuring guests Bassekou Kouyate (ngoni) and Casey Driessen (fiddle).

Jayme tells us that they had a wonderful time at the awards show in Vancouver, and sent along a few words about accepting this award.

“Mansa and I sincerely want to thank all of you who are reading this for your enthusiasm, generosity and ongoing support of our music. We feel really fortunate to be spending our days making music and the encouragement from our wide circle of peers, colleagues, friends, family and fans makes it all possible.”

Stone won his first Juno in 2008 for his banjo CD, The Utmost, in the Instrumental Album Of The Year category.

Congratulations to Jayme and Mansa for this accomplishment – back-to-back is quite a feat for a banjo picker!

Stone won a Juno last year for his previous release, Utmost, as Instrumental Album of the Year.

The Duhks also received a nomination for their Fast Paced World CD in the Roots & Traditional Album of the Year: Group category.

The 2009 Juno Awards Show will be held on March 29 in Vancouver, capping a three day spree of Juno events. It will be broadcast live on CTV.

Jayme received word of his nomination after returning home from a tour of the UK, where he and Sissoko had the opportunity to perform at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow. You can see several photos from their trip on the BBC web site.

The kora is an African harp-like instrument thought to be an early precursor to the modern banjo. Jayme spent time with Mansa during his travels in West Africa and those early sessions are what led to their current recording.

Listen to their 26 minute performance at NPR.org.

The two are on the last leg of their US tour, and recorded this interview recently at the studios of Minnesota Public Radio.

The segment ran nine and a half minutes including a discussion of the evolution of what we now recognize as the banjo from its African roots, plus live (in studio) performances of music from the CD.

The audio from the segment, plus a text overview, can be found on the NPR web site.

Stone, the Canadian banjoist, and Sissoko, a Malian kora player and vocalist, collaborate on the CD in a genre-bending mix of tones and styles. The music is beautiful and transparently recorded and, should be welcome to ears open to new and different sounds.

Audio samples and more details can be found on Jayme’s web site, where you can also find details for the tour stops on this upcoming tour.

Jayme and Mansa will also be performing tonight (9/4) on WNYC’s New Sounds program at 11:00 p.m. (EDT). The show is broadcast at 93.9 FM in New York City and streamed live at www.wnyc.org.

Archives are maintained on the WNYC site where you can listen to the show after the fact if you miss the Thursday night broadcast.

The interview was published last Thursday. The primary focus is an exploration of the connections between American banjo/folk music and traditional African folk music.

An aspect of the interview I found particularly interesting is the discussion of how traditional African folk music is beginning to disappear due to the influence of more contemporary music forms.

…everyone wants to play electric guitar or drums and listen to rap. Those who have access to those things get affected by it. Sometimes the pop music that makes it over there is the more commercial, less musical stuff, and a lot of tradition is being lost. I met a 70-year-old elder musician in one village who put his hand on my heart and said, "The work you’re doing is so important, and young people aren’t doing it."

Sounds very similar to sentiments I’ve heard expressed right here in the south-eastern US concerning the current state of bluegrass music in America. Small world…

His visit was inspired after Jayme had a chance to meet with Mansa Sissoko, a Malian musician and storyteller in the griot tradition, where history and culture are preserved in song. Now, the two have a CD ready for release where the North American and African banjo sounds are woven together. Sissoko performs on the kora while Stone uses a modern 5 string banjo.

Joining them are Bassekou Kouyate on the ngoni and Casey Driessen on fiddle. The project is entitled Africa To Appalachia, and is scheduled for release in Canada on June 28, and in the US on September 9.

Audio samples and more details can be found on Jayme’s web site. He will also be touring in support of the CD in Canada this summer and in the US in the fall.

Stone received the Instrumental Album Of The Year award for his CD Utmost, which CARAS described thusly on its site:

A masterful banjoist, composer, educator, Stone’s music is steeped in the repertoire, technique, and lore of old-time and bluegrass music. He has studied with banjo elders Bela Fleck, Tony Trischka, and Bill Evans, as well as luminaries Bill Frisell and Dave Douglas. Though he is best known for his roots/jazz band Tricycle, his new album, The Utmost, features inventive roots music and a fresh new, sound.

Jayme’s next project is the culmination of his extensive travels in western Africa, researching the banjo’s roots, meeting and collaborating with African players, and writing/recording with them in the process. You can read the banjo travelogues that he prepared during his African visit last Spring here on The Bluegrass Blog.

He will also be featured in an upcoming CBC concert in Winnipeg that will showcase a wide variety of banjo music, including performances by Stone, Cathy Fink and Leonard Podolak among others. The concert will be recorded for a later Canada Live broadcast on CBC.

Look for details about the new CD (due 6/28) and Stone’s fall US tour to appear soon on his web site.

Stone is nominated for his CD, The Utmost, in the Instrumental Album Of The Year category and Reischman in the Roots & Traditional Album Of The Year: Group category for the Stellar Jays project with his group, The Jaybirds.

Congratulations and best of luck to them both!

CBC will be broadcasting a pair of concerts featuring Stone’s eclectic tastes and inventive banjo style. The first pairs Jayme with Mansa Sissoko, a singer/songwriter from Mali in West Africa, with whom Jayme will be recording next year. The other is from the 2007 Small World Festival’s World On A String concert this past September.

The musicians featured with Jayme hail from far-flung parts of the globe, and each contributed on their own instrument, a few of which may be unfamiliar to US and Canadian audiences. Joining Jayme are Aditya Verma playing sarod, Amir Koushkani on the tar, Mansa Sissoko on the kora, Levon Ichkanian on the oud and Rich Brown on the bass.

Jayme shared a brief description of the program:

“The World On A String concert featured many original pieces as well as some traditional ones. We did a version of my tune Garuda (from The Utmost) with a Persian banjo-like instrument called a tar. Mansa (from Mali) and Aditya (from India) even wrote a piece together the first day of rehearsal! Rich brought in an arrangement of a beautiful lullaby from an island near Jamaica, and Aditya had an original piece full of these complex Indian rhythms and cadences that rocked my world. I even taught Amir (from Iran) how to play the old-time fiddle tune ways of the world, but it never made it onstage.

We spent three days rehearsing and creating new music, and then premiered it all at the beautiful Enwave Theatre in Toronto. For me, it was honor to play with such extraordinary musicians!

This was an exciting collaboration and everyone in the audience could feel the camaraderie and joy in the group. There’s even talk of a possible tour and recording project one day.”

Listen in for Canada Live tonight from 8:00-10:00 p.m. (ET) on Radio 2, or via live streaming on the CBC web site. The concerts will also be available in their audio archives (Concerts On Demand) after the program is broadcast on Friday night.

His newest instructional DVD, Banjo Improvisation: A Master Class with Jayme Stone, is geared towards helping banjo pickers expand their improvisational skills, with a particular focus on single string playing. Jayme doesn’t short 3 finger fans though, and all of the exercises and examples are presented in the framework of familiar songs: Angeline The Baker, Salty Dog, Leather Britches and Big Sciota, plus a tune of his (Garuda) from Jayme’s most recent CD (The Utmost).

Jayme first teaches each tune, and then begins to expand how he treats the melody, showing different ways to achieve the same basic tune and how to branch off from the primary melody with phrases that fit the context of the song. Both melodic (scalar) 3 finger and single string patterns are shown.

He also presents a number of scale and arpeggio studies to help banjo players become more familiar with the fingerboard – and help generate new melodic ideas. A tab booklet is included with the DVD.

I was not able to find any video samples online, but having watched the DVD myself, I can attest that the material is cogently presented and well suited for intermediate to advanced players looking for guidance in improvisation.

You can get a copy of Banjo Improvisation: A Master Class with Jayme Stone directly from the publisher, Woodhall Music, and surely from other popular sources for banjo instructional resources as well.

Last week, The Toronto Star ran a brief feature on Jayme’s trip in which he capsulized some of what he learned in Mali. You can read the piece online on the Star web site.

You can read Jayme’s banjo travelogues here on The Bluegrass Blog.

You can read all of his African journey posts here.

It’s been a while since my last broadcast. I’ve not had a spare moment since falling into the well of Bamako’s music scene last week. I started work at the National Institute for the Arts, an incredible resource, full to the brim with elder professors, wide-eyed students and an ambience of both high-brow education and down-home oral tradition. In a matter of hours I had interviewed Cheick Oumar Mara about the banjo’s roots, played with Toumani Diabate’s fiercely-talented fifteen-year-old son and magnetized an afternoon-long music session in the tree-shaded courtyard.

We went to renowned kora virtuoso Toumani Diabate’s house to pay our respects and he invited me to play that evening at his music haunt the Hogon. The show began at midnight, Toumani arrived after one and I joined his Symmetric Orchestra around two, playing well into the wee hours. It thoroughly rocked my world and I’d venture to say this is one of the most powerful bands in the world. Walk to (or click on) your favorite record store to buy their newly released album on Nonesuch: Boulevard of Independence. Incredible!

Spent the following day with Mama Sissoko, a legendary musician here who plays the ngoni ba, a large and dark-sounding brother to the ngoni. He was a joy to work with: wide smiles, eyes on fire and so so sweet. Evening found us at the annual Paris/Bamako Festival at the Institute for the Blind. Twelve hours of music including sets by Cheick Tidane Seck, Mamani Keita and of course the legendary Amadou and Miriam. An international crowd, fine street food, the dustiest air I’ve ever breathed and more dancing than your feet could know.

Having become entranced by the ngoni (and set on meeting ever player in town), we travelled in an early morning taxi to Lafiabougou to visit Adama Tounkara, Djelimady’s younger brother and first call ngonist. Adama is steeped in the traditional griot music and generously taught me one tune after another. The pedagogy here is as challenging as it is enlivening. People just start playing these rhythmically mysterious little melodies and just when you catch on, they throw in a variation, a countermelody, a blur of 32nd notes. It’s all done in time, with no chance to pause, practice or question. The music is alive!

More work at the INA this week and a series of sessions with a young maverick ngoni player named Abdoulaye Kone. Hope all’s well in your corner of the world!

Warmly,

J

You can read all of his African journey posts here.

Is it ever nice to come back to modern civilization! I’ve spent the last week traveling rural Mali and visiting the Dogon Country. Village after village with only minimal connection to modernity and a way of life largely unchanged for thousands of years. Also extreme poverty along the way. The Dogon is a collection villages strung along an enormous escarpment. Some are tucked into rock itself, the rest spotting the valley and plateau. The whole region is hike-able and has become a tourist/traveler mecca in recent years. There’s a fascinating (and uneasy) clash between the ancient village life and the presence of tourist dollars, curiosity and influence.

The highlight for me was meeting Seydou Are Gindou, a cultured young artist from the village of Ende. He plays a two string banjo-like instrument called a Konou. It’s made from the wood of a fig tree and stretched with goat skin. For you banjo aficianados, the instrument is played clawhammer style. Exactly. Under the light and sway of the full moon, we had an impromptu concert complete with konou, calabash, talking drum and about 15 women singers. The music accompanies long storytelling songs about everything from witches to farming to one about a young man who (upon seeing the sky was hanging low) reaches to swipe a star with his hand. By the the wee hours, we had half the village crowded around the fire and music, along with a crop of boys just returning from their annual circumcision ceremony atop the escarpment!

We also spent time in Sevarre, Mopti and Bandiagara. Amadou and I used local transportation the whole time. It was grueling and exhausting: not always pleasant, but always a circus. Yesterday was a marathon day back to Bamako. There were times I felt on the brink of survival. Some statistics:

I could spin stories forever, but we’ll have to wait until I’m back on North American soil. For now, some travel photos will do. Coming up: I start work at the National Institute for the Arts, see Amadou and Miriam at the Institute for the Blind and possibly visit to Boubacar Traore in Lafiabougou.

Blessings,

J

You can read all of his African journey posts here.

Aw Ni Ce!

The last few days have revealed a whole new side of Bamako. We were having a difficult time finding a trustworthy translator and the language barrier was not helping my adjustment to the local culture. Out for an evening stroll, I meet Hamadi Traore who greets me in English with a perfect Brooklyn accent. Turns out Hamadi fled Cote D’Ivoire to live awhile in New York before relocating around the corner from me here in Bamako. One of the kindest people I’ve ever met, we struck up an instant friendship and he’s now my translator and fellow adventurer. A fine start to the week.

There are no street signs or maps to be found, which is why it took some serious hunting to find the studio where I had planned to meet Bassekou Kouyate, the premier ngoni player in Mali. He is at work producing Ami Sacko’s new album with members of Salif Keita’s and Oumou Sangare’s band. I spent the better part of the day seeing first hand how they make records here and even played banjo on one song (I hope they keep it!)

Evening found us at the Palais de Congress seeing Bassekou’s own band. He’s a musical innovator, bringing a modern sensibility to traditional music dating back all the way to the 3rd century. Spent the day after at Bassekou’s house playing and interviewing him about the banjo’s roots in Mali. The exchange was illuminating and I came away with a considerably more thorough understanding of how the instrument and playing style has evolved on both continents. There is an astoundingly close connection between the ngoni and the banjo and Bassekou’s considers them to be essentially the same thing. And I learned some fantastic tunes!

I have no idea what I am going to do next. Blessings and thanks from out here, hope all’s well in your corner of the world.

J

Ani sogomen!

Your morning is my afternoon here in Bamako, Mali. We’re currently sweltering at about 100 degrees.

I’ve been here about four days and starting to find my rhythm and my wits. It a rather serious culture shock. I’m in the capital, but it hardly looks like a city. No maps, hardly a paved road in sight and people everywhere. The sun is blazing, the earth is a burnt orange and everything (goats, children, banjo cases) is layered with dust.

The scale of poverty is astounding. The home I’m staying is considered more ‘European’, which only seems to mean there is electricity, running water and flushing toilet. I am trying hard to re-calibrate my scales, because these amenities are hardly the case for most. The typical household is a concrete box, a hole in the ground for a toilet, well water nearby and an outdoor thatched patchwork canopy for a living room. There are beautiful children everywhere, occupying themselves in the sun, the older ones often caring for the little ones. They swarm when I bring out a camera and can’t get enough of watching their faces appear on the screen afterwards. We eat with our hands out of one communal bowl, a custom that has my western alarm bells ringing. Oh well…

When the music begins, everything melts away and everyone participates. Dancing, clapping, singing, playing calabash. I spent the last two days with a powerful kamel n’goni player and singer named Jah Youssouf: jahyoussouf.calabashmusic.com

We mostly played his original music the first day. Even though I can always find something to play, the rhythms are snaky: just when you think you found the downbeat, look out! Smiles abound and the connection is tangible and joyous, even with very little speaking. When I meet new people, I’ve been playing an ali farka toure song that I once learned. They instantly recognize it and the whole room is singing and clapping by the end. Ali Farka is something like the Bob Mylan of Mali. No one knows what a banjo is, though they are excited when I manage to learn a song.

Most of the women and children speak Bambara, for everyone else it’s French. When I ask if people speak English, the response is a grin and “small, small” (which is all they know how to say). My French is hopefully improving, but in the meantime, it’s just “petit, petit.”

I could go on forever without truly capturing the spirit of this place. Hopefully a few photographs will do. If all goes well, I might be online every few days. Blessings to everyone over on the other shore.

Warmly,

J

With a new CD, The Utmost, due for release in May, Jayme is currently in Mali doing research and field recording for another upcoming project of African banjo music, to be produced by Lee Townsend. Jayme received a Chalmers Arts Fellowship grant for his west African trip, and he should be back in his native Canada by the time The Utmost is released.

Stone also has a recently revamped web site, where you can hear audio samples from the new CD and find information on his efforts as a banjo instructor – and some free banjo tabs of both traditional tunes and his own more progressive compositions. Jayme offers private banjo instruction and has an instructional DVD as well.

Jayme shared a few thoughts on The Utmost.

“It’s a gathering of my favorite jazz and bluegrass musicians from both sides of the US/Canadian border including Ross Martin, Matt Flinner and Kevin Turcotte. It’s something of a grand project, featuring 10 musicians in 3 cities and co-produced by David Travers-Smith. I’m in discussion with a record label and it will be released in May, followed by a significant touring in the US and Canada.”

Visit Jayme’s web site to find out about all his various musical endeavors.