May 1st, 2023

Hello friends,

    The American Banjo Fraternity is a society that is dedicated to the "classical" style playing of the banjo prevalent from the 1880s to 1920’s. The American Banjo Fraternity  was formed in 1948 to preserve this style of playing. They meet for "rallies" twice each year, in the spring and the fall. This year the fall rally will celebrate  the 75th year the fraternity. Now classical banjo playing is not classical music, but it is classic for the banjo, that is, it is written music to be performed by orchestras, small groups or solo. Their banjos are strung with gut strings traditionally or today, nylon. The rallies consist of players meeting and sharing ideas and having a "round robin" where each player performs a piece they have worked on. There is even a banjo orchestra under the direction of maestro, Drew Frech.

    Now backing up to the mid to late 1970s, when I first started my banjo quest, I attended my first rally. I had been putting out a mailing list of instruments for sale. The very first list that I put out, I received a phone call which I still remember very distinctly. The person on the other line very curtly said "I received this thing in the mail. If you’re going to do anything about banjos, you better know who I am". I replied, "well who are you?" and he said, "My name is Eli Kaufman". Well he was right. His name is been synonymous with banjo history and classical banjo. Over the years, he has been a tutor and advisor and a close friend. Despite recent health challenges, I was very delighted to see that he attended the rally with his wonderful wife, Madeleine. Elias can still talk about banjos!

    Now, I haven’t attended a rally in quite some time. But this year I really decided I should get there to see some old friends. Additionally, I was prompted by our new employee, Gavin Rice, who has a passion for Edison Recording machines. He explained that Edison often recorded banjo players when his talking machines were first introduced, because the banjo recorded much better than any other instrument… it was loud! Well, Gavin has his own original Edison recording machine, and he brought it to the rally with some blank wax cylinders, and he recorded a few of the players. In the short time that he’s worked, with us he has also become quite a classic banjo player and he participated in the round robin. Part of classic banjo is "ragtime". When Scott Joplin was composing his ragged piano tunes, he was imitating the syncopated rhythms of the banjo players he had heard. Rags seemed to be the tunes of the weekend, and they were many renditions of Maple Leaf Rag being played and recorded. For more information on Ragtime banjo check out the work of Aaron Jonah Lewis. 

In addition to the banjo camaraderie, the best part of the rally was seeing old friends. We got to spend some time with Zeno Paxton, Henry Sapoznik, Joe Horning, Drew Frech, Ruth Vitale, Becky Sneider and many others….all old friends and customers. Along with Gavin Rice, there were quite a few other young players at the rally which is certainly an encouraging sign. Those young players attack the banjo with a different kind with kind of enthusiasm than us old folks. They are the future of the genre.

Sincerely,

John Bernunzio 

Setting up for the Round Robin

Yesterday we celebrated Julie’s birthday by going to Steuben Brewery to hear the fine musicianship of Richie Stearns, Aaron Lipp and Ric Robertson. Her brothers and other friends were there, and it was just a dandy time. We closed out the evening with a fine dinner at the Main Deck in Penn Yan