Banjo maker Jim Hartel on the African heritage and American history of the banjo
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- Опубликовано: 29 окт 2015
- www.craftinamerica.org. Banjo maker Jim Hartel shows us old banjos, derived from instruments made by African slaves, plays the minstrel tune "Jim Along Josie," and tells about turn-of-the-century banjo models and playing styles. Bonus video from the MUSIC episode. PBS premiere: November 20, 2015.
Archival Courtesy of Bettmann/Corbis, Library of Congress/Mary Cassatt/Harris & Ewing, H. Armstrong Roberts, Carl Fleischhauer, V.G. Schreck.
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For more on Jim Hartel, visit his artist page at www.craftinamerica.org/artists/james-hartel.
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A Very Good Documentary of the Banjo's history...
This is fascinating !
Though, the akonting may be one ancestor of the banjo, there are 4 string gourd spike lutes from Congo that look far, far more like early banjos; from the flat finger board to the the position of the tuning pegs (very similar to the 'Plantation' painting in construction or the depiction of the "Strum, Strum"). It should be noted that many very different groups were thrust together during enslavement and many ideas were exchanged that ordinarily wouldn't have crossed. I would say that the the banjo is a mix of these 4 sting Congolese instruments (construction), 3 string akonting (playing style, thumb/harp string, and floating bridge), and the 1-7 string hoddu/n'goni/xalam/konting (playing style, tunings (first 2 fretted strings are always tuned in 4ths), and thumb/harp string). Far more people were kidnapped from Congo than Senegambia, so a Congolese origin is also likely more feasible than Senegambia.
That’s a lot of good info! I just want to add...while a larger number of people were taken from Congo, you also have to look at the time that these people arrived to America from Senegambia and Congo. From my knowledge, slightly more of us African Americans were taken from the Senegambia area because we had previous knowledge on rice farming. Honestly, it could go either way. The crazy thing about us is that the more I learn and finally think I can pin point a certain area of where most of us came from, there’s a WHOLE lot more information on other areas that we come from in west and central Africa🤣it feels like chasing my own tail sometimes🤦🏾♂️😂
@@martinsmith2258 I'd agree on that point and add too, where were these people taken primarily. Then we'd have to try and track precisely the spread of these instruments throughout enslaved communities, which, would take some painstaking research for which I personally don't have the resources. ugh. I don't believe there is any pinpointing African American origins. There is even East and Southern African DNA found in some folks. Just to toss in some more food for thought, though African American music has a lot in common in common with west african music and instruments, IN MY 16 YEAR ULTRA AMATEUR PERSONAL SEARCH, I have found MORE examples of eastern African traditional folk music (from Kenya and Uganda) which resemble early hollers, gospel, blues, and folk than I have from west Africa (or anywhere else). I find more examples of call and response singing (e.g., from the Maasai; some resemble old Pentecostal '1 up 1 down' praise music, e.g., the "yes he is" in 'God Is A Good God' or "what he's done for me" in 'I Get Joy When I Think About', etc. though, with a slower more shuffling or baptist-esque syncopation). I have also encountered more familiar uses of the pentatonic scale. And, there are 2-3 string drone fiddles (the names escape me EVERY time! No, not the single stringed ndingidi... one is the siilili, I believe, but there are other names I can't recall. ugh). Anywho. forgive me, I don't get to share much about this topic, as most African Americans just don't seem interested in African nor African American history.
@@dare2win215 yes you’re on point with all that! When you look at the African American Pentecostal church and see our shouting it resembles some East African dances. The way we shuffle our feet, roll the shoulders, chicken wing arms and all. The rhythm in our music and the call and responses are African no doubt. You’re right that there’s no pinpointing where we come from but it’s crazy just how much has been preserved. Even the tambourine has its roots in Africa and it lived all the way through America’s crazy history. I listen the women play it at church and it takes me back to Africa and I’ve never even been😂
@@martinsmith2258 I love what you say about the tambourine; I'm a not so proficient musician in the church and love the organ, but there's just something about the tambourine that takes me to a place that no B3 Hammond could. I remember my late Bishop, Veron Ashe, who was a caucasian brother making comparisons between the dancing in Jamaica, Africa, and the United States. I remember him demonstrating how the women there moved and it was just how my late grandmother would shout. You are so right, it is amazing how these things were preserved and these people had virtually no contact with each other. It makes you think that something deeper won't let it die. So, I'm totally with you on all of that. And, a fellow pentecostal who is into our African musical heritage? What are the odds? LoL. It's a pleasure knowing you exist, bro!
@@dare2win215 exactly! That’s “something deeper” is a divine spiritual connection that just won’t ever be broken. We black, African, jamaican, Haitian, etc...people are spiritual being by nature. Not taking away from any other ethnicities that are also spiritual but it’s a lil deeper with us🤷🏾♂️it’s not going anywhere and I love that🙏🏾
Thank you for this.
Thank you so much for this video. I am learning the banjo and this information is deeply appreciated.
The banjo is one of the instruments I enjoy the most fosho
This is fantastic stuff!
Great channel, happy to have it pop up on my feed. My son loves to play the banjo, I’ll share this video with him.
Great Video.
Every culture needs music To escape from the harsh realty of life. Still looks like it got its birth from a simple Gourd seed 👍
This is how all instruments started.
No man what you call life is actually the societal drama. You think it to ve life but it isn't. Life os phenomenon insode you. You need to meditate to experience it. Thats what yogis do... They are mature enough to understand the distinction oflife and drama and have the enough courage to accept the truth and leave everything behind to perseive experience. No culture in the world evervunderstood life. Its our culture bharat ( India ) who brought the truth in front of the whole world but still people don't have the enough smartness to understand it. They still are in the drama and hence you suffer sometimes due to bodily illness, most everytime due to mental illness ( self created ).
Actually it was developed 5000 years ago by the Chinese and made its way to the rest of the world via trade routes to India and North Africa.
A lasting testament to its magic sound.
Thank you for crediting blacks for the creation of the banjo. Very few people know it came from us because of cultural theft, much appreciated.
"Cultural theft" 😂 every culture borrows from different cultures and no one is barring black people from playing the banjo
I'd say it was more of a collaborative effort between the Whites, Africans and African Americans. It has evolved so much to get to its current form and borrowed so many parts from non-African inventions that it's basically a completely different instrument with various new parts that weren't in the original. It's unfair to attribute it to only one group imo.
@@gabbyk1391 you’re absolutely right! Thank you for not being a race supremacist. Like some people here…
@@Josephiah24 There's a difference between cultural exchange, cultural appreciation and just stealing culture and claiming it as yours. So don't try that "everyone uses" on me.
@ippos_khloros Quit lying, history exposes the truth about the banjo. And why do you think so many people don't even know the banjo is a black instrument? Because culture thieves took full credit.
OK from my side Jim
The Jola people of Guinea Bissau🇬🇼🇬🇼🇬🇼✨✨🙌🏿🙌🏿🎼🎼🎼🎸🎸🎸
LOOKS LIKE THE JAPANESE KOKYU.
The east has had something of the same nature, made with the same intent since the ancient times. Seems musical history isn't so singularly geological.
Reminds me of the berimbau
Not really
It strange this casts history in a different light. In school they described slavery essentially as a concentration camp getting beat every second they weren’t working. This shows there was some artistic culture as well as leisure time with family and friends. Interesting 🧐.
When in denial try another dam stupid tactic to keep from knowing the truth. "Leisure" indeed!
Their Masters let them have instruments? That’s surprising
Yeah nice group of guys
@@ChicanoOne760 I’m sure slave owners are the farthest from nice people you can get
They didn’t, he’s making it up, guess where it was invented, Scotland
@@SoggySandwich80 it was invented in Scotland
@@TengkuAmier that crap about them being Whipped every minute of the day is a huge lie, they needed their sleves, if they were whipping all their sleeves, they’d all be out for like a week, then they wouldn’t have any, you’re not getting whipped and then continue working.
The banjo is truly an international and multi-cultural instrument. The banjo was first developed 5000 years ago by the Chinese with their Qinqin. Modern qinqin even resmble modern resonator banjos. The Qinqin made its way to India and North Africa via trade routes and then to America.
Europeans first encountered the Banjo when they were taken by Barbary pirates and sold into slavery in North Africa. If they survived their castration procedure (9/10 died) they surely encountered the banjo in the slave camps where they toiled.
Perhaps they leant their woodworking skills to evolve the instrument but we will never know because they had no offspring to tell the tale.
Everywhere the banjo went it left its influence. Today almost every culture has its own version of the banjo and its own playing style, from throat singers in Siberia to the Sitar of India to the many front porches in America. A testament to the link between all of our cultures across time.
The banjo comes from American enslaved Africans. It’s not multicultural it was appropriated. Much like most black American music history.
Naw, the gourd with a string version was appropriated from the middle east who got it from the Chinese. The Chinese have had this instrument developed in its modern form for over 5000 years. Round wood frame, Animal skin drum head, Fretted neck, Peg head etc. It is called the Qinqin. The Japanese have a version that dates back over 3000 years.
There is no doubt that Africans brought a version of the banjo with them to America...similar to how the Irish brought a version back from North Africa as there were many people enslaved by regimes in the middle east including the Slavs (where the term "slave" is derived from) Invariably these enslaved people learned and adopted the culture of their captors. The instrument was then adopted and adapted and improved by various other cultures in America and voila...we have the modern 5 string banjo!.
Look into it yourself, as I have, and If I am wrong, I am open to that...simply provide a link to some evidence.
@@omartistry
@@omartistrywhat a dumb thing to say. A gord on a stick with two strings is not the banjo people use. Also blacks appropriated white culture aka jazz was stolen. All white instruments, and claimed they made it when it was French impressionist classical music.
Yes it's a common misconception that the banjo was invented in Africa, it's instrumental parents were invented in Africa though
It's black, Africans made it. Cope and seethe more
I agree! It’s amazing how various cultures can influence the development and perfection of an instrument. Though the ancestral African forms sound nice too.
@@yourmomsass3365 Not yall tryna SNATCH the credit from the African creators as usual.... Smh
It's from Africa BY Africans. No misconceptions at all.
@@raphrobe-9896 nah, the recent form of the banjo is American. The origins are African. Seems pretty straight forward?
The music evolved from European folk music, and the instrument evolved from African string instruments.
American Vineyard ruclips.net/video/lzt0v9roU6g/видео.html
A lot of the music has African roots too
@@obamna666 - Not really
@@NitroCorn Yes, really. The European music used on the banjo only came when fiddle music was transplaced to the banjo this happened because Blacks were hired or forced to work of muscicians for whites producing music on the banjo and whites wanted to hear certain music sometimes. There's plenty of African music for the banjo that made its way to America and some of it got culturally difussed with the European music. Not to mention the very video talks about playing *styles* that came straight from Africa. Like most music in America, a lot of banjo music has strong and notable ties to Black Africa.
This isn't really accurate. I recommend checking out this: ruclips.net/video/Pc9Y_uu1KH8/видео.html and this: ruclips.net/video/IVjo56J6Wes/видео.html. American banjo music has a lot more in common with traditional west African string music than it does with say, traditional Irish or British string music. You don't see that sort of complex rhythm in traditional mandolin music in the British isles (See, for an example: ruclips.net/video/kdCLeST3BvY/видео.html), but you do in American banjo music. There is obviously influence of European folk music on American folk music, but the influence from west Africa cannot be understated.
Thank you so much for this video. But something you should know is that North American slaves did not come from Africa. They were already here. And most of them were never slaves. They've been called many things over the years, The most grammatically correct being, Free people of color. Prior to 1492 the planet had a rather unified culture. There are Roman equiducts in South America.
Hi, just based on your comment I guess you'll appreciate the Black Cowboys podcast. Found out about it last week.
You're name is great! Raw milk is the best
Someone else spreading this lie that North American blacks were never enslaved and are not from Africa. -sigh
Jesus saves and he can save anybody
He will save you 15% or more on your car insurance.
Amen
@jackal wolf Gonorrhea
@Gengonglike Arbukle they do it so you wont think, that i how Christians operate dont you know? Introduce Jesus into a conversation and well you just high jacked the conversation.
Who was even talking about that?
What is he talking about, the banjo was invented in Scotland
no, only the music of the Scots was highly influencing the appalachian banjo music, but the instrument itself goes back to the african instrument
@@mk4881 no it doesn’t, I know for a fact that originates in Scotland, I have a book from the 50s and it tells you about the origins of instruments, I believe that over the new woke crap
@@robertelee2461 Ah..sorry, but outside your book you can literally open ANY document when searching for the origin and history of the banjo and it will talk about it's african heritage.It's been in fact acknowledged by many a famous white banjo player.
You can also hear it in the music on top of that, but that's a different story
@@mk4881 keep lying to yourself
@@robertelee2461 ?? What are you talking about? I have no personal investment in this, to have to “lie to myself”, I’m neither African, American or Scottish for that matter; I don’t care. But fact is fact. You can read it everywhere, go read. Sorry if I doubt a book of the 50’s for acknowledging historical facts regarding black culture of white though
This is quite a stretch.
To many it would be, especially to those who would rather believe a lie rather than the truth.
Why is he even talking about this stuff, not even of African blood
ps. I'm not going to be silenced just because you dont agree with my opinion. nice try but nah.
So he knows his history about the African origins of the banjo
@@rouskeycarpel1436 doesn't mean he should be the face of it
First off. All humans are of African descent. Secondly, not all African people are black, it’s a large continent and is also the most diversified. And lastly a person’s knowledge and talents isn’t defined by their outward appearance.
@@tylerraider12 1. you dont get to claim that when its convenient for you let alone it's not relevant to the discussion. it's clear I'm of African origin and I cant claim or unclaim it whenever I feel like it (not that I would want to). accept that people are obviously different more than alike especially when it comes to culture. enough of that "we are all the same" rhetoric because we arent
2. majority of Africans are what you like to call "Black" north African is a thing they just dont associate themselves with us so we dont claim them. white afrikaners are not, nor will ever be African regardless of the circumstances, neither will the Indians. African countries are in and of themselves diversified with the many NATIVE cultures and languages that exist within them. my country Nigeria has over 500 ethnic groups and almost as many languages too.
3. so I can speak Mandarin Chinese, does that make me special or mean that I should be the face of the language for the simple fact "we are all human"? no, if anything I'd probably catch all kinds of hell simply because I am not Chinese but I'm speaking their language, which has happened before.
@@rouskeycarpel1436 so? does that mean he should be the face of it?