I'm a bit late getting this post up...apologies all...
Yes the Sydney Banjo Band rehearsal the other Wed.evening 21st September went off well....
Bill Maclean posted some YouTube footage from the night....
Paul Baker played melody lead with Cliff Parsons and we were pleased to see Bill Maclean up from the Bega area on the far south coast of NSW to come again and he featured on lead several times as well.
The three younger player, Shardyn ( pictured at the front above) with his brother Makirum, centre behind him played banjo and their other brother Tayzin who also is a banjoist played trombone alongside our tuba player John Bates, himself a trombone player in the Bridge City Jazz band and Paul Furniss' San Francisco JB. John Bates is currently tutoring Tayzin on trombone.
I brought along some additional songs than those in our usual repertoire .."Sailing Down the Chesapeake Bay" a rollaking riverboat tune, "Paddlin' Madeline Home" etc that Paul Baker played with relish for us singing accompaniment as well.
Paul Plays as mentioned as a front line player in Paul Furniss' San Francisco JB and they played last Sunday at Cronulla RSL club where I took this photo of him playing his special Vegavox Ultra...
As mentioned the SBB is entered in the 66th Australian Jazz Convention at Bundaberg, Queensland in the week over the Christmas New Year period and if you are looking in to our site, play a banjo and are attending the convention, come find me there and play along with us in the allocated sets for the band. I'll have all the chord charts...we'll be primarily lead by Lance McGuire from Brisbane...
Lance is pictured below, centre with John Packham, standing and DQ sitting to the right at the Adelaide Jazz Convention in 2001.
Left click on the photos to enlarge them...
At the rehearsal Cliff Parson brought along an electric banjo he'd made up from parts and played it for us...an interesting concept...
Paul Baker has a rest, Cliff Parson,centre and Bill Maclean get into it with John Packham,rear right and Ed Condran joining in.
Where are our next rehearsals and where? Wed. 26th October and Wed. 30th November at Club Ashfield where we play in the bistro/function area on the first floor of the Cub...6.45pm to 9pm, but most of us come around 6pm and some eat in the bistro.
The Club is right beside the Ashfield railway station at 5 Charlotte St., Ashfield...see the map at the end of this post...
I've decided to feature some items from banjo catalogues and material in my collection...
The following is from a 1926 Vega Catalogue and features a Vega Professional model banjo...
Want to see a real one in action....?
Photo below shows us at a banjo jam at John Wilson's place in 2008...DQ on a 1960 Vegavox Ultra plectrum, John Wilson, centre, on a 1928 Vega Artist tenor and Ted Gerome from the Pittsburgh Banjo Club, USA, with John's Vega Professional tenor as in the catalogue..
