American Bach Revisited--coming soon

In 1997, I released a CD called “American Bach” that featured J.S. Bach’s Cello Suites I and III where the banjo played the cello part accompanied by an original contrapuntal bassline composed by Margaret James and played by Al Ehrich. It was exhilarating to learn this music, to record it and then perform it around Chicago and even in its entirety at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. A few players have experimented with Bach on the banjo—Pete Seeger played Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring. Bela Fleck stepped into the classical music world with his brilliant musicianship. Others include John Bullard and Jens Kruger. One distinction, is that all of those players employed a 3-finger right-hand picking style, akin to bluegrass, to play their interpretations.

My right and style is called clawhammer, which is a well known term in the banjo world. If you’re not in the banjo world—I’ll explain the difference. The 3-finger approach to the banjo resembles the way you might see a classical guitarist play the strings, with the fingers picking up on the strings. Clawhammer is a downward attack that has been used on drum-based string instruments across the world for centuries. This downward attack predates the emergence of the 5-string banjo in America as it is used in African instruments like the halam, guembri aka hajuj. The knowledge of that downward attack came to America through the hands of enslaved musicians and eventually made its way into the banjo tradition. As it turns out, I’m the first one and only one to transcribe and perform entire Cello Suites on the banjo. And for good reason—they’re really hard and people who like the banjo don’t necessarily like to hear Bach, and vice versa. Nonetheless, it has been my calling and my honor to pursue.

Twenty five years ago, I released it for the first time. And here in 2023, I’ll be sharing a new version. This time, I’ll play the banjo using steel strings vs nylon strings from 1997. And instead of being accompanied by bass, the original bassline has been adapted for and performed on the cello by Jill Kaeding. She is a brilliant cellist. Over the next six months, we’ll be releasing individual tracks until the official release date for the record arrives in the fall.