MARCH 18, 2010 ISSUE
Reunion and Revival
Black Banjo Gathering Reunion at ASU March 24 to 27
Photos by John Maeder, courtesy of BlackBanjo.com
Workshops and panel discussions related to the black banjo tradition with take place throughout the ASU Plemmons Student Union Thursday through Saturday, March 25 to 27, during the Black Banjo Gathering Reunion. 
More than 40 musicians and scholars and likely hundreds of attendees will converge on the ASU Plemmons Student Union for the Black Banjo Gathering Reunion, taking place after the seminal Black Banjo Gathering in 2005. Performers include Don Vappie, Otis Taylor, Tony Trischka, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Corey Harris, Cheick Hamala Diabate, Tony Thomas and many others. Click to www.english.appstate.edu for a finalized performance schedule. Five years ago, hundreds of people gathered in Boone for the Black Banjo Gathering, a seminal event that resulted in the expansion of scholarship, recording, recognition and performance of African American banjo and old-time music.
The gathering was also where three young musicians—Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson—first met in person. The trio has since formed the Carolina Chocolate Drops, an African American string band that plays in the Piedmont old-time tradition. The band, coached by legendary Mebane fiddler Joe Thompson, now tours nationally and has released several studio albums.
Thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Black Banjo Gathering Reunion will take place at ASU Wednesday through Saturday, March 24 to 27. Project Director Cece Conway wrote the grant on behalf of ASU’s Center for Appalachian Studies.
“We thought five years was enough time for us to get back…we tried to invite everybody who was here before,” Conway said.
The event will feature concerts, workshops, jams, panel discussions, dancing, lectures, frolics, films and outreach to ASU students and the community.
“It is five years after the first event, and a lot has happened in terms of scholarship and artistic collaborations and exploration,” said Mark Freed, musician and Watauga Arts Council folklorist, who helped organize the 2005 gathering while an ASU graduate student. “As we well know, the banjo has a long-standing tradition in this region; the instrument also has African and African-American roots.”
Participants include Conway, Freed, scholar and musician Tony Thomas, members of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Creole jazz banjoist Don Vappie; bluegrass banjoist Tony Trischka; West African historian, ngoni, banjo and guitar player Cheick Hamala Diabate; blues guitarist and banjoist Corey Harris; string band The Ebony Hillbillies; African American banjo revivalist Otis Taylor; banjo maker and musician Riley Baugus; old-time banjo player and storyteller David Holt; and singer, musician, folklorist and activist Alice Gerrard.
Other participants are John Cohen, Jerron Paxton, Joan Dickerson, Hubby Jenkins, Clarke Buehling, James Leva, Pete Ross, Andy Cohen, Art Rosenbaum, Greg Adams, Rick Ward, Gail Gillespie, the Dust Busters, Mebanairs, George Gibson, Rich Kirby, Doug Dorschug, Rusty Blanton, Tom Hansell, Dr. Laurent Dubois, Dr. Afi-Odelia Scruggs, Paul Sedgwick, Jim Lloyd, Trevor McKenzie and Steve Kruger.
Thompson, who was honored as a National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellow for his lifetime contributions in 2007, is planning to attend on Friday, March 26.
The event will open with a concert on Wednesday, March 24, at Farthing Auditorium. Before the concert, the gathering will open in the Farthing foyer from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. with words from Conway, Freed, Thomas, Holt and Giddens and music by the Carolina Chocolate Drops; banjo builder, collector, historian and old-time banjo player Clarke Buehling; and traditional player and banjo player Rick Ward of Beech Mountain.
The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in Farthing Auditorium and will feature a performance by Diabate, followed by an old-time set by Baugus, Leva, Gerrard and John Cohen. The concert will then feature Vappie, Harris, Trischka and the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Tickets are $10 for students and $20 for the general public in advance and $12 and $25, respectively, at the door.
In conjunction with area arts councils, outreach programs will take place at schools in Watauga, Avery and Ashe counties on Wednesday and Thursday.
On Thursday afternoon, the Plemmons Student Union Solarium will be the location of several free events. Supper and music will take place at the Jones House Community Center on King Street from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., followed by a jam session.
Workshops, panels and presentations will take place in the Plemmons Student Union Linville Falls Room during the day on Friday and Saturday; concerts, jams and frolics will take place at Legends on those nights. Legends ticket information has not been announced.
In addition to the Center for Appalachian Studies, the Black Banjo Gathering Reunion is supported by the Appalachian Heritage Council; ASU’s departments of English, Women’s Studies, Honors, University College, and Academic Affairs; the Watauga Arts Council; Blue Ridge Folklife Institute of Boone; Duke University Center for French and Francophone Studies; Charlotte Folk Society; the Avery County Arts Council; the Ashe County Arts Council; Alleghany JAM; Richard T. Barker Friends of the University Library; and others.
For more information about the 2005 Black Banjo Gathering and next week’s Black Banjo Gathering Reunion, click to www.blackbanjo.com or www.english.appstate.edu or call the English Department at 828-262-3098. The English Department website will continue to be updated as events are finalized. For tickets to the Farthing Auditorium concert, call 828-262-4046 or click to www.farthing.appstate.edu.
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