Elmer Snowden: Making a Banjo Swing Posted by independent j

Elmer Snowden Quartet: It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) and Twelfth Street Rag from Harlem Bango on Riverside Records (1960). I had the good fortune of visiting with my best friend recently and we spent a lot of time talking and sharing music. He is cultivating a nice collection of old style bluegrass and early country music while he endeavors to learn the banjo. While a lot of this music left me kind of cold ("where are the drums?" i ask...turns out bluegrass doesn't have drums), I shared with him this record by early jazz artist Elmer Snowden, who played drums, multiple reed instruments, and piano but was most famous for playing the guitar, mandolin, and banjo. The latter two are not typically thought of as having much of a presence in jazz, but in the 1910s and 1920s they were integral in the dixieland style and maintained a presence in the harlem stride tradition before fading from the scene with the big band rage. Despite no recordings as a leader (and only 2 or 3 as a sideman) during his lengthy hey-day, Snowden secured an indelible place in history by leading his DC area band The Washingtonians to NYC and bringing along a talented young pianist composer named Edward Kennedy Ellington (soon be entitled as Duke). Snowden lead multiple bands (simultaneously) in NYC in the 20s and 30s including one which was bequeathed to pianist Cliff Jackson, but was largely forgotten by the 50s when interest in early jazz prompted radio DJ Chris Albertson to track down Snowden who was working as a parking lot attendant in Philly and (as he did his entire life) teaching jazz however he could. Though by this time he was 60 years old, Albertson got Snowden in the studio with Jackson again on piano and both gentlemen shine on this record. Much like the producer back then, I thought it would be good to include an Ellington standard from the set, so here is the old favorite "It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" with a strong stride piano working again Snowden's rhythm banjo. But the really unique listen is Elmer cutting loose for his opening solo catching the melody well...listen to that banjo swing! The aforementioned friend (let's call him Independent Clay) pointed out how different Snowden's banjo sounds compared to bluegrass pickers, and a little poking indicated that 1) Elmer tunes his banjo string intervals wider than typical, more akin to a mandolin and 2) he does not use the typical backing resonator common in bluegrass (lots more info here). The other song up today is "Twelfth Street Rag," a mellower tune that again showcases the interplay between the two leads Snowden and Jackson. This really harkens back to the early New Orleans style of jazz. If you enjoy these tunes, I highly recommend the album which is very consistent in quality and similar in vibe throughout. Of course you can find lots of banjos in jazz looking back to (for instance) Louis Armstrong's famous Hot 5s and Hot 7s sessions, and of course now-a-days you have Bela Fleck. But for me, this is a really unique recording to have a banjo lead, harlem swing album. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.