Before the Blues--and the phonograph-- revolutionized popular music, African-American string bands featuring banjo and fiddle played for “frolics” (square dances), parades, house parties, corn shuckings, funerals, and baby christenings. Largely forgotten, this vital musical tradition survived into the 1950s. Now a new generation of blacks is rediscovering and reinvigorating the string band tradition. Black and white scholars are documenting the African origins of the banjo and how African-Americans adapted it. At the same time, young African-American string bands like The Carolina Chocolate Drops, The Ebony Hillbillies, Sankofa Strings, and Don Vappie and His Creole Jazz Serenaders are reinventing traditional banjo and fiddle music. Black String Revival, an hour-long documentary, will tell the story of the rise and fall and the rise again of the Black string band tradition.

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The Players

Joe Thompson, from Mebane NC is one of the last living practitioners of a style of black string band music that pre-dates the blues. Joe and his brother Nate, and cousin Odell, grew up playing for house parties. What whites called a “square dance” was known in the black community as a “frolic”. At age 89, Joe is the sole surviving member of this musical legacy. He suffered a mild stroke recently, but still plays the fiddle and is a powerful singer of old ballads, blues, and hymns. Until the early 90’s, Joe Thompson was accompanied by his cousin, Odell, on banjo. Odell died in 1994 leaving Joe bereft of backup. Enter Bob Carlin.

Bob Carlin is renowned as an old-time banjo player, writer, and record-producer, having recorded two albums with John Hartford among many other projects. After Odell Thompson passed away, Carlin stepped in, taking pains to learn tunes the way Odell used to play them. He escorted Joe to festivals and introduced him to a whole new generation of listeners. In a 2005 interview he said it is a job he took on reluctantly: “I would prefer to not be the one to do it. I wish there were a young black banjo player who I could teach the tunes to. I’ve tried but I haven’t found anyone willing to take the time.” Since then, the Carolina Chocolate Drops have burst upon the scene fulfilling Carlin’s wish.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops, an African-American string band from Durham, N.C., is doing its part to keep the black string band tradition alive. Fiddler Justin Robinson and banjoist Rhiannon Giddens sought out Joe Thompson and are being mentored by him. They have traveled frequently to Joe’s house to learn learn his tunes and absorb his style. The trio is rounded out by singer and multi-instrumentalist, Dom Flemons. They are becoming a hot act on the festival circuit, are touring with Taj Mahal,  and have recently released their first CD, Dona’s” Got A Ramblin; Mind”, to rave reviews.

The Ebony Hillbillies started the black string band renaissance. Since 1986, led by master fiddler, Rique Prince and bassist David Colding, the Hillbillies have delighted audiences with old-time fiddle tunes, blues, and country inflected originals. The band’s vocalist, Norris Bennet, plays Banjo and dulcimer. The trio can often been heard playing on the streets of New York City.

Afi-Odelia Scruggs is a Professor of journalism at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. She grew up watching the Grand Ole Opry with her great grandmother. Scruggs plays the mandolin and hammer dulcimer, and complains that African Americans often don't appreciate the level of diversity within their own community. " It will be a slow process, but I'm hoping that, somewhere down the road, somebody black will be able to pick up a banjo and folks won't point or laugh. I want (black) kids to understand that we have created a lot of music and there are a lot of different ways we express ourselves creatively. And it's okay to do that without compromising your racial authenticity.”

Don Vappie is the premier jazz banjoist living today. His music is firmly rooted in the New Orleans Creole (French speaking black) culture that produced early jazz greats Jelly Roll Morton and King Oliver among others. Vappie plays tenor and six-string banjo, guitar, bass, vocals and washboard. His band, The Creole Jazz Seranaders tour the world delighting audiences with their back to the future blend of trad jazz, funk, and island rythmns. 

Cheick Hamala Diabate was born in Kita, Mali, into a family Griot tradition dating back over 800 years, Cheick Hamala Diabate is recognized as a master of the ngoni a stringed lute and ancestor of the banjo. He also plays the guitar and the tenor banjo. He has performed with well-known artists such as Yayi Kouyate, Ami Koita, Kandia Kouyate, Madi Tounkara, and Salif Keita. He emigrated to the U.S in 1995 and currently lives in Washington, DC. Recently he has joined forces with Bob Carlin in performances that bridge the Atlantic musical divide.

Daniel Jatta is a Jola musician/scholar from Mandinary, Gambia, currently living in Sweden. In the early 1980s, he pioneered the study of his people's principal folk instrument, the akonting. A plucked lute with a drum-like gourd body, the akonting has a fretless stick neck, two long melody strings and one short drone string akin to the 5th string on the 5-string banjo. While scholarly opinion is divided, there is emerging support for Jatta’s theory that the akonting is the direct antecendent of the banjo.

Algia Mae Hinton was born in the late 1920s in rural North Carolina. Her musical influence came at a young age from her mother who was proficient with many stringed instruments. Her musical and agricultural upbringing set the stage for the rest of her life. Widowed fifteen years into her marriage, Algia and her seven children fought off the hard times by entertaining the people in their community. Over the years Algia's music has gained her international recognition.