The Great Courses, Mar 23, 2023 ..."Open your eyes and ears to the rich—and surprising—cross-cultural history of the banjo with GRAMMY®-Award winning artist, Rhiannon Giddens. Stream "The Banjo: Music, History, and Heritage" on Wondrium now! https://www.wondrium.com/the-banjo-mu... ------- Join renowned musician Rhiannon Giddens as she delves into the fascinating and complex history of the banjo. With her signature blend of musical expertise and historical insight, Giddens explores the African roots of the instrument, tracing its evolution through the centuries to its role in contemporary American music. Through her engaging storytelling and masterful playing, Giddens reveals the banjo's rich cultural heritage, highlighting the instrument's significance as both a symbol of oppression and a source of empowerment. She draws on a wealth of historical research and personal experience to offer a thought-provoking exploration of the banjo's complex legacy, shedding light on the ways in which music can serve as a powerful tool for resistance, resilience, and transformation. Whether you're a music lover, a history buff, or simply curious about the banjo's fascinating past and present, this video is not to be missed. Join Rhiannon Giddens as she takes us on a journey through the vibrant and multifaceted history of this iconic instrument, and discover the enduring power of music to inspire, challenge, and unite us all."... **** Edited by Azizi Powell This pancocojams post showcases the 2023 YouTube video entitled ""Uncovering the History of the Banjo with Rhiannon Giddens: From African Roots to American Music". This post also presents comments that I selected from this video's discussion thread. The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, and socio-cultural purposes. All copyrights remain with their owners. Thanks to Rhiannon Giddens. Thanks to all those who have researched,written, and otherwise presented information about the history of the banjo. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this video on YouTube. -snip- Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2025/04/rhiannon-giddens-on-lost-history-of.html for a closely related 2025 pancocojams post entitled "Rhiannon Giddens: "On the Lost History of the Black Banjo" (Complete unofficial Transcript Of This June 2017 YouTube Video)."
1. @toddgraves8547
"Very interesting but I am mixed myself and it bugs me when
other mixed people like rhianna only value there black side. My white
grandfather took me to a bluegrass concert when i was a child and I loved it.
Cultures learn and borrow from each other alot blacks took irish dancing and
made tap the origin of guitar goes back to lutes and oud but the spanish are
most responsible for modern guitar that doesnt in anywau take away the beauty
of the blues guitar but spanish flamenco is beautiful also her tone to me
seemed mocking of syerotype white banjo players
im black and white I lo e both my fathers side of family and my mothers
I wish more people would stop hating and in the desguise of antiracial thry are
really prejudice bigots. We are proven by genetics only one race , the human
race learn from and love all but the bible could have told you that.love thy
neighbor as thysrlf we are all one blood one race stop hating and pretending
its antiracist its these divisions that cause hate"
**
Reply
2. @angelagoodwin5758, 2024
"I'm not mixed, but I'm a black woman in my 60s. I grew up
during the Civil Rights era. Though I
understand your point, I also get why Ms. Giddens focused on the black musical
roots of this music because it RARELY if ever gets the attention it deserves.
For most of my life, I and many others from different ethnicities and walks of
life NEVER knew any of this. It wasn't being taught at all. We were taught
mostly white people created country and folk music with no contribution from
people of color. Look up Lesley Riddle. So much of our history is so deeply
hidden. I thank Ms. Giddens for enlightening us all."
**
Reply
3. @martifingers, 2024
"@angelagoodwin5758 I agree with Angela. To be honest
if this is Ms. Giddens only valuing the "black side" it sure
looks like she is doing it in the most inclusive way possible. I am white and in my 70's and a long time
admirer of Ms Gidden's talents as a world class musician and also with her amazing ability to tell the story of the music that
is now part of all our cultural DNA through the blues, jazz, rock and soul."
4.
"The bango is an important element of the "string
bands" found in several Caribbean islands such as St. Kitts and Nevis"
**
5. @ellenlockhart4494
"Thank you Rhiannon, on St. Thomas, USVI, we were given a Kora. A late, dear friend named Jamesie Brewster, had a Scratch band and made his own banjos from cheese tins. My husband was a producer of a documentary about Mr. Brewster's band. At the invitation of the Queen of Denmark the band performed there and held workshops"
6. @johnabernethy8873
"Beutiful music, beutiful instruments, Incredible Musician and a fine education on the importance of early Black music in America today."
**
7. @tiffanylockett5950
"Wow, I've known these things for 16'ish years (only through
the telling of it to me by my brother who researched it heavily first before
me) and it seems like now there is finally a Blast Off with revealing these
truths about Country Music! I'm so glad it's FINALLY happening now, and in such
a big wave, because it felt like such a frustrating thing to be held a secret
away from even most Black People! Just like how for such a long time people
called Rock "white people music". And thought Disco and Techno were
also (probably still do on those two). The record must be set straight, never,
ever to be forgotten again! White people have gotten away with it time &
time again and for TOO long."
8.
"1:15 contra dancing! And yah, it's pretty much exactly how
she described it 😅"
**
9. @evelynanyeko1635
"I learnt about this history from another documentary 👇
Bela Fleck - Throw Down Your Heart 2008. Please check this
out- Full Movie
Thanks alot for sharing this.👍🙏🙏🙏"
10.
"In north africa this instrument plays a big role in our “
chaabi” music but the way we play it is more deep and emotional not energetic,
i know it’s weird but it is , and we have solos in the beginning of every song
called “ takdim” and with singing called “istikhbar”. I thought it is an
American instrument till recently ❤️❤️❤️❤️ thnx for the video"
11.
"When PBS debuted Ken Burns' "Country Music" abt 5 yrs ago, it was kicked off with a concert that was broadcast. The opener was Rhiannon on banjo and a bluegrass/roots music fiddler (I think it was Ketch Secor); they did an absolutely riveting, BLAZING song ("Ruby"?) that kind of left me with goosebumps and my mouth hanging open. I wish like hell I could see/hear that performance again. It was really amazing. And yes, being that Ken Burns and his colleagues always do their homework, the series did include African American influence and contributions to bluegrass and country music. There's definitely more than most of us realize!"
**
12. @thaxtonwaters8561
"Reclaim it.🖤"
13.
"On NPR I heard an African guy talking about how he went to
college in the US in the Seventies and was hanging with White friends while
watching Hee Haw and he saw Roy Clark playing the banjo and how he exclaimed
"my uncle in the backwoods of Senegal plays that instrument!". His
American friends thought he was nuts. But it turns out that in the villages of
Senegal they do play a traditional instrument nearly identical to the
banjo...and play it claw hammer style."
**
Reply
14. @InspiredByEbonyLove
"Mali as well."
**
15. @bri52
"Thank You Rhiannon. From this clip I went to Bella Fleck’s
movie “Throw down Your Heart” 2008. A wonderful journey through Africa
following the roots of the banjo. The musicians from East and West Africa along
with Bella transcends anything I have ever experienced before! Play on,💕🎶"
**
16. @nisiunavoce1264
"That's very interesting that you
associated banjo with white folk in your youth. When I was young (way before
you) the banjo was more tagged with black folk. Later on hearing Taj Mahal's De
Ole Folks at Home cemented my love of early folk music.
I listened to other folk recordings but
he really exemplified the simple repetitive rhythms for me which I played along
with on my National steel.
Your journey exploring the origins of
the instrument and sounds is fascinating and most appreciated. Great to see and
hear young folk embracing the wonderful sound of roots folk."
**
17. @patricioferreira5495
"Despite Brazil received same people than USA, we haven't a
tradition of african stringed melodic instruments: heat and moisture destroy
them fastly. However we have documentation about their use by africans arrived
here and we are recovering this tradition with modern materials to build them
and contact with african derivative culture worldwide."
**
Reply
18. @cappriment
"Continue to do your research and preserve The
African history in Brazil!"
19.
"Steve Martin is probably one of the most serious students of
the banjo and it's relationship to old time play-party music, minstrelsy,
parlor-porch music you will find. I took a graduate course in the early 70s
"Music of America" the first subcourse covered 1492 to 1750 from
published street sheets and hymnody to the rough forms and as a music comp
student who was intensely interested old-time fiddling and bluegrass at the
time, I was astounded to find a fully formed version of the music for the
fiddle tune Sally Goodin' in a published song collection originally published
in ~1720. It's ALL very interrelated. I
would venture that it took maybe 20 minutes for the first gourd banjo that came
ashore in the "whenever" to cross the cultural line between poor
blacks and poor whites because it was almost non existent in a practical manner
much earlier, my suspicion is earlier than 1800."
20.
"In a few of Kipling's short stories about the English
Colonials in India the banjo is mentioned, mainly as an instrument that someone
would play for relaxation or recreation.
I've also read a couple of stories set in Great Britain that mention the
banjo. And of course Ms. Giddons
mentions the Irish banjo. I think the
history of the banjo among the English, not just the Americans could add
another dimension to its history."
**
21. @parkerbrown-nesbit1747
"I've been a fan of Rhiannon Giddens since her Carolina
Chocolate Drops days (I'll willingly follow her anywhere she wants to go
musically).
This was WAY too short!"
** 22. @andrewpotter4131"Rhianon , Ive made connections to the evolution of the history of jazz and parralel cadences of the Afro Brazilian religion , Ketu Candomble .
Including how much OPANIJE cadence the Louis Armstrong
ground breaking record , Hotfives has .on that record , is banjo on some songs.
I notice you sometimes do a cadence on banjo that is like
the Ketu Candomble cadence , ILU
There is banjo in certain types of samba in Brazil"
**
23. @xander9564
"Very interesting. In history, you sometimes see these
developments of musical instruments in the context of separate peoples having
contact with one another, sometimes in positive, and sometimes in negative,
situations.
The gourd banjo led to the modern banjo because Africa and
America had contact. This reminds me of how the rhaita (also called mizmar or
zurna) from the Middle East and North Africa got to Europe during the Middle
Ages, where it was called the shawm and later developed into the oboe."
**
24. @rnoe1986
"I wish the Carolina Chocolate Drops were still together. I
saw them x4 and love their take on old time music. Miss that band!!!"
**
25. @ImaniGroce-lm6by
"I Had A Feeling It Came from Africa and I Had A Feeling Square Dancing Did too. ✌️
and ❤️ The Elephant In ALL ROOMS. Makes Me Understand Why
"The Night The Devil Came To Georgia" To Me Always Sounded.....FUNKY.
✌️
and ❤️"
27.
"How fun! Your story led me to see if there was
"banjo" in my cultural past....1760 account of two brothers learning
to play and dance from slaves they knew.
Quite an amusing account. The
boys enjoyed themselves enough that the account records they wanted to have
their own banjos. Fascinating. Keeping alive the memory of African Conqurors
enslaving and selling them to others who transport them to the Caribbean and
later the Colonies."
**
"Funny, I first learn of Rhiannon Giddens when she was
awarded Steve Martin's Banjo Prize in 2016. 1) I didn't know that there was
such a prize, and 2) there was this beautiful black women who won it. What is
this all about?
A wonderful rabbit hole to fall into!"
****
2025
29. @VettsClass
"The banjo 🪕 🪕 is such a sacred instrument. When I was in West
Africa the different styles of banjos (akintong)🪕🪕 paired with bluegrass 🎶
was astonishingly gorgeous👂🏿👂🏿. We didn't learn 🎶 history in school and it's intentional. This
suppresses black folks🤬. Thank you for advocating our history📚🎶🙌🏿🪕✨🎸🪘🎻📯🪈🎺🍶🕺🏿👩🏿🎤👨🏿🍳🎬"
**
30. @Joe-d4h3s
"I'd read or been told that banjos came from Africa and were
made out of gourds. Never knew they were invented in the Caribbean and had
three tune strings and a drone! Yours sounds really good."
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