#veeva banga

[panicinthestudio]

Why this instrument explains Black American folk music, October 21, 2022

Jake Blount, a banjo scholar, explains. 

Jake Blount has built a career out of understanding the banjo’s connection to Black American folk music. In this video, he walks us through the instrument’s history — from West Africa to enslaved people in the US to the early record industry — to explain how Black folk music has evolved. 

For example: The early record industry confined Black musicians to “race records” and white musicians to “hillbilly records.” Hillbilly music would have been early country and string band music. Race records restricted Black musicians to blues and jazz genres. Which meant Black musicians playing bluegrass-style banjo weren’t recorded — even if they were responsible for teaching white musicians.   

Using field recordings, their own banjo and fiddle skills, and a deconstructed version of one of their own songs, Jake explains how Black musicians have long been left out of the current canon of folklore recordings and American folk music history. And what he’s doing to keep the tradition alive, with fresh observations and a musical style that looks both forward and backward. 

This video was filmed on location at Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

Vox

Jake Blount - "Once There Was No Sun" (Official Music Video), July 20, 2022

“I learned "Once There Was No Sun" from a Bessie Jones recording. The track opens with a reading from Genesis, describing the world in the days prior to the creation of light, the sun, and the moon. The song’s lyrics reflect on the same period of time, reminding us that many things we treat as universal constants did not always exist - and, by extension, could recede into nothingness at any time. "Once There Was No Sun" is an invitation to reflect on the impermanence, fragility and beauty of a world we too often take for granted. 

We filmed on a small island off the coast of Maine, which also inspired the setting for 'The New Faith,' and it was clear to us from the start that the video should highlight the majesty of the landscape. The video is a celebration of beauty, in some of its most elemental forms: wind, light, sea and stone, and human bodies moving through it all. It’s my hope that, through such celebrations, we can learn to better care for all these things.”

 Video Produced by Blacklodge 

Cinematographer & Editor - Tadin Brego 

Backup Dancer - Veeva Banga 

Drone Pilot - Jesse LaFountaine