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They were products of their times and musical purposes—ragtime and jazz dance music and theater music. The Great Depression is a visible line to mark the end of the Jazz Age. [52] The economic downturn cut into the sales of both four- and five-stringed banjos, and by World War 2, banjos were in sharp decline, the market for them dead. [53]
Joel Sweeney. Joel Walker Sweeney (1810 – October 29, 1860), also known as Joe Sweeney, was an American musician and early blackface minstrel performer. He is known for popularizing the playing of the banjo and has often been credited with advancing the physical development of the modern five-string banjo.
Banjo music originated informally as a form of African folk music over a hundred years ago probably in the sub-Saharan region.When the Americans forced African slaves to work on the plantations, banjo music followed them, and stayed primarily a form of African folk music, up to the 1800s.
Music tastes had again changed; Big band music and the guitar were now in fashion, pushing aside the banjo. [4] Banjos and their accessories such as strings and specialized picks were largely unavailable. [4] Musicians Pete Seeger and Earl Scruggs helped reverse the situation and influenced banjo design; both musicians feature prominently in ...
Compared to mandolins and banjos, manufacture of mandolin banjos grew scarce in the late 20th century. Historically, mass produced mandolin-banjos were made by companies including Gibson, Weymann & Son of Philadelphia, Vega, S.S. Stewart, Lange, and the English company Windsor, who all built and sold 4 and 8 string banjos in the early 20th century.
Samuel Swaim Stewart (January 8, 1855—April 6, 1898), also known as S. S. Stewart, was a musician, composer, publisher, and manufacturer of banjos. [3] He owned the S. S. Stewart Banjo Company, which was one of the largest banjo manufacturers in the 1890s, manufacturing tens-of-thousands of banjos annually. [4]
Across his career, Fred J. Bacon played a variety of musical styles on the five-string banjo and snare drum. His performances included his own compositions such as The Fascinator and The Conqueror march, classical compositions such as Minuette a l'Antique by Paderewski, and arrangements of folk music or minstrel songs, including Massa's in the Cold, Cold Ground.
Earl Eugene Scruggs (January 6, 1924 – March 28, 2012) was an American musician noted for popularizing a three-finger banjo picking style, now called "Scruggs style", which is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music.