The
second International Banjo Festival Switzerland will take place
on May 16th and 17th in the Hotel zum Goldenen Kopf. This is
situated in the beautiful and historic "old town" quarter of
Bülach. Bülach is about a 15 minute drive from Zürich
international airport and about 30 minutes from the German
border crossing at Schaffhausen-Bülach. Concerts will take place
both evening and workshops will run through Saturday. For hotel
reservations please contact the Hotel zum Goldenen Kopf.
More information about the
festival can be found at: Link.
Submitted
by Ruedi Bleuer
April 9,
2008
Don
Vappie's Original Score To Air On PBS Tonight
Don Vappie has preserved
the sound of New Orleans with Creole influence. He not only is
an excellent musician (banjo) but a great arranger. He has done
transcriptions of all the great jazz players and now he creates
his own original score for the "American Masters" series Zora
Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun.
Zora Neale Hurston was an
American folklorist and author during the time of the Harlem
Renaissance, best known for the 1937 novel Their Eyes Were
Watching God.
Submitted
by Don Vappie
April 8,
2008
Lee Floyd In Japan
I am in Osaka Japan with
the "Fire Jazz Fantasy" show band performing five days a week at
Universal Studios. This show was written and produced by the
talented Mr. Dwight Kennedy of Los Angeles, California.
We are loving this new job and we will be here until January 15,
2008 (maybe more). Please come for a visit if you can!
All my best,
Lee Floyd
Submitted
by Lee Floyd
April 1,
2008
Jack Convery
JOIN US!
JACK CONVERY AND GARY NEUMAN
RETURN
TO THE
SAN FRANCISCAN
Dear Friends,
Please be our guest... for
our return on a regular,
bi-weekly celebration with
Jack Convery & Friends
featuring
Gary Neuman.
Every 1st & 3rd Monday,
4/7, 4/21, 5/5, 5/19, 6/2,
6/16, 6/30,
The San Fransican Restaurant1525 N. Main Street,
Walnut Creek, Ca.
925-934-4831.
6:00pm-9:00pm Reservations
recommended.
Sincerely,
Jack Convery
Jack Convery
appearing with THE FOG CITY
STOMPERS
Sunday,
April 20,2008 (1:30pm-5:30pm)
-THE
FOG CITY STOMPERS will be
performing selections from their
new CD,
ALL FOGGED UP!, at the
upcoming NOJC meeting at the
San Pablo Moose Lodge, 13233 San
Pablo Ave., San Pablo
Submitted
by Jack Convery
March 17, 2008
Don Stevenson to be Inducted into the Four String Banjo Hall
of Fame
This story and more can be found at Don's new website.
A special concert featuring "Schreyer Banjos" at the
historic restored Theater in Minneapolis was performed
recently as a fundraiser for the restoration of Eddy
Peabody's first Vitaphone short, titled "Banjomania."
Knowing the historical significance of this rare film,
Lowell Schreyer was passionately trying to raise money to
have it restored. The Schreyer's are now continuing this
effort as a memorial to his most cherished project.
Please consider making a contribution
to this project. The cost to have the Vitaphone film
restored at the UCLA film center is about $4,000. Please
sent your contributions payable to:
Margaret Schreyer
55807 River Fort Drive
Mankato, MN 56001
Submitted
by John Mumford
February 23,
2008
Banjos
on the Snow Train to Reno, 2008
This was the second year that Jack Convery of the
East Bay Banjo Club organized this event. Last year, in 2007
the trip to Reno was set up to honor Georgette Twain who was
to be inducted into the Banjo Hall of Fame in Guthrie,
Oklahoma. This year our guest of honor was, Mr. Charlie
Tagawa, leader of the Peninsula Banjo Band. Charlie is
already a member of the Hall of Fame having been recognized
for his musical contributions to the art of playing the
banjo and for his expertise on the tenor banjo.
The train trip for banjo players was
scheduled for February 5, 2008. Several banjo players
including Charlie Tagawa, Larry Caputo and his wife,
daughter and two month old grandson, and Bill Lungren from
the Peninsula Banjo band arrived at the Emeryville station
ready to board. Also getting on in Emeryville were two
people from Texas, Bob Alexius and his wife Patsy. Bob said
that he and his wife had read about last years train trip
and were quite interested being part of this years event.
Having
an interest in banjos and himself being a Tuba player, he
and his wife drove from Texas to California to board the
train to Reno in Emeryville.
The train left Emeryville at
10:30 AM and made stops in Martinez, Suisun City, Sacramento
and Roseville picking up more banjo players from the East
Bay Banjo Club and the Sacramento Banjo Band. In total there
were 82 making the trip of which 40 were banjoists. In
addition to the banjos we had several other musicians making
the trip including, Rod Robert, a piano player from Cal’s
Steak House in San Rafael, Norm Gary who plays a wonderful
clarinet, and Dave Sturtevant a guitarist.
For those of you who don’t know,
Amtrak runs two party trains per week from Emeryville to
Reno. One is known as the Fun Train. It goes to Reno on
Friday and comes back on Sunday. The other is known as the
Snow Train. It leaves Emeryville on Tuesday and returns from
Reno on Thursday. The banjo trip was scheduled for the Snow
Train where two cars (car #9 and #10) were reserved for
banjoists and friends. The Snow train is specifically set up
for partying with few restrictions. If you want to smoke you
can visit the smoking car. If you want to drink, you can
visit the bar in car #4. If you want to observe the
fantastic scenery, typical of the Sierra Nevada Mountains,
you can head off to the Dome Car which is set up for
observing the mountains, snow and scenery.
When we arrived in Reno it was 5:15
PM. With no official activities planned for Tuesday evening
we were on our own. On Wednesday the hotel reserved the
second floor for banjos. Jack scheduled a four hour workshop
from 1:00 to 5:00 PM where we learned special techniques for
strumming and making the perfect tremolo. Jack discussed
special rhythm techniques and using chords up the neck. The
workshop was directed by Jack Convery with the assistance of
Charlie Tagawa, with Bill Cooper on banjo and Dave
Sturdevant on guitar.
We adjourned for a group buffet
dinner at 5:30pm and we all returned to the second floor
ballroom for a jam session at 7:30 PM. For the evening
session we invited the general public to join us on the
second floor. Every seat was filled with banjo players,
fellow train passengers, friends , and fans. Charlie Tagawa
was introduced and the evening show began. One of the
highlights of the
evening
was a duet featuring Bill Lungren and Charlie playing Nola.
The jam session adjourned at 10 pm as
we all had to be on the departing train on Thursday morning.
On the return trip banjos rang out constantly from Reno to
Emeryville. The trip back was hampered with delays as trains
going both ways were limited at one point to a single set of
tracks. But, nobody cared as the music occupied our time and
although the return trip was two hours and 45 minutes behind
schedule it seemed as though time passed quickly.
On the trip we had one more exciting element added to the
voyage, a
magician.
He roamed from car to car baffling the minds of the
passengers and was simply amazing. We arrived back in
Emeryville at 8:45. It was the second year we have had this
event and plans are already being made to repeat it again
next year.
Written by Larry
Caputo
Com. Dir, Peninsula Banjo Band
Please be our guest... for a
celebration of Mardi Gras with
Jack Convery & Friends
featuring
Gary Neuman and
John Stafford.
Saturday, 2/3, 2/9, 2/16, 2/23;
The San Fransican Restuarant
1525 N. Main Street,
Walnut Creek, Ca.
925-934-4831.
6:30pm-9:30pm Reservations
recommended.
Sincerely,
Jack Convery
More Upcoming gigs
Tues-Thurs,2/05-2/07/08;
Banjo Snow Train to Reno
Sunday, 2/17/08; 1:30pm with
the
Fog City Stompers in a
benefit for the NOJC at the San
Pablo Moose Lodge,
13233 San Pablo Ave., San Pablo
Sunday, 2/24/08;noon
Sacramento Banjorama
Interested in booking Jack
Convery for your party or event?
Contact: 707-747-1004 or email
entline@mac.com.
Submitted
by Jack Convery
January 3,
2008
Fr. Bill Brisotti left without a home after New Years Eve fire
Some of you may know of or have played banjo with Fr. Bill
Brisotto. His parish is a very poor
one and his Outreach program serves many of the poor migrant
workers and immigrants on Long Island.
Fr. Bill is literally left with only the clothes on his back.
Many of his instruments were recovered from the rectory, but
suffered water damage. His church caught fire due to what they
believe to be an electrical fire.
Here is a passage from the article found in the link below:
'As the
priest picked through the wreckage of his church yesterday,
tallying losses, he was quick to mention the food, the coats,
the outreach programs. Only when prompted did Brisotti speak of
the more than 50 banjos, mandolins and guitars he'd spent a
lifetime collecting.
Brisotti's younger brother John said the priest performs weekly
and has loved playing since childhood. The priest was
overwhelmed with gratitude when firefighters rescued most of the
instruments, John Brisotti said. "He was in tears this morning
telling me about it."'
The
second International Banjo Festival Switzerland will take place
on May 16th and 17th in the Hotel zum Goldenen Kopf. This is
situated in the beautiful and historic "old town" quarter of
Bülach. Bülach is about a 15 minute drive from Zürich
international airport and about 30 minutes from the German
border crossing at Schaffhausen-Bülach. Concerts will take place
both evening and workshops will run through Saturday. For hotel
reservations please contact the Hotel zum Goldenen Kopf.
A special concert featuring "Schreyer Banjos" at the
historic restored Theater in Minneapolis was performed
recently as a fundraiser for the restoration of Eddy
Peabody's first Vitaphone short, titled "Banjomania."
Knowing the historical significance of this rare film,
Lowell Schreyer was passionately trying to raise money to
have it restored. The Schreyer's are now continuing this
effort as a memorial to his most cherished project.
This was the second year that Jack Convery of the
East Bay Banjo Club organized this event. Last year, in 2007
the trip to Reno was set up to honor Georgette Twain who was
to be inducted into the Banjo Hall of Fame in Guthrie,
Oklahoma. This year our guest of honor was, Mr. Charlie
Tagawa, leader of the Peninsula Banjo Band. Charlie is
already a member of the Hall of Fame having been recognized
for his musical contributions to the art of playing the
banjo and for his expertise on the tenor banjo.
Having
an interest in banjos and himself being a Tuba player, he
and his wife drove from Texas to California to board the
train to Reno in Emeryville.
evening
was a duet featuring Bill Lungren and Charlie playing Nola.
magician.
He roamed from car to car baffling the minds of the
passengers and was simply amazing. We arrived back in
Emeryville at 8:45. It was the second year we have had this
event and plans are already being made to repeat it again
next year.
Some of you may know of or have played banjo with Fr. Bill
Brisotto. His parish is a very poor
one and his Outreach program serves many of the poor migrant
workers and immigrants on Long Island.
Fr. Bill is literally left with only the clothes on his back.
Many of his instruments were recovered from the rectory, but
suffered water damage. His church caught fire due to what they
believe to be an electrical fire.