This is not a one-off novelty outing for banjoist John Bullard, who has recorded classical music on the banjo before. And the combination is feasible: the banjo, and its bluegrass compatriot the mandolin, had a large and almost completely vanished presence in American parlor music on either side of the year 1900, playing music that was not necessarily intended for the symphony hall, but was not bluegrass, old-time music, or music for the minstrel show. That repertoire is well worth discovering, and Bullard himself has ...
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This is not a one-off novelty outing for banjoist John Bullard, who has recorded classical music on the banjo before. And the combination is feasible: the banjo, and its bluegrass compatriot the mandolin, had a large and almost completely vanished presence in American parlor music on either side of the year 1900, playing music that was not necessarily intended for the symphony hall, but was not bluegrass, old-time music, or music for the minstrel show. That repertoire is well worth discovering, and Bullard himself has played Renaissance pieces on the banjo to delightful effect. The Baroque fare by Handel, Bach, and others on the release is less successful, although banjo experimentalists such as those who follow the innovative Canadian genre-crosser Jayme Stone, who produced this album, will doubtless enjoy it. Baroque music thrives on clear terraces of sound, but the appeal of the banjo's sound is precisely that it contains a lot of information extraneous to the exact pitch of the note played. There...
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