Word: banjo
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...patriarch from another century, Monroe was one of those rare artists who sired a musical genre. In 1938 he formed his first band, calling it the Blue Grass Boys after his home state, Kentucky. The group soon took on the bluegrass configuration of mandolin, fiddle, guitar, bass and banjo, paired with the near-falsetto harmonies that Monroe called his "high, lonesome sound." Bluegrass lives on across the country, including at his own Bean Blossom festival in Indiana...
...material the full post-Armstrong treatment; simply put, he makes it swing. Even the famous opening--the skyward clarinet glissando--is given a new twist. Roberts instead starts the piece with what he calls "a series of improvised statements," the first being the forlorn sound of a single banjo. Gershwin's 1920s piano rolls have set a high standard for pianists to follow, but Roberts' performance on this CD adds some graceful verve. His fleet-fingered improvisations--constant, probing, thoughtful--provide color to an already multihued work without seeming merely ornamental. After hearing Roberts, we sense that there are many...
...behind Super Mario 64 is a shaggy-haired, banjo-playing Japanese artist who rides a bicycle to work, wears a Mickey Mouse tie and chills out by plucking bluegrass tunes on his Dobro guitar...
...European tour, which ends in London on March 18. In Madrid he needed a police escort to get in from the airport amid what El Mundo called Woodymania. In Barcelona more than 300 autograph seekers mobbed him at the stage entrance. "Woody's having a ball," says his banjo player and musical guru, Eddie Davis. "He's kind of stunned by the reaction. They're treating him like Elvis...
...less painful than winning an Oscar. But in the concert setting, he seems to enjoy it, peppering his comments with jokes and repartee. In Paris, much to the delight of the locals, he does all this in passable French. Midway through the show, he announces a series of clarinet-banjo duets. "The others have to rest their lips," he explains. "But not me. I'm very strong, because I live right. I eat well and sleep well." The audience howls with laughter...