First Recording Session of New Film!
Three songs, three gourd banjos, one hell of an artist
Sule Greg Wilson, M.A., is a banjo historian, artist, storyteller, and enthusiastic partner. On a four-string banjo, he plays an interpretation of what Jump Jim Crow may have sounded like before it was appropriated by white supremacist minstrel shows.
Dan flew to Tempe, Arizona, to meet and work with Sule Greg Wilson, who came to us through the Black Banjo Reclamation Project. We asked them if they knew a gourd banjoist who could play a respectful rendition of “Jump Jim Crow,” the song that started the decades-long nightmare, and they said something like “Heck yeah.”
Sule brought three gourd banjos and a roomful of percussion instruments—many made with gourds— to lay down three songs at Three Leaf Recording in Phoenix:
Jump Jim Crow, an African American song that was appropriated by a White man and converted into a racist minstrel show routine. The routine became a stereotype for all Black men and is where the name for Jim Crow laws came from.
John Henry is an American folk classic written by a Black songster during Reconstruction who was exercising the newfound freedom of expression.
The Ballad of Mr. Plessy is a brand-new original song by Sule for this project. The song celebrates Mr. Homer Plessy, who pushed the rock into a White-only first-class section of a train in New Orleans, forcing the lawsuit that the Supreme Court wrongly decided, ushering in almost 60 years of “separate but equal.”
The songs are still being mixed, so you’ll have to sit tight for a little while before you can hear them.
Three gourd banjos for three important pieces of American history. The banjo of the left has a wood top, like a guitar, and was used on The Ballad of Mr. Plessy. The banjo in the center was made by Sule as part of the Black Banjo Reclamation Project and was used on John Henry. The banjo at right was used on Jump Jim, Crow
