Banjoist and author Dave Frey has been playing plectrum banjo for over 30 years. During that time, he professionally recorded over 300 tunes with nine different bands making him one of the more prolific banjoists performing today. Dave is also a banjo instructor at the International Banjo College in Guthrie, Oklahoma. He is experienced in playing both the banjo band and Dixieland/traditional jazz styles of the instrument and is listed in K.O. Eckland's book Jazz West 2, a history of traditional jazz performers in the western United States.

Sue Sangiacomo, a writer and editor of training manuals for a number of Fortune 500 companies, became a dedicated plectrum banjo player in 1994. Until then she had played five-string bluegrass style banjo. Sue's desire to play what she calls "Riverboat Banjo" -- specifically, the tune "Waiting For The Robert E. Lee" -- turned her toward the plectrum banjo. She began taking lessons from Dave Frey.

The resulting collaboration between professional and student has yielded one of the most talented writing teams on the four-string banjo scene today.   More about the authors.

Harry Reser began with the five string banjo, then the plectrum and finally with the tenor.  In the 20's Novelty ragtime was very popular and Reser challenged the piano masters by composing equally difficult ragtime solos.   He composed twenty-three original compositions for the tenor banjo of which ten were novelty rags.
  Harry Reser spent a lot of time in the recording studios and recorded under numerous pseudonyms.
    In 1925 He began a ten year association with the Clicquot Club Company appearing on radio with his Eskimo band.  During the 30's he traveled extensively around the world.

Excerpted From:  Four String Banjo Hall of Fame

http://www.banjomuseum.org

Don Van Palta, Performance Hall of Fame 2000

Don Van Palta’s earliest childhood memory was of his father playing tenor banjo while singing him to sleep. It was an influence that marked the course of his future life. The "Flying Dutchman" spent his early years in occupied Holland during World War II. He first taught himself to play the ukelele, but after seeing a British film starring comedian banjoist George Formby, he was taken "hook, line and sinker" by the banjo.

He immigrated to the United States with his mother, and settled in Sacramento. It was there that he purchased his first tenor banjo from a pawn shop. Some of his fellow students invited him to join a Dixieland band they were forming, because they needed a banjo player and knew he had one. He had tuned his tenor banjo guitar style, but when someone told him he should tune it properly, he did and learned tenor banjo chords.

Thus began his inernational career as entertainer and banjoist.

Don Van Palta has developed a series of instructional tapes to help young banjoists become productive players. He is respected as a teacher and performer and continues to entertain as "The Flying Dutchman."

 Excerpted From:  Four String Banjo Hall of Fame

http://www.banjomuseum.org/contact_about/hof/don_van_palta.asp

Musician and Band Leader, DAVID “SHEIK” LITTLEFIELD, organized his first band in 1977, and has been a band leader since then. Playing music eventually became his second career.

 

He has been collecting music and making lead sheets for his bands since the beginning of his music career.  He made chord books for his own use and has been refining the format to increase readability and quick response for 25 years.  His Chord and Fake Books are some of the most popular in use today.

 

His Bands

·          Sultans of Swing

·          Sheiks of Dixie

·          White Lightnin' Washboard Band

·          Red Herring Motel Orchestra

·          Charleston Sheiks Orchestra

        Sultans Big Band 

 

 

Following a recent performance by TIM ALLAN, a Toronto music critic, well known for his less than kind critiques, turned the tables and flatly stated: "I know of no musician today who possesses a broader repertoire or who uses his musical knowledge to better advantage. From country to classics, Tim Allan's work is extraordinary."

Inducted into the Four-String Banjo Hall of Fame in 2002, Tim was also twice North American Banjo champion. He performed for 14 years on television's popular Tommy Hunter Show, appearing weekly with such headliners as Reba McIntyre, Garth Brooks, and Shania Twain. As well, Tim has entertained several dignitaries including Canada's former prime minister, Pierre Trudeau.

With a natural proficiency on guitar, banjo, and mandolin, as well as his smooth baritone vocals in a seemingly inexhaustible supply of popular standards, Tim has enjoyed engagements at top hotels and concert venues around the world.

As a regular contributing editor to the FIGA (Fretted Instrument Guild of America) magazine, Tim is well known in the banjo community and has sold his recordings and instruction books world-wide.

  From concerts to cruises, from clubs to conventions, the music of Tim Allan will appeal to any audience.

 

    JIM RILEY was born in 1935.  He missed the Jazz Age, but was lucky enough to experience the joys of the Depression while growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, where ethnic neighborhoods produced street corner taverns resounding with music.  He attended the University of Baltimore and was an administrative manager with the federal government.  Now retired, he teaches banjo and performs on tours and at jazz festivals with a well known Dixieland jazz band, The Rent Party Revellers.  He is a founding member of the Bayside Banjo Aggregation.

     Riley's Routines for Better Banjo makes the assumption that you already play either tenor or plectrum banjo, and desire to move beyond your current playing level.  For that reason, it does not purport to teach you fundamentals.  It endeavors to illuminate problems that cause learning blockage and offers ideas for getting around the roadblocks.

 

 

Scott Whitfield is a full-time professional banjoist and educator.  He makes approximately 500 appearances yearly.  He has a Bachelor of Music degree from Midwestern State University with a major in theory and composition and a minor in clarinet.

 

Scott taught himself to play the banjo at age 11 and began giving lessons at 15.  He began playing professionally full time at age 17.  Scott has four recordings selling internationally, and teaches approximately 30 students weekly.  His students include professional educators, music directors, as well as professional players for regional and international performers.  Scott's student have gone on to perform with pro's such as the Dixie Chicks and Maynard Ferguson.  Most of Scott's students are kids and adults who just play for fun.

  

Dix Bruce, a musician, composer, and writer from the San Francisco Bay Area, was born and raised in the Midwest. His interest in American folk music, jazz, and original composition are blended into a unique vocal and instrumental sound. His compositions are fresh and his energetic, exuberant stage personality, along with his driving rhythm and lead work, set the tone for a warm and exciting performance.

 

He began playing guitar at age twelve. After college, he relocated to the Bay Area where his interest in hybrid acoustic string music led him to David Grisman's prototype quintet in the mid-1970's. Bruce eventually teamed up with the mandolinist and edited the magazine Mandolin World News from 1978 until 1984.

 

In 1978 Bruce formed the band Back Up and Push to explore the emerging possibilities of swing and jazz on acoustic stringed instruments. The band toured the west coast throughout the 1980s and accompanied Bruce on his release of Tuxedo Blues, which features many of his original instrumental and vocal compositions.

 

He currently plays guitar and banjo in "The Royal Society Jazz Orchestra," a 10-piece big band which performs traditional jazz from the 1920s and 1930s. He continues to perform with several other grups in the Bay Area, write music, and record, and has been a frequent contributor to "Frets," "FIGA," and "Bluegrass Unlimited."

 

 

 

DON STEVISON, a well-known Ohio based musician, has created an entire collection of banjo literature, including instruction books, fake books, and banjo reference books  Together, they cover an enormous span of banjo subject matter, from various  4-string banjo instruction, to chord encyclopedias, to vintage banjo identification.  

Don considers his books ongoing works in progress.  He produces  each book in a lay-flat, 3-ring, loose-leaf notebook format, which allows him to update them regularly with useful information he continually acquires.

Don plays lead banjo for the Kettering Banjo Society and several dixieland groups in the Dayton, Ohio area.  Don is a past president of the Fretted Instrument Guild of America and serves on the board of the National Four String Banjo Hall of Fame Museum.