"Serpentine": A Journey for the Tenor Banjo

Hey everyone, this is David Bandrowski, Director of Marketing at Deering Banjos. I just released a new record "Serpentine" which I am excited to share with yall. I am playing my custom Deering Sierra tenor banjo (features a Deering tubaphone tone ring) throughout (and also guitar on some tracks) where I take the tenor banjo to some styles and sounds that it is not traditionally known for. 

A little background on myself, I've been working for Deering as their Director of Marketing for the last 20 years but think of myself as a musician first. I grew up playing the 5-string banjo in New Orleans and the Boston area and returned to New Orleans to study jazz guitar in college. Through the the years I picked up the tenor banjo in the New Orleans jazz style. After Katrina I landed in San Diego for a few years and got hooked up with Deering at that time. 

I've always played and been a fan of a wide range of music: bluegrass, old time, trad jazz, more modern jazz, R&B, but always with New Orleans music of all kinds as my root. Through the years in New Orleans, the majority of my gigs would be on the tenor banjo in jazz trios. Most of the tunes called would be jazz standards and trad jazz standards, but there would always be New Orleans R&B tunes dropping in, whether it be Fats Domino, a Meters tune, a Mardi Gras tune, or whatever, the tenor banjo always worked well.  Sometimes a random 70's pop tune would be requested, and at times more modern jazz standards by John Coltrane or Miles Davis and such. Again, the tenor would always work. 

In 2022, I released a record, French Onion Superman, which was built around a trad jazz instrumentation – tenor banjo, three horns (trumpet, clarinet, trombone), upright bass, and drums – and featured some trad jazz standards, world music, and blues, but played with a feel that had energy influenced from blues and funk.

With "Serpentine," I wanted to continue on a similar path but lean much harder into the R&B and modern jazz fields. I continued with the tenor banjo, three horns, drums, and bass instrumentation, but this time, instead of clarinet on several tracks, you'll hear tenor saxophone or soprano saxophone as well as electric bass on half of the tracks, featuring the incredible Brian Quezergue, son of Wardell Quezergue, one of the architects of the classic New Orleans R&B sound. You'll also hear me playing electric guitar on some tracks in addition to the tenor banjo.

I've always felt, and I've heard the great tenor banjoist Don Vappie talk about how the tenor banjo would work well in a funk and R&B context. The tenor, with its quick decay, is similar to the scratch rhythmic playing of a rhythm guitar in funk music. You can hear what I mean on this record in our version of "Hook & Sling" by the New Orleans soul and funk pianist, Eddie Bo. You can also really hear this on the arrangement of the great New Orleans R&B guitarist Earl King's tune "Mama & Papa" or our arrangement of "Imitation of Love". A tune written by Doc Pomus, but with a fantastic version by the great New Orleans singer Johnny Adams.

Besides the R&B/funk rhythmic feel showcasing the tenor banjo, I also wanted to push the instrument into other places with more influence from modern improvisational music. The title track, "Serpentine," was inspired by the sounds I heard while living for a month in Madrid's diverse and culturally rich Lavapies district. My wife and I lived across from the neighborhood's primary plaza, a bustling gathering place where the music would transition throughout the day from Arabic and Indian to Senegalese sounds. Those sounds seeped into my playing as I practiced, and this 6/8 groove just stuck with me. Here, the main groove is laid down by the guitar and drums, but the tenor banjo improvises a single note line on top of that groove, while the sax blows on top of it all.

The song choices on "Serpentine" are quite varied, again leaning into that R&B feel. We tackled some classic New Orleans tunes like "Mama & Papa" and Eddie Bo's "Hook & Sling". We also took on "Rum & Coca Cola," which is traditionally a Calypso tune by Lord Invader, but in New Orleans, Professor Longhair's version is the source. It keeps that traditional jazz feel but with a more modern leaning.

On "Spoil With The Rest", originally a song written by Riley Walker that is more of an indie/Americana tune, by turning it into an instrumental tune, adding a horn arrangement by saxophonist/clarinetist Jason Mingledorff, and my Deering tenor banjo taking over the electric guitar part, it shows again another way the tenor banjo can be utilized and that a guitar isn't always needed.

Give "Serpentine" a listen and listen to the versatility of the tenor banjo. Listen to how it can be used beyond its traditional roles. It's not just for traditional jazz and Irish music. Try to imagine musical situations where you could use a tenor banjo to give any type of music a new and different color and texture. Too often we get stuck in our idea of what an instrument or playing style can be used for. Whatever instrument you have, try to imagine it in a style that it may not have been used much for. Continue to push your ideas and stereotypes of what can be done. It doesn't have to be "weird" and radical, but sometimes just a small shift in your idea one way or another can help develop something that feels natural but new.

An exciting part about the banjo and especially the tenor banjo is that there is still so much ground to cover! The guitar has been utilized in so many ways, but the banjo... there is still a huge open playing field to develop!

You can stream "Serpentine" on all the regular platforms. 

You can also find out more about me and my work at davidbandrowski.com or connect with me on Instagram. Thanks for your support!