"HAITI BANZA STYLE"

In 2003 an early Banjo finally turned up which was clearly akin to some of the earliest banjos made in North America by African American Slaves. The Haiti Banza was collected in 1840, by an Abolitionist in
Haiti. Until now it has gone unnoticed in the collection of the Musee de la Musique, Paris. The Banza was rediscovered when Saskia Willeart, of the Musical Instrument Museum, Brussels, was searching for material for her museum's Banjo! exhibit. As soon as word of the Haiti Banza got to me, I made plans to travel to Europe to see it. I measured and photographed the Banza inside and out. The Haiti Banza is so important that I have faithfully reproduced it, down to the finest measurements and copied every stray tool mark, as well as every stain or scratch on
the instrument. Even these seemingly accidental marks could add something significant to the still scarce evidence about the earliest banjos of the Americas. The reproductions of it I've made thus far are all in a "just before collected" state. I've recreated the missing bridge, nut and left off the original collectors notes, written on the instruments head. I've also not reproduced the extensive cracking to
the gourd.

One of the most interesting things about the Haiti Banza is it's close resemblance to the banjos illustrated by Sloan as well as the banjo in the "Old Plantation" painting. They are clearly all part of the same New World, gourd banjo tradition. Especially pleasing to me is the fact that my interpretation of those images, which I'd been making for years before the discovery of the Haiti Banza, are so similar to it. In a sense a hypothesis suggested by my reproductions is now proven. The resemblance is so close in fact, that while the Haiti Banza was sitting next to one of my reconstructions of the Old Plantation banjo in Brussels Musical Instrument Museum, Mia Awouters, the museums director said to me, "What you've done here, is remarkable."

NOTES ON PRODUCTION