The release of this new CD shows that Black banjo is not just a tradition of the past to be honored or revived, but a living form of Black expression for now and the future. The Black Banjoists on this CD Otis Taylor, Guy Davis, Corey Harris, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Keb' Mo' and Don Vappie - are an impressive array of GRAMMY Awards, Handy Awards, Blues Music Awards, a MacArthur Fellowship and numerous other accolades. At Black banjo we have long been in the vanguard of this resurgents of African American banjo playing.

"The banjo has become so closely associated with folk singers and bluegrass players," says Taylor. "Over the years, the instrument just lost touch with its roots, and I'm just trying to re-establish that connection."

We aim to reunite the African musics with the African American string band music they inspired, to bring traditional Black string music back home to the Black community, to showcase it for the world, to privilege Black voices and Black ownership of this music.

Sule Greg Wilson explained what we represent in these words:

Since banjo is a New World version of multiple African antecedents, it is a multi-ethnic African instrument. Therefore, playing styles, be they stroke, rappin', thumb-lead, up-pickin', Murphy Gribble-type three-finger rolls, or whatever, must be considered part of the African tradition. Hence, mention of the "African influences" in banjo playing and history starts from a false supposition that the thing ain't All-African to begin with.

* We can talk about Euro-influences with cheese boxes (has that been proven to be a Euro-American adaptation?) Euro-style necks, racist lyric content and Irish melody lines and rhythm structure, and the like. All these aspects are just grafts onto an already-existing tree. Tie an apple branch on a peach, the tree ain't gonna turn apple. It's gonna stay fuzzy, juicy fruit. And I love the taste.