Just saw a DVD by Martin Sorcese: ‘Feel Like Going Home.’
This is about the blues, its roots in America and
Africa.
One thing that it showed, which I never knew was here,
is that there is a tradition, probably from Africa,
and probably preserved through slavery and Jim
Crow, of making, and playing, flutes from cane.
This usually accompanied by drums. Some of the
last practitioners of this art are shown on
the DVD.
Also there were pan pipes played, even today,
by folk in the deep south, again probably
going back to Africa.
About 20 some years ago Fred Rogers had a guest on his show ( Mr. Rogers Neighborhood ), a very old black gentleman from the south along with his daughter. He played a 6 holed whistle he made himself from a turkey bone. His daughter played a goat skin frame drum very similair to a bohdran. He had been making and playing these since childhood.
You know, some slave instruments, most notably the banjo,
have made it into a whole lot of mainstream American music.
I wonder why the flute andwhistle didn’t?
Maybe they just didn’t. The ‘cane’ music I heard on the
Sorcese DVD is more percussive than melodic, or so
it sounds on first hearing.
But flute/whistle goes wonderfully in bluegrass and country,
also blues, IMO. Not airy fairy Boehm flute but something
rougher and gutsier, like what we play. Wouldn’t it have
been neat if we grew up hearing it? Might have been.
One of the Public Radio shows did a spot on Otha Turner and southern fife/drum band traditions a while back…that was the first I’d heard of it, but it was very interesting.
No problem. Got lots of tar and feather remover,
buy it by the gallon.
I suppose if ever I had played seriously Boehm flutes
I might find a world of nuance and beauty. My ignorant
impression now, however, is that a good deal of what
makes flute beautiful has been lost in the process
of refining it into an instrument for the modern
orchestra. On our wooden simple system flutes, notes
have different timbre and color; tone seems homogeneous
on the Boehm by comparison. A bit like the difference
tween oranges when I was a kid, which had pits
and tasted wild, and the blander seedless things
into which they were refined.
I play in venues with country, blues, rock n roll, blue grass,
and so on, where I fit in just fine. Maybe a Boehm silver
flute would too, but I suspect our flutes sound better.
It’s a pity, IMO, that wooden flute never found its way into
a good deal of traditional American music. I wonder why.
It isn’t because it wouldn’t have served. Maybe the
instruments weren’t available to the musicians,
except the cane flutes we’re talking about.
I do hope this will change. You know the Dixie Chicks
have a whistler.
Does anyone know if any of this shows up on the many samplers of old-time rural music on Shanachie or if there are any books that deal with it?
Edited to note that the Otha Turner cuts are available on the e-Music.com download site, with which I’ve no connection (other than being a member and thinking it a good deal).
