…and all his Blue Grass Boys. One particular edition in particular.
Despite an early professional career taking the banjo to its furthest stylistic limits, ace picker Tony Trischka in more recent years has dedicated his efforts to recreating the music of the great Earl Scruggs, who almost singlehandedly gave us the vocabulary used to play the instrument in the modern age. After receiving a recording of some casual jam sessions of Earl with John Hartford and others, Tony lit upon the idea to learn all the solos that Scruggs played on the tape, and record them again with contemporary players.
The resulting projects, Earl Jam and Earl Jam 2, have proved to be quite popular, and have formed the basis for most of Trischka’s shows this past few years.
But now he is turning his artistic vision to Bill Monroe, at least for one special show next month at Cafe Wha?, located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. It’s Tony’s tribute to a special night from his youth, in 1966 to be exact, when he journeyed to see Bill Monroe perform in the Village.
A teen-aged Trischka got to see Bill and the Blue Grass Boys for two nights at the Gaslight Cafe, a then-famous basement coffee house, no longer in operation. Monroe was carrying a fine group at the time: Lamar Grier on banjo, Richard Greene on fiddle, James Monroe on bass, and Peter Rowan on guitar. Tony still thinks of them as one of the great bands Bill carried on the road.
On November 23, Trischka will present Memories of Bill Monroe: Gaslight, ’66! Live at Cafe Wha?, during which he will perform their same set list of material in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the time he saw Big Mon in person. An all-star group has been assembled to join Tony on banjo: Alex Hargreaves on fiddle, Michael Daves on guitar, Jacob Jolliff on mandolin, and Jared Engel on bass.
Tickets are available online for this special show, which given its location and Monday night setting, may be of interest mostly to New Yorkers and those in the general vicinity, but it should certainly be a night to remember.
Will this be Tony’s next pursuit of the past? We’ll have to wait and see.
