In the late 1950’s, a young trumpet player in a Dixieland jazz band also performed on tenor banjo during gigs in the northeastern college circuit. He and his band were featured in a 1958 magazine article about a NYC jazz fest (see him in clipping).
With the dawn of the folk music revival, this multi-talented musician became interested in the bluegrass 5 string cousin of the tenor banjo. He rigged a 5th string on his tenor instrument to adapt it to either style on the bandstand, as he had visions of bursting into the middle of an up-tempo Dixieland jazz tune with an explosive solo from a Scruggs style banjo. His dreams of merging these two disparate genres lapsed when he became preoccupied with medical school studies.
His visionary aspirations came to realization, however, more than half a century later when Del McCoury and his bluegrass band released an album jointly recorded with New Orleans` world famous Preservation Hall Jazz Band. To this day, the trumpet player (pictured wearing a BRC T-shirt) remains an inveterate fan of banjos, jazz, and fine wine.
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