About

Virtuoso banjoist Aaron Jonah Lewis takes audiences on a journey through the back roads of classic and ragtime banjo. Lewis explores interesting veins in the roots of Old Time, Bluegrass, Ragtime and Jazz music through their newest recording, “Mozart of the Banjo: The Joe Morley Project.” This project is devoted to the music of the great English prodigy and virtuoso composer Joe Morley (1867-1937), who wrote a significant body of great banjo pieces in a technique that people today call “classic fingerstyle.”

Greg Adams, Archivist at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, says, “Lewis is one of the few performing musicians with the facility to build compelling musical bridges between the printed banjo music and techniques of the 19th century and the instrument’s journey into recorded sound by the turn of the 20th century.”

Music

Classic banjo music was the most popular music in the US and UK from the middle of the 19th century until around the 1920s. Repertoire includes classic and novelty rags, waltzes, marches, concert polkas, banjo arrangements of classical pieces and more from US and UK composers.

Rachmaninoff Prelude - arr. Emile Grimshaw
Progressions - Frank Lawes
Grace and Beauty - James Scott, arr. FVE
Temptation Rag - Henry Lodge
Queen of the Burlesque - Arthur Tilley
Mauna Loa - Joe Morley
Ad Astra - Joe Morley
Egyptian Princess - Joe Morley
Palladium Rag- Joe Morley
Clematis Waltz - Joe Morley
Frog Legs Rag - James Scott
El Contrabandista - Joe Morley
Prelude Opus 28 No. 20 - Frederic Chopin
Seaside Schottische - Farr Brothers
Nuts and Wine - Morley
Tell Me Pretty Maiden - Leslie Stuart
The Smiler - Percy Wenrich
Maple Leaf Rag
The Mocking Bird - Richard Milburn, arr. Parke Hunter
Russian Rag - George L. Cobb
Keynotes Rag - Morley
Pearl of the harem - Harry P. Guy

Videos

Audio

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