Craig Duncan is a Nashville fiddler and multi-instrumentalist. Craig is recognized internationally for his many books and arrangements published by Mel Bay. This is his Mel Bay Artist Interview with Erica Cantrell. He also teaches a Mel Bay Pro Lick.
www.melbay.com –
www.craigduncan.com

Bob Wills played this this version of Cotton Eyed Joe on the 1947 recording with his band, The Texas Playboys. Louis Tierney played harmony, which is not transcribed. See Howard Marshall’s essay on this tune, elsewhere in this issue.
This is related to the commercially successful Cotton Eyed Joe of the Urban Cowboy fad, but the latter is in the key of A and has two strains of four measures apiece. Here’s an example of what that tune spawned – the hit recording and line dance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9VMZBgKO_s&feature=related
This transcription is taken from the …

by Cookie Segelstein
 
One of the forms in klezmer music that uses the character of MISHEBEYRAKH (the mode covered in the previous article) is the doina . Here is an explanation of Doina from the introduction by Joshua Horowitz of Kale Bazetsns and Doinas, by Cookie Segelstein and Joshua Horowitz*:
Doina is the Romanian term used to denote families of both vocal and instrumental pieces with a recitative character. There exist countless thousands of doinas throughout all the states of Romania, some of which show specific regional characteristics, while others are shared …

“Boil the Cabbage Down” first position fingering pattern (2^nd finger close to 3^rd finger, typical beginner’s pattern). Tonic note is an open string (e.g., A, in Boil the Cabbage). This position is typically taught to beginners without regard to staying in a single key across the instrument. So, you get a major scale if you start on the G string 0123 and then go to the D string 0123 (G scale). You get the D scale by starting on the D string 0123 and going to the A string 0123 and the A scale is A:0123 E:0123. However, if you wanted to play a second octave of any of these scales, you would use a different finger pattern. This chart represents the beginner finger pattern, then, rather than proper notes for a particular scale.

by Howard Marshall
In a section on couple dances in my forthcoming book on the history of fiddling in Missouri, the Cotton-Eyed Joe dance and tune became a focus of interest. The following essay is offered to readers for discussion. Readers are encouraged to contact me by email at MarshallH@Missouri.Edu with corrections and ideas for improvement. 
Relatively few people have seen dancers perform a schottische or varsouvienne, even if they remain favorites at old-time country dances. Today, no couple step dance is better known than the Cotton-Eyed Joe – a dance that …

by Anthony Barnett
SP: Any comments on the divide between the stylistic approaches of the Grappelli and Stuff Smith and their respective statuses both in the jazz world and among music fans that are not jazz aficionados? Where does the Manouche/French Gypsy violin style stand in your concept of the jazz world?
AB: Let’s talk, as we have long promised ourselves, about the Hot Club of Robinson County. It may well be the best Hot Club there is. Why? Because, as we know, it doesn’t exist. There is no Robinson County. That …

by Carolyn Osborne 
Years ago I got to watch my favorite classical violinist, Itzhak Perlman, play the fiddle music of his Jewish heritage, klezmer.  He’s an amazing player, of course, having mastered the hardest classical violin music there is.  But what really struck me as I watched him play with the other klezmer fiddlers is that while all the players were facile in first and third positions, Perlman was equally at home in the stratosphere of the fiddle.  Watching Perlman made me realize how important knowing how to shift and …

by Cookie Segelstein
In our last article we spoke about the one of the most recognizably Jewish modes,  Freygish. Now I would like to talk about the mode Mishebeyrakh, which (like Ahava Rabboh, the alternate name for Freygish)  is named after a prayer with the musical elements of the mode in the Jewish synagogue liturgy.
Before we start with some musical examples, here is the mishebeyrakh mode. In this example we are using D as the tonic. The motives listed underneath the mode are typical examples of when a note’s position (in …

By Tim Woodbridge
As described in the previous installment, when Don Messer was 16 he went to Boston, where his Aunt Mary ran a boarding house.  According to biographer Johanna Bertin, he did well for himself, eventually becoming an assistant manager of a store in the Woolworths chain, with prospects of assignment to a store of his own.  On the other hand, his long working hours made for a lonely existence, and Bertin notes, his work visa was running out and he would soon be faced with deciding whether to seek …

by Anthony Barnett
SP: More generally, speak to misunderstandings of jazz violin exhibited by the jazz community and/or violinists.
AB: That is a big question. I am tempted to answer that things are much better but I am often given cause to wonder.
For example, 2009 saw, to my knowledge, three centenary celebrations of Stuff Smith: one in The Strad by classical violin guru Tully Potter (in-depth and in many ways excellent), one in Strings (largely sounding out other violinists), and an hour on the BBC in which the host, a well-known jazz …