No, Pete, this is an old one which I had loaned to a student, and just got back. The new one is for a Bach project. An American publisher, Mel Bay, has decided to publish my arrangements of Bach's first three cello suites for tenor banjo - that might sound totally weird, but Bach's music has been arranged for most instruments at some time. And these days, music editions sell 50 times better if they have a CD with them. So...
One suite will be with a standard tenor banjo - already recorded:
[video=youtube_share;c2fTQsUVS44]http://youtu.be/c2fTQsUVS44[/video]
A second will be with a cello banjo - a large banjo way down at cello pitch, and tuned the same way as a cello (this will be the new banjo).
The third will be with a rather strange instrument - a tenor banjo made with a dried gourd for the body. This is the type negro slaves played on Southern plantations:
It's an interesting project. The makers of the cello banjo, Gold Tone, have agreed an Artist Endorsement deal with me, which reduces the price considerably. And the maker of the gourd banjo just wants to make it for me to play - which is an honour for me. Looking forward to getting stuck in...
These are not easy pieces, and I'd just got out of bed, had a shower, hit the record button. Sometimes you just have to play, so excuse the little mistakes here and there!
