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New York Banjo Player Makes History
Chris Pandolfi is a 22 year old modern bluegrass banjo player from
Briarcliff, New York (Westchester County) who just graduated (2001)from Dartmouth College.
His senior project at Dartmouth was a well received concert of his original banjo
compositions accompanied by various friends and mentors. What makes this young New Yorker especially interesting is that he is the first
person to be accepted with banjo as their principal instrument (fall , 2001)to the Berklee School of Music in Boston in their diploma program!
1. Chris, when and where you born and where did you grow up?
I was born and raised in Briarcliff, NY, about an hour north of the city.
2. When did you start on the banjo and What got you interested in the banjo?
I started playing banjo when I was eighteen, just after graduating from high school. My older brother,
Jono, was a bass player, and I was never that excited about music until he started exposing me to some different stuff that I thought was cool. Jono deserves a lot of the credit for getting me into music and the banjo. He introcuced me to Bela Fleck and the Flecktones when I was 16, and over the next two years I saw them play almost 20 times. I'd never heard, or really even heard of, bluegrass music, but I was totally captivated by Bela's banjo playing as well as the collective creativity of the band. I begged my parents to buy me a banjo, but they thought my musical ambition wouldn't last. Finally, they bought me one as a graduation present from high school. That summer I went to Montana to work on a ranch. I bought Pete Wernick's book, 'Bluegrass Banjo,' and got completely addicted. I had very little direction, but I just started playing all the time.
3. What was you first musical instrument?
I took piano lessons for a few years when I was younger but never got too excited about it. I stopped taking lessons and pretty much dropped it when I was 13 or 14, playing very rarely. Only lately, as I have been studying theory pretty seriously, have I come back to it. I take for granted all that I learned from my experience with the piano.
4. Who are your favorite/ most influential musicians or groups?
Bela is far and away my biggest inspiration. I would have never discovered the banjo without discovering the
Flecktones. And beyond just getting me into the instrument, Bela's playing has really shaped the way I think about the banjo, and about music in general. He really sets an amazing standard for creativity and
tequnique, and those have to be my two biggest goals. Bela got me into the banjo and the banjo got me into bluegrass and acoustic music. Since then I have discovered some other great banjo players who have really influenced my playing. Tony Trischka has been a huge inspiration. He's a banjo player's banjo player, always thinking up such innovative things to do with the instrument. Alison Brown, Craig Smith and Tony Furtado also come to mind. They are all very technical, but also incredibly tasteful musicians.
I am also really influenced by many non-banjo players within the acoustic world. Matt Flinner is a huge inspiration. He is an amazing song-writer, and plays the most unique stuff. Chris
Thile, David Grier, Stuart Duncan and Edgar Meyer are also favorites of mine. They are all players who have that amazing combination of creativity, techinque and taste. I also listen to lots of music outside the bluegrass/acoustic realm. I love Frank
Zappa, Medeski, Martin and Wood, Steely Dan, Bill Evans and John Scofield. I think it's really important to listen to non-banjo music as a banjo player. It keeps me thinking of new stuff all the time.
5. Who have you studied with? How has that affected your playing?
Tom Hanway was my first teacher, and he has always been very encouraging and supportive. I have studied on and off with Tony Trischka for last few years. Tony is an amazing asset to my playing. He really made me understand just how creative you can be with the banjo. Audiences have not heard half the genius stuff he has done with the banjo. Tony has few limitations, his playing is very uninhibited, and he always tried to get me to think that way. I also took a few semesters off from Dartmouth and went out to California to study with Bill Evans. Bill was an invaluable mentor to me. He really whipped my technique into shape, and helped me appreciate and understand a few things that every banjo player should know. Bill has amazing insight into the finer points of Scruggs-style playing, as well as the bigger picture of music. Bill is a good friend and a very supportive teacher.
5. How did you get hooked up with Berklee? What kind of a program is
it, What is expected of you, etc?
Once I got serious about music in college, I decided I wanted to study the banjo in a larger musical context. Tony Trischka recommended
Berklee, and Matt Glaser, chair of the strings department at Berklee and a good friend of Tony's, helped me get in. Banjo was not a recognized principal instrument, but they accepted my application in the guitar department, and now I am a banjo principal. I study with guitar teachers and do almost everything that the guitar principals do, usually putting some sort of banjo-spin on it. Aside from the limitations of the banjo's range, there's no reason I can't do everything a guitarist can do, and in some cases I can do more. I'm studying jazz mostly, and it's quite a process compared to learning
Foggy Mountain Breakdown. I am a performance major in the diploma program, a 2-4 year program that focuses on essential
techinques, understanding of music, and also fostering individual taste in music. I'm working on lots of chord theory and arpeggios right now. The goal is to digest all this theory, and re-interpret it through my own ideas on the banjo, creating sounds and lines that banjo players wouldn't normally think to play.
6. What is your future with the banjo?
My biggest goal is to continue to improve and do new things with the banjo. Right now I am living in Boston, studying, practicing, writing and playing with a few great bands. I hope to get a solid group together to play original music, make records and get my music out there. It's not the easiest goal in the world, but it's one that I am pretty
committed to. I love performing, and the collaborative creativity of playing with great musicians. I hope to share my music with as many people as possible (or whoever is willing to listen).