Benny Hill Banjo

[Arridano Tillo]

Produced by Mark Delaney and Randy Barrett, both noted players in their own right, The Patuxent Banjo Project brings together 40 regional players from the Baltimore-Washington corridor, an area rich in bluegrass history and tradition.

More to the point, back in the mid-1940s, the entire area became a destination for the rural folks who lived in the Appalachian and Piedmont regions of the Virginias, Carolinas, and Tennessee. Attracted by job opportunities, the people brought the music from the hills with them.

Patuxent Music began back in 1995 when Mindte recorded fiddler Joe Meadows, who worked with the Stanley Brothers and Bill Monroe, and brought the record out himself the following year. Next up was a blues record in the Piedmont style and his catalog soon expanded to include jazz, old time, swing, and country. With string bands being his primary interest, he has focused both on musicians with long careers, such as members of the Stoneman family and Frank Wakefield, as well as the younger players. Nate Leath from Old School Freight Train has released a number of albums on Patuxent; his Rockville Pike album features a 16-year-old Sarah Jarosz and 14-year-old Tatiana Hargreaves.

The Patuxent Banjo Project, which led me down this path of discovery, is a two-disc set with 40 tracks and a 40-page booklet. Some of the Baltimore/Washington musicians you might already know include Bill Emerson, Eddie Adcock, Walt Hensley, Chris Warner, Tom Adams, Dick Smith, Keith Arneson, Murphy Henry, Kevin Church, Roni Stoneman, and Mike Munford. Richard Thompson (not that one, the other one) from Bluegrass Today breaks down what you can expect to hear.

Not only are there variations of three-finger banjo playing, old-time, there are two banjo/fiddle duets, a classical piece and a couple of twin banjo numbers, one of which features cello-banjo. All of which adds up to a major audio documentation of a versatile instrument.

He was born August 11, 1958 in Minneapolis; the third child born to Kermit and Marian (Larson) Bendickson. He spent his early years in Hopkins, Minnesota before the family settled in Minneapolis, first on Nicollet Island, then North Minneapolis where he resided for most of his life. He attended four elementary schools, Holmes, Marcy, Grant and Bethune. He attended Jordan Middle School and North High School. At North, he was active in gymnastics until a heart murmur forced him to stop, although he managed to "borrow" a gymnastics horse and gym mats that occupied his bedroom for several months on which he and friends did their routines. He still practiced gymnastic moves and often walked through the house on his hands.

Caution was not a word in his vocabulary, and he was always looking for a new adventure. He did river jumping from a bridge crossing the Mississippi River with a teacher who was active in the sport (not an activity endorsed by the school, of course). As soon as he was able, he purchased a motorcycle and spent hours riding it, especially on the hills near the river in the Camden area. That area of Minneapolis was a favorite place of his where he could fish, ride his motorcycle, party with friends, and explore the many abandoned buildings and fenced in areas where there was usually some gap for entry.

He held a variety of jobs, often working long enough to save up a few dollars, then he'd quit to pursue his own interests until money grew short. One of his true passions was music and he was a talented musician, teaching himself to play several instruments including the guitar, banjo, violin, harmonica and bongos.

For several years, he and two friends had a clown act and they performed at parties and events. Sunny, with his bright yellow hair and colorful clothing, entertained both children and adults. For a short time, he continued the act as a solo venture.

He eventually attended school to get his CDL certification and spent several years driving trucks, both locally and long distance. It was a perfect job for him, with his independent nature and his love of experiencing new things. It was a career he enjoyed and longed to return to.

Don is survived by his siblings Alice Countryman of Crystal, Shirley Bendickson of Albuquerque, New Mexico, David Bendickson (Katie Moynagh) of Minneapolis, Sandra Bendickson (Mike Marvin) of Cedar; sister-in-law Donna Bendickson of Crystal; nieces and nephews Jennifer, James, Joan, Amanda, Adam, Thomas; great-niece and great-nephews Jaylen, Kendall, Ethan, Tobias and Kingston.

A memorial service for Don: 2 PM; Saturday, November 11, 2023 with a time for family and friends to gather planned for one hour prior to the service all at the Olson Funeral Chapel in Rush City. The inurnment will take place in the First Lutheran Cemetery, Rush City.

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. We have a great, entertaining show for you as you head into the holiday weekend. Trumpeter Jon-Erik Kellso and guitarist Matt Munisteri are going to play and talk about the music they make and their band, The EarRegulars - that's E-A-R Regulars. They perform jazz mostly from the '20s through the '40s, and they have a new live album. They spoke with FRESH AIR producer Sam Briger. Here's Sam.

SAM BRIGER, BYLINE: Sunday nights I find myself feeling jealous of New Yorkers. That's because every Sunday night at a small, old bar in the West Village called the Ear Inn, you can hear some really amazing music. Vibrant and vital jazz, even though some of the repertoire is 100 years old. The band, The EarRegulars, was founded by our guests Jon-Erik Kellso and Matt Munisteri and is led by Kellso. The band is usually a four-piece combo with friends sitting in. They set up in the corner of the Ear Inn and pass the hat at the set break, which is kind of remarkable considering that these are some of the best jazz musicians around. I first heard The EarRegulars on YouTube, where their weekly concerts have been pretty well documented, and I used to visit those videos during the pandemic when I needed a pick-me-up because when you listen to this band, you can't help but smile.

The EarRegulars have just put out their first live album. It's called "Live At The Ear Inn," and with the sound of the bar crowd in the background, you can close your eyes and almost believe you're there. Jon-Erik Kellso and Matt Munisteri founded The EarRegulars in 2007, but that band is just one of the many credits to their names. They've both recorded albums under their own names and with their own bands and appear on countless artists albums. They are first call session musicians whenever someone is recording any sort of traditional jazz and other genres of music. They were kind enough to bring their instruments today for our conversation. But before we get to that, let's hear a track from their new album. This is "I Double Dare You," first recorded by Woody Herman in 1937.

BRIGER: That's the song "I Double Dare You" from The EarRegulars' new album "Live At The Ear Inn." our guests are the founding members of the band, Jon-Erik Kellso and Matt Munisteri. Welcome to FRESH AIR.

JON-ERIK KELLSO: Well, I've wanted to do a live album really since we started the gig there, but I've always been a little concerned that it might be too loud in there at times to do a live album, but, you know, sometimes it's - you can hear a pin drop and sometimes, you know, we have some people that go there just because it's a bar and they act like people in a bar. That's my little mantra I tell myself if I start to get upset about it being noisy.

MUNISTERI: And we thought that when we used to play there late nights, you know, and there would be no one in the place and it was just - the room sounds good. It's wood and a lot of knickknacks and I guess beer-soaked floorboards.

KELLSO: Apparently, yeah. Also, just the idea of doing a live album with this band, it was appealing because of the energy that we generate there as far as the spontaneity in this group. It's hard to recreate that in a studio setting. You know, you kind of can, but it's not the same as just, you know, the actual bouncing off of each other as we do at The Ear.

BRIGER: Well, I'd like to ask you to do a song. You said that you would do "No One Else But You," which is on the - it's the third track of the album. What can you tell us about the song before you play us it?

KELLSO: It was originally played by Louis Armstrong, and it's written by Don Redman, who was a well-known arranger and bandleader and composer in those early days. And later on, it was played by one of our heroes, Ruby Braff, and another hero, George Barnes, on guitar with their - they had a great quartet, and we kind of borrow from - mostly from their version of it as far as just the format.

BRIGER: OK. Well, we're going to hear "No One Else But You" with my guests guitarist Matt Munisteri and trumpeter Jon-Erik Kellso. And they also play this on their new album, "Live At The Ear Inn" with their band, The EarRegulars. So let's hear it.

BRIGER: That was great. That was the song "No One Else But You" from Jon-Erik Kellso on trumpet and Matt Munisteri on guitar. That's on their album with their band, The EarRegulars. The new album is called "Live At The Ear Inn." When I was listening to that, there was a point in the song where, Jon, you were doing this, like, descending line, and Matt, you played chords that sort of descended along with them. Did you know he was going to do that, or did you just hear it in the moment and follow along?

MUNISTERI: Yes, I knew. I wish - this is - I feel like this is asking a magician how he does his tricks. We don't really have very many arrangements. But this is - it's sort of the melody of the tune, and it's also taken, as Jon said, largely - on that arrangement, we were really borrowing from our two heroes Ruby Braff and George Barnes' version.

KELLSO: Well, he didn't really - he wasn't trying to teach me anything specifically about how to play the trumpet. And, you know, he would sit down at the piano. He was actually a pretty decent piano player for a cornet player. And he would say - hey, do you know this song? - and start to play something. And I'd say, no. And he says, good, I'm going to teach it to you right now. So he would show me songs, and he would show me chords that he figured out from some of the masters, like Teddy Wilson. He'd say, I finally figured out what Teddy Wilson is doing on the bridge to "Sweet Lorraine," and he'd show it to me. So he taught me in those kind of ways. And mostly, we were just - hung out, and I listened to him tell his great anecdotes and, you know - just a lot of fun.

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