Dan Petrella keeping the plectrum banjo in style

When I first met Dan I was over- whelmed by all the talents he seemed to possess. A visit to his home in Carriage Park is like walking into a showroom full of handmade grandfather clocks, jukeboxes, and of course, banjos. There are photos of him around the world lindy hopping with his wife Maureen, playing banjo, and flying a biplane. Previously, I had just heard him play one of his handcrafted banjos and was amazed enough by that. Persimmons Bistro in Landrum has scheduled Dan to play with his Dixie Rhythm Aces on Wednesdays. So, to learn more about any of his other adventures, you may just have to catch him between sets at a local gig sometime. As for now, he's "retired" to Hendersonville to work full time on composing and performing while expanding his luthier business.

How did you get started making banjos?

I've always been a woodworker. My father was an old world cabinet maker in Italy. He came to the US in 1938 and after WWII became a pattern maker with auto companies. My grandfather too was a sculptor. Using crude old tools he sculpted marble. The stuff he would make out of that marble chipping away with chisels was amazing. As for myself, I've been making banjos now for about 15-20 years.

Why banjos?

I've played banjo since I was sixteen. My first instrument was violin in school and that's where I learned to read music. I bought a banjo in a pawn shop when I was sixteen. I wanted to play jazz banjo and got a five string and it took me a year to figure out that a jazz banjo is a four string instrument. There are three banjos. Plectrum is the lead jazz banjo that I play with 22 frets, tenor banjo is also four strings with only 19 frets, but both are jazz banjos. The tenor is more of a single string rhythm instrument. Plectrum is tuned great for playing chord melody style. Not that you couldn't do both on each, but chord melody is easier on plectrum.

What drew you to the banjo?

Banjo is a purely American instrument that was created here. It came as an invention from the slaves. The first ones were made from a gourd covered with pig skin and cat gut strings. They were developed because slaves would make them and play on Sundays for their day off.

Banjo went out of favor in 1930s. It was favored in the teens and twenties for Jazz bands because of the volume they could produce. With amplification and the ability to make the guitar loud, players moved to six strings. Eddie Condon started out on plectrum and then when big bands became popular he switched to a plectrum guitar that used the same tuning on a guitar body. Tenor banjo was replaced by tenor guitar. The banjo players stuck to four strings, but the six string guitar added the two nice bass strings and gave people more versatility, so it became the most popular. But people still like the sound of the banjo.

The people of Western North Carolina appear to be more open minded about the traditional styles of music. It's much more popular down here than the cities up north where rock and rap have taken over.

The 1960s saw a resurgence of banjo with chains like Shakey's pizza and "saloon style" restaurants playing banjo music. Of course banjo remains a favorite of the Trad Jazz bands. The original Trad or Dixieland line up is banjo, piano, and bass or tuba, with a front line of horns including trumpet, trombone, and clarinet.

How did you learn about Trad jazz enough to want to play it at 16?

The airport where I was going to flight school had a Dixieland band and needed a banjo player. All the pilots formed an airport band and I wanted to be a part of that and worked every day on chords so I could play along with them. We'd play once a week and jam, and it was really fun. That's how I got started back in the 60s. As I result I found out about Shakey's, Red Garters, and Your Father's Mustache chain restaurants where there were always peanut shells on the floor and Dixieland bands. My first professional gig when I was 18 was playing at the Red Garter restaurant in Detroit.

When I was in college for law school I played like crazy. I played at a bar pizzeria called Bimbos while I was going to school.

You mentioned before that you are from Detroit. What were you doing musically up there?

I played for many, many years at clubs around the Detroit area. I worked the cruise ships and played on every major line over the past twenty years. I practiced a lot and gave lessons.

How did you get started with cruise lines?

Back when I did it, I just sent a bunch of VHS tapes to the cruise lines and started subbing because I had a full time job as a prosecutor for Detroit/Wayne County. So, if somebody wanted a week off, I'd take a vacation and go play for a week on the ship. Now days, I think you need to have an agent, or be some headliner doing a feature show to be booked on the cruises. Normally you sign an 8-9 month contract and then stay home for three. My forte was that I was available as a substitute. I didn't really enjoy more than a week on the sea. I think the longest I ever did was ten days or two weeks. After a while it feels confining. But I've been on many of the lines including Carnival, Norwegian, and Holland America.

Where did the ships take you?

You go all over, mostly the Caribbean, but also Alaska, Hawaii, and the two week trip was to the Middle East. I've played on the Great Wall of China, the outback of Australia with the aborigines, Polynesia, Russia at the Kremlin, Leningrad, and at the Summer Palace in St. Petersburg. I can't think of a place I haven't been.

What place stands out?

Australia was my favorite. Traditional jazz is more popular in Australia. Also in Europe, particularly in the Scandinavian countries and Germany, it's more popular than ever, more so than in America.

I also played for the Republican national convention in 1980 when Regan was elected. That was a cool gig. It took place in Detroit and the advance team for the convention came in the club where I had a regular gig. I had to have FBI security clearance for that. I was a warm up act for Buddy Rich and his sixteen piece orchestra, and warm up for Phyllis Diller. I played private parties for Bob Dole and his wife during the convention. That was great. It was really cool.

Being a prosecutor I got a lot of gigs playing for the local politicians and other private parties like that.


What pulled you down to this area?

Joanne Domka pulled me down here. We were originally going to move to a six acre horse farm in Florida, but the weather and bugs were not to my liking. Joanne was here already and involved in the music scene in the area. So, she showed me around a bit. The music scene appealed to me. That was definitely an attraction to coming down here. Joanne and I played the last 20 years together. She played her first gig with my band as just a kid and that got her started. She was playing trumpet with me, but she played guitar in a big swing band with her boyfriend Walt on clarinet. We did a lot of gigs, just the three of us up there. We played lots of country clubs and private parties.

Joanne Domka and Dan Petrella were reunited on stage as the Dixie Rhythm Aces this past Wednesday. at Persimmons Bistro & Tea Room in Landrum. Dan Petrella and his Dixie Rhythm Aces will be making regular appearances at Persimmons on the second Wednesdays of the month from 6:30-9pm. I could try to explain how I ended up singing with them and filling in a bit on clarinet, but that's another story for another time. Find out more about Dan's banjos at www.petrellabanjos.com