(Abner Wingate Jay)
(7CD)
BIOGRAPHY
Jay was born in Fitzgerald, Georgia. His father and grandfather were both slaves in Washington County, Georgia. His grandfather was also a banjo player and imparted a vast repertoire of old-time and folk songs to Abner. Abner Jay began playing in medicine shows at the age of 5 and in 1932 joined the Silas Green from New Orleans Minstrel Show. Jay went on to lead the WMAZ Minstrels on Macon radio from 1946–56 before going solo.
He spent many years traveling the North American South and playing concerts from his "converted mobile home that opened up into a portable stage, complete with amplification and home furnishings". These concerts, as evidenced in his recordings, were often equal parts spoken word (jokes, philosophical asides, rants) and music.
Common instruments on Jay's recordings include harmonica, drum kit, a
six-string banjo (that Jay claimed was made in 1748), and the "bones",
which were chicken and cow bones that had been bleached in the sun and
used to create percussion. Jay’s song repertoire included field songs,
Pentecostal hymns and minstrel tunes. He once described himself as the
"last working Southern black minstrel", and in a self-penned leaflet
handed out at concerts, he expanded on his biography with claims that he
was the "World's Champion Cotton Picker and Pea Picker, World's Fastest
Tobacco Crapper, World's Greatest Jaw Bone Player, World's Fastest Mule
Skinner... THE WORLD'S WORSE BUSINESS MAN".
He also performed original material that was mostly secular, and subjects
ranged from politics, relationships, war, the bible, the 1969 moon
landing, ethnomusicology, Southern culture and depression. In later years
he held a residency, playing shows and selling his LPs and cassette tapes
at Tom Flynn's Plantation Restaurant in Stone Mountain, Georgia. Anthony
Braxton, renowned American composer and philosopher, called Jay an
"American Master".
He died in 1993.....
(Wikipedia)
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2012-The Love Wheel @FLAC
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