ABSTRACT
The banjo was present in all the forms of African-American music that were heard in Britain before jazz, and by the twentieth century the banjo had developed strong symbolism as the instrument of the stereotypical 'plantation Negro'. In Britain in the early twentieth century, the banjo had a unique status as the main instrument through which ragtime was disseminated, particularly by the bands of African-American musicians that were employed to play for dancing in exclusive London clubs. Therefore, the figure of the stereotypical 'black banjo player' was perceived in Britain to be central to the development of American popular music and, as a result, the evolutionary sequence of early syncopated forms towards jazz in Britain is demonstrably different when compared to that of America. In this chapter, the role of the banjo in both the actual musical and perceived symbolic evolution of black American music in Britain will be examined in order to understand the way in which jazz developed in Britain and in turn to explain some of the idiosyncrasies of the British perception of jazz.
