Benjamin Banneker (APD Showcase Vol 6 Featured Track)

Benjamin Banneker
© Copyright 2017

Contact Info:
Billy Kemp - 615-947-7183
billykempmusic@gmail.com

Release date: September 1, 2017

Composer: Billy Kemp, Jeni Hankins and Alfred Hickling
Publisher: Willbilly Music, BMI - Lulu Wall Music, BMI

Melodica - Billy Kemp
Banjo - Billy Kemp
Percussion - Billy Kemp

Billy's Notes:

Just west of where I grew up in Paradise is a community called Oella. It is on the Baltimore county side of the Patapsco river just across from the 18th century mill town, Ellicott City. Oella had a famous resident named Benjamin Banneker. He was an African-American who lived there from 1736 to 1806. While on tour in Florida I picked up a book, The Life of Benjamin Banneker by Silvio A. Bedini at a library book sale. I had heard of him and went to where his grave was thought to be up in Oella when I was in high school. There was even a Benjamin Banneker elementary school in Catonsville. Now there is a Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum. His story is remarkable and if it weren’t for him laying the cornerstones of our nation’s capital, we wouldn’t have the traffic we all enjoy and love on the Washington beltway.

Note to DJs

Benjamin Banneker (3:50) Medium, dirge-like shuffle on finger picking banjo and vocal with junkyard percussion and melodica. A lamentation for America’s first African-American man of science.