Clifford Essex Music Co. Ltd

The Home of the Banjo, Mandolin, Guitar & Kindred Instruments

AN ALBUM OF SELECTED SOLOS

FROM THE MUSIC OF

EMILE GRIMSHAW

Complete with a CD of top American plectrum banjoist Ron Hinkle playing all seventeen pieces

CONTENTS

ORIGINAL COMPOSITIONS:

A BANJO VAMP; AT SUNSET; BANJOLIERS; BANJO BLUES; BEAT AS YOU GO; MISTER JOLLIBOY; RETURN OF THE REGIMENT; SCOTCH BROTH; A SPANISH ROMANCE; TUNE TONIC; VALSE SYMPATHIE; YOU AND A CANOE. 

ARRANGEMENTS:

LONDONDERRY AIR (Traditional); LIEBESTRAUM (Liszt); AUTUMN SONG (Tchaikovsky); NOCTURNE IN E FLAT (Chopin); PILGRIMS CHORUS (Wagner) 

  Postage UK - £3.00       Europe £6.00           Rest of the world - £10.00

If required, it is the responsibility of the customer to pay any taxes or import duties for customs clearance.

Emile Grimshaw was born in Accrington, Lancashire on October 7, 1880, at a time when entertainment in the home wasn’t available at the click of a switch or press of a button, so people learned to play an instrument, — the banjo, mandolin or guitar being the popular choice in those days.    He first learned to play the mandolin, and at the age of twelve began to study the fingerstyle banjo, at the same time as taking a course of music theory lessons.  

By the time he was twenty he had published compositions for mandolin and banjo; he was teaching the banjo, mandolin and guitar, and had formed a BMG orchestra of from forty to fifty players made up from his pupils.   Five years later, in 1905, he and his wife toured the music halls as banjo duettists, and it was at this period that some of his early banjo compositions were published by Clifford Essex.

In February 1911, Emile Grimshaw was appointed Editor of BMG by Clifford Essex, and he held that post until 1933 when he started his own business as a fretted instrument publisher and manufacturer.

During the first World War the Savoy Quartet became famous as a small dance-band group, the two banjoists being Joe Wilbur and Will Blanche, but the latter gave up his place to Emile Grimshaw, who played with the Quartet until 1920.   When the Broadway Musical star, Elsie Janis heard the Savoy Quartet, she commented: “I have heard a lot of ragtime bands since I left America, but this is the first time I’ve heard it done as we do it over there”.

The Savoy Quartet recorded over fifty titles, which have now become collector’s items.

In 1920 Emile Grimshaw led ‘The Ragpickers Band’ playing ragtime at the Hammersmith Palais de Danse, an important London venue, and a few years later formed the ‘Emile Grimshaw Banjo Quartet’ which appeared as part of a Cochran revue at the London Pavilion.

Apart from all his practical activities in the entertainment world of the time, he wrote his famous banjo tutor, ‘The Banjo and How to Play It’, together with the follow-up ‘How to Excel on the Banjo’, and two other books for beginners; ‘How to Master the Tenor Banjo’ and ‘Plectrum Playing for Modern Banjoists’.   He also wrote an enormous amount of tuneful solos and easy-to-play arrangements of well-known pieces, which are typified by fitting easily under the fingers, so that the majority of his compositions can be played by the average player.

With his personal teaching, his published tutors, and the vast amount of attractive music, it can be truthfully said that Emile Grimshaw did more than anyone else of his time to foster interest in the banjo, mandolin and guitar.