The Jubilee Ball June 2002. Smoky Mokes playing at this event as a trio with the late Nick Cox providing a very worthy bass line with his formidable bass saxophone.

Practice sessions take place in a garage, converted into a music room. With only minimal heating, winter gatherings can be rather daunting affairs. Only true enthusiasts would endure such primitive conditions. Just look at the enthusiasm in the faces above !

The Smoky Mokes Banjo Quartet, an occasional group of amateur musicians from the south of England, follow a long tradition of banjo bands that were popular in England and America 100 years ago.
Playing a repertoire heavily laced with the music of that era, ragtime, cakewalks, marches etc, Smoky Mokes started it’s existence when Richard Thompson and Fred Determann met at the Bath Banjo Rally in 2000, found a shared interest in classic banjo music and arranged a meeting a few months later. The first session was a success and they have continued to meet regularly ever since.

Over the years other musicians were invited to participate in these musical soirees, including Nick Cox, a bass saxophonist and Fran Wakefield, a cellist. Anthony Peabody, one of the few people in the world able to get a musical note out of both a cello banjo and a phono fiddle (although not at the same time) was auditioned successfully and Terry Woodgate, long term guitar accompanist of the redoubtable Gordon Dando was approached and inveigled into providing a much needed rhythm section. Anthony and Terry are now regular ‘Smoky Mokers’

When Abe Holzmann composed ‘Smoky Mokes’ in 1899, the cakewalk craze that had swept across America and Europe was about to be replaced by ragtime, a more sophisticated form of syncopated music which, in the hands of Joplin, Lamb and many others, would move into new lyrical territory. At the same time the popularity of the banjo was at it’s peak. The new exciting music suited the instrument well and with the advent of recording technology, where the percussive drive of the banjo recorded more easily than the piano or orchestra, the strident ringing tone of the banjo virtuosos of the time, Ossman, Van Eps and Oakley found it’s way into the parlors of the masses. Banjo bands in various configurations blossomed and, for a while, they all played banjo, and ragtime. F.D.