Scott Ainslie
BIOGRAPHY
Performance Formats:
One Hundred Years of Robert Johnson
Featuring Johnson scholar and blue musician
Scott Ainslie
Video
Delta Blues legend and cipher Robert Johnson was born in 1911 and made his first recordings in 1936. The year 2011 will see both the 100th anniversary of Johnson's birth and the 25th anniversary of his recordings that – more than 20 years after his death – would fall into the hands of Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page and change the course of rock and roll history. In this special one man show, Johnson author and authority Scott Ainslie will explore Johnson's music, times, and life story, presenting live acoustic performances of the songs that electrified his contemporaries and went on to change rock and roll history.
NEW! Elementary Educational Concert, Before Rock 'n' Roll with Scott Ainslie
Where did our music of today come from? In this program for younger listeners, Scott Ainslie engages students and staff in exploring the music that came before Rock 'n' Roll. With interactive call & response singing and syncopated hand-clapping, Scott presents a fast moving tour of early spirituals, worksongs, Ragtime and Delta Blues on his fretless gourd banjo, one-string diddley bow, acoustic and slide guitars. Peppered with humor and stories, Scott's teaching concerts present the musical building blocks that continue to influence contemporary Rock, Country, Gospel, R & B, and Hip-Hop. Best for students K-3 or 4.
Bio
Coming of age during the Civil Rights era and with his abiding affection for cross-cultural exchange, Scott Ainslie speaks about the Blues the way he plays them: with authority and passion. His interactive teaching concerts are praised by students and teachers alike.
A community-based artist, Ainslie comes to the stage part storyteller, part historian, and all musician. Armed with three or four instruments – guitar, National slide guitar, a fretless gourd banjo and a diddley bow (one-string slide instrument) – with carefully chosen historical anecdotes and personal experiences with senior musicians across the South, Ainslie brings the African roots of American music out into the open.
Ainslie literally 'wrote the book' on Mississippi Delta Blues legend Robert Johnson and has an instructional DVD on Johnson's guitar techniques and songs, as well as five compact disc recordings available. His most recent, "Thunder's Mouth," has spent over five weeks on the XM Radio Bluesville "B.B. King's Picks To Click" and six weeks in the Americana Top 40 chart.
All teaching concerts come with Ainslie's "BluesRoots Teacher's Study Guide," filled with five days of classroom activities, background and history of the music and it's African retentions, and a list of resources for the classroom.
Concerts for elementary audiences include plenty of audience participation while teaching call and response, syncopation, rhythmic clapping and group singing. Older audiences receive more in-depth historical information and links to other forms of music suitable to their age and experience.
Four different workshops are available for students 4th grade and up. Master classes in guitar and vocal coaching for blues and stage singing are available for middle and high school, college and adult learners. Ainslie is also available as a visiting scholar/artist for college and graduate level performance-lecture programs including his "From Diddley Bow to Bo Diddly: The African Roots of American Music."
Scott Ainslie/Educational Programs
Interactive educational concerts are tailored to specific grade levels, Ainslie leads audiences of all ages clapping and singing through a survey of more than a century of musical history, showcasing the interplay of African and American musicians and musical traditions. Offerings include:
NEW! Elementary Educational Concert, Before Rock 'n' Roll with Scott Ainslie
Where did our music of today come from? In this program for younger listeners, Scott Ainslie engages students and staff in exploring the music that came before Rock 'n' Roll. With interactive call & response singing and syncopated hand-clapping, Scott presents a fast moving tour of early spirituals, worksongs, Ragtime and Delta Blues on his fretless gourd banjo, one-string diddley bow, acoustic and slide guitars. Peppered with humor and stories, Scott's teaching concerts present the musical building blocks that continue to influence contemporary Rock, Country, Gospel, R & B, and Hip-Hop. Best for students K-3 or 4.
Call and Response: African and American Musical Traditions
In a program of spoken words and live musical performances, diverse audiences of all ages will sing and clap with Scott Ainslie through a survey of the hidden history and the dynamic interplay of more than a century of American and African musical traditions.
Across the Color Line
In this varied program, Scott Ainsile tours the music of the American South where European and African musical traditions cross-pollinated to create the powerful musical hybrids that have long dominated American popular music. With a calabash gourd banjo, his one-string diddley bow, and guitars, in stories and song, Scott explores the Africanization of old-time mountain music, and African musical and cultural retentions in the Blues, Gospel and worksongs of the African-American community. Students and staff will come away with a broad appreciation for the movement of cultural information across geographic, cultural and class lines, and be able to hear and identify traditional African musical conventions today's popular music. Program content is graduated for students from 4-12.
Songs of Conscience: Piercing the Veil
One of the primary functions of music, history and art is the development of compassion. Travel with Blues singer and guitarist Scott Ainslie from the Underground Railroad through the Civil Rights era; from the labor struggles of the early 1900's to the mill closings of the 1990's, as he examines the role of music in society and presents the history and songs of the struggles for civil rights, for peace and economic justice.
Workshops include:
The Blues Voice
This workshop is part history lesson, part philosophical discussion, part vocalese! Working with a chorus or singers in the classroom, Ainslie examines the backgrounds of divergent vocal styles with special emphasis on understanding the cultural and historical aspects of European and West African culture that inform vocal styles in America. This is a great class for singers and 'non'-singers alike.
The Roots of Coolness Workshop
A workshop on the African roots of 'coolness,' following the notion from the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria, via the Caribbean slave trade up into America. This class dramatically reveals how cultural information and aesthetics move and demonstrates how America has benefited from diverse traditional cultures.
African Retentions
African retentions, the parts of African traditions that were retained and passed on to us through the Blues, are featured in this workshop which shows how African traditions of call and response, polyrhythms, syncopation, and the expanded vocal palette of African and African-American singing are expressed in American music.
Blues Writing Workshop
An interactive group workshop that aims at completing a finished Blues song at the end of the activity period (50-75 minutes). It is an inclusive brainstorming activity that solicits participation throughout a process that has proven successful and useful for a wide variety of students.
For study guide and additional educational materials, please go to Scott's website - see below.
Scott Ainslie's study guide
