Cynthia Sayer

Once a staple in traditional New Orleans jazz ensembles as well as ragtime ensembles, minstrel shows, and music halls, the banjo later faded from prominence in jazz settings. Bela Fleck and Cynthia Sayer have recently revived interest in the instrument, with Sayer integrating her vocal performances seamlessly with her banjo technique. Although proficient on tenor guitar and piano, Sayer channels her primary energies into banjo playing and singing.

She launched her professional career at age 17 by performing with an all-female jazz ensemble at Shea Stadium, home of the N.Y. Mets. Subsequent appearances have included the New York Philharmonic’s 1993 rendition of “Rhapsody in Blue,” a 1989 engagement at the Metropolitan Opera House for a Twyla Tharpe-choreographed dance work, and membership, beginning in 1995, in Woody Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band. Eminent banjoist and band leader Elmer Snowden proved pivotal in her decision to pursue music full-time, revealing to her the breadth of jazz, the expressive range of the banjo, and the value of artistic honesty.

Sayer’s approach extends well beyond the conventions of the instrument’s earliest jazz practitioners, sustaining the core of traditional jazz while venturing into traditional pop and contemporary jazz idioms. She has also established herself as a composer whose work appears on film and television soundtracks and has performed at numerous jazz festivals across the United States and Europe. Her own listening spans rock, jazz, and classical repertoire, encompassing Django Reinhardt, jazz violinist Regina Carter, Tom Waits, and self-proclaimed inventor of jazz Jellyroll Morton. Frets Magazine readers named her the 1988 Readers Poll winner for 4-String Banjo All Styles, and the Mississippi Rag 1999 Readers Poll placed her second among Favorite Living Banjo Players. Far from isolated among the small cohort of jazz banjoists, Sayer continues to record and is preparing a documentary film devoted to the instrument.