Strumming Beyond the Banjo’s Boundaries

Tony Trischka is married, has two kids and turns 50 on Saturday. And although he loves spending time with his family in Fair Lawn, N.J., the veteran banjo ace won’t be celebrating his birthday by settling comfortably into middle age.

Trischka simply has no desire to temper his restless spirit, one that led him in the ‘70s to help redefine the boundaries of banjo playing.

His first album, 1973’s “Bluegrass Light,” demonstrated that it was OK to break the rules. Saxes, synthesizers and electric guitars co-mingled with banjos, fiddles and mandolins as Trischka blended elements of classical, jazz, rock and bluegrass.

His progressive, jazz-tinged recordings influenced scores of young banjo players, including Bela Fleck, Trischka’s former student who’s taken the banjo even further into be-bop and jazz.

But even pioneers can find themselves in a rut, and several years ago, Trischka had to look back before he could move forward again.

For the first time, this contemporary trailblazer got serious about the banjo’s background. Research led him to discover that the instrument’s roots reach back to American minstrel parlors, and before that, to the Africans brought to this country as slaves. He began playing a banza, a banjo precursor made from a gourd and played by slaves in the 1800s.

In 1993, he recorded the ambitious “World Turning,” an album Trischka describes as “a celebration of the banjo from its roots to its branches.” The music ranges from classical and African styles to high-octane bluegrass and banjo-driven rock, the latter getting a hand from R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe and the Violent Femmes.

“One of the reasons I got into older forms of music is I felt like I’d gotten as far as I could with the progressive approach,” Trischka said by phone from San Jose, a stopover on a tour that includes a performance tonight at Shade Tree Stringed Instruments in Laguna Niguel.

“I found what’s believed to be the first [banjo] instruction booklet--it’s from the 1850s,” Trischka said. “There’s a tune called ‘Hard Times’ [not the oft-revived Stephen Foster tune] that has Africa written all over it. It just grabbed me . . . it’s a very powerful piece. It opened up this whole other, fresh area that I never investigated. So, as it turns out, I went back in time to get some much-needed inspiration.”

Trischka’s musical studies began at age 8 with flute and classical piano lessons, followed by a brief interest in Dylanesque folk. He got hooked on the banjo, though, in 1963 when he heard the Kingston Trio’s exuberant “Charlie on the M.T.A.” song.

“From the moment I had my first bluegrass lesson, the banjo has been my passion,” said Trischka, who’s also played in the bands Skyline, Country Cooking and Psychograss. “It’s an inexhaustible reservoir of interest for me. My enthusiasm hasn’t waned a bit in 35 years.”

Currently touring as a solo act, Trischka said, “I find that I have a closer rapport with the audience when I’m working solo.

“There’s this flexibility, where I can do just about anything on the spur of the moment,” he said. “I like the freedom . . . it just wouldn’t work for me to play a standard bluegrass show. I try for as much variety as possible, where I’ll play a mixture of standards and originals, everything from Beethoven and the Beatles to some old-time and jazz-based compositions. I think the spontaneity and freedom make it fun for both me and the audience.”

For his next album--due in May on Rounder Records and titled “Bend”--the fleet-fingered picker decided to form an electric band. Fronted by Trischka on banjo, the Tony Trischka Band features lead guitarist Glenn Sherman, saxophonist Michael Amendola, bassist Marco Accattatis and drummer Grisha Alexiev.

The idea behind this diverse quintet, he said, is to use musicians who can bring a new slant to his tunes--and contribute a few of their own.

“[Sherman] wrote this one song called ‘Feed the Horse,’ which has this kind of cool, Southern-rock sound with a banjo. Plus, the drummer wrote this African-derived tune . . . and the sax player brings this R&B;, [John] Coltrane thing to the table,” he said. “It’s wonderful because everyone has something of their own to share.”

Having explored the banjo’s more traditional side, Trischka said he returned to an experimental mode because “I was missing that exploratory spirit . . .

“That’s what Bill Monroe was doing,” he said. “He was taking black influences--and country-music traditions--and fusing them. And Earl Scruggs? A lot of what he does is very jazzy stuff, taken from swing music and that sort of thing. Really, what bluegrass is came from a lot of exploration and breaking down existing barriers.”

* Tony Trischka plays tonight at Shade Tree Stringed Instruments, 28062 Forbes Road, Laguna Niguel. 7:30 p.m. $16. (949) 364-5270. Also Saturday at McCabe’s Guitar Shop, 3101 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. $17.50. (310) 828-4403.