Startside Folk 1965 1966

1967 1968 1969

Jo Banks (5/8-1917 – 21/2 2011)

Jo Banks kom til Danmark fra Chicago USA. I København startede han det legendariske Purple Door Coffee House på Højbro Plads som blev et væsentlig kraftcenter for den spirende danske folkemusik...

Fra Lp'ens bagsidenoter: "Jo Banks was born in Philadelphia, spent his childhood in Mississippi and Louisianna and his early manhood in the Negro slums of large eastern American cities. He has been a field worker, farm hand, newspaper reporter and editor, restaurant cook, drifter, big city hustler, writer, not the worst middleweight fighter, professional baseball player (Negro leagues) boy baptist preacher, novice for the Catholic priesthood, all on the road between an orphan and a respected professional.

He was a merchant seaman during the war and because he was interested in photography, made contact with photographers in bombed European cities who were attempting to rebuild their studios.

During the first years after the war he was a newspaper editor in New Orleans, where he also opened a school of photography. Upon moving east he opened a studio in Chicago and was a known portrait photographer with a national reputation for over 10 years. During this time he also owned a coffee house and apperared as a singer on radio and television.

He now lives with his wife and two children in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he has had his photo studio since 1961. He has apperared in schools, clubs, radio and television in Sweden, Denmark and Holland as a singer and lecturer in folk music.

He also owns and is the resident singer of the Purple Door, Denmark's first coffee house and one of Europe's most respected folk music houses since 1963."

Paper on Jo Banks by Mojo Mendiola in English and German.

SIDSTE NYT! - JO BANK AND THE SOUL TRAIN: A SMALL PART OF THE ANSWER

ER GENUDGIVET PÅ CD. FOR NÆRMERE OPLYSNING: WWW.EXLIBRIS.DK (Katalog# ABC 141)

1965 LP Jo Banks of the Purple Door - EMI/Columbia KSX 3

Pay your dues / Little Willy / I've been buked and I've been scorned / Down by the riverside / 45 Pistol / Old Ark a Moverin' //

Grizzly bear / Best friend blues / Will the circle be unbroken / Mule skinner / This time one more year / Bill Baily

1965 7" Jo Banks and Tom Baily - EMI/Columbia DD 775

Car car (Woody Guthri) / Run, run (Trad. arr. Jo Banks and Tom Baily)

1979 LP Jo Banks and the Soul Train - A Small Part of the Answer - Trispot 1

I want to live / The politicans / Summertime // Earth people, we will be sad for you / The toy shop killer /

Don't let them take your mind

Allan Rasch (guitar) - Klaus Schønning (keyboards) - Karsten Madsen (bass) - Frank Nielsen (drums, flute) - Jo Banks (vokals)