you know, this is something I've wondered about as well. There's this thread on the Fiddle Hangout that has people putting forth some ideas.
A couple people in that thread mentioned that jigs are hard to play on clawhammer banjo, and so maybe that has to do with why they are not really part of the old-time repertoire? That seems like a good theory to me ....
meg


On Fri, May 17, 2019 at 7:15 PM Thomas Verdot via Musicians <musicians@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
This is an aside from the conversation & I hesitate to start something
new that is bottomless, but since you mentioned it...

Why have jigs been discarded over the decades by most "old time"
fiddlers?  They were certainly used by many up to the early part of the
20th century but in most places they have almost completely disappeared.
  I love starting a dance with a jig & transitioning to to a reel or
hornpipe (both as a player & a dancer).

Regards, Tom Verdot

On 5/17/2019 6:37 PM, Meg Dedolph via Musicians wrote:
  But I made an offhanded comment about how a particular dance
> worked well with jigs and the fiddler recalled a New England jig that he
> knew, but hadn't played for a while and decided to try it, but the
> guitarist was not comfortable backing jigs and ... the band did not
> sound as good on that tune as they did when they were playing old-time
> reels.
> Meg
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