IBRAHIM AL-MĀS

 

IBRAHIM AL-MĀS 

 Ibrahim Al-Mās (sometimes spelled ''al-Mass'') was another major singer and 'ud player. Son of Muhammad Al-Mās who played the qanbus, Ibrahim took up the 'ud and recorded between 150 and 200 songs according to Jean Lambert. 
Here we have another tape probably commercial but without any information; only the titles of the songs are mentionned. The violin appears on some tracks.

More information about him :

Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Mass: Master Yemeni Singer by Saleh Abdulbaqi, musician

March 30 1998

Yemeni master singers or sheikhs, as they were known then, played a major role in enriching the Yemeni artistic movement. One of the greatest singers in Yemen’s artistic history is Sheikh Ibrahim Mohammed Al-Mass.

Sheikh Ibrahim was born in Aden where he received his public education. After finishing his study, he worked in the public sector until he passed away in 1966. His father who died in 1953, was a famous singer whose songs were recorded on gramophone records. He descended from a tribe in Shibam, Kawkaban in Northern Yemen. Because singing was forbidden by the Imam in pre-revolutionary days, Mohammed Al-Mass and other singers moved to Aden. That made his house a gathering place for some of Yemen’s outstanding singers. Mohammed Al-Attab was one of those who frequently visited Al-Mass’s house bringing with him different traditional songs.

Ibrahim Al-Mass, still a little boy, was brought up in such atmosphere that he very much loved. That created in him a deep desire to learn how to play the lute. His father started to teach him to play the lute as well as the principles and methods of Yemeni traditional singing. In addition, the boy listened to some Egyptian singers like Salamah Hijazi, Sayed Darweesh and Mohammed Abdulwahab. He recorded Hijazi’s song Mata’a Hayatak (enjoy your life) which was mentioned in Dr. Mohammed Fadhel’s book about Hijazi’s life and works.

Ibrahim Mohammed Al-Mass aimed to maintain the originality of the Yemeni traditional song. Dr. Mohammed Abdu Ghanim wrote: ‘Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Mass was the one who combined the songs of Al-Madaheen (eulogists) and the Sanaani songs in his recorded songs. A common mistake is that those songs were attributed to the Tihami lyricist Jaber Rizq.’

Thus, Al-Mass made the greatest favor to the Yemeni song heritage in performing Al-Madaheen’s songs. Ibrahim Al-Mass rebelled against the high-class society’s viewpoint concerning the traditional arts. They regarded those arts as backward practices, a concept Al-Mass would never accept.
As Mr. Fahmi Abdullateef describes them in his book “Styles of Traditional Arts,” Al-Madaheen (eulogists) had very distinguished artistic practices. They depended totally on their personally acquired artistic skills in playing the tambourine, their only instrument. The tambourine is used to regulate and control the rhythm of a musical troupe’s. performance. Arab people used the tambourine in announcing eulogies and elegies. Some mystics still use it in their religious ceremonies.

Al-Mass did not take singing as a profession from the beginning, though he was quite famous as a good singer. He started by singing in family and friends’ gatherings. As the breadwinner for a 10-member family, he finally agreed to record his songs on disks. According to Hajj Awadh Al-Ajami, Ibrahim Al-Mass was a Yemeni singer who gained great popularity all over Yemen and the Arab Peninsula.

 

download.wav

AHMAD AL-SUNAYDĀR

 

 AHMAD AL-SUNAYDĀR

''WA-LAW KHAYYARŪNĪ''

 This is another tape I got from a friend who brought back a lot of them including copies of copies without any information but the singer's name and title of the tape. 
Al-Sunaydār was born in 1939 and he was a major singer and luth player in Sana'a. I posted another tape of his earlier. 
Here he sings mostly on his own and with some percussions on three or four tracks. I think this is maybe a compilation; some tracks sound differently but it doesn't matter much.
There are eight songs altogether.

 download.wav

Mizmar Bldy

 

MIZMAR BLDY 

Tarb Sound Production, ?, ?

 This is a copy of a tape but I don't remember when or where I got it. The title should read as ''mizmar baladi'' typical music from Egypt. It's often played by one or several rebab players with an arghul or a suffara player plus darbuka and bendir-like frame drum. Or it's played by a mizmar band with tbel backing. Here rebab and mizmar are played together which is unusual (to me anyway). Only the mizmar player's name is known to me : Ebna' as-Saeed. 
Dance music for ''belly dancing'' by professional female dancers. 
Any information about the players or the label are welcome.

 download.wav

Hamdun Habeet

 

HAMDUN HABEET

MIN ILMI IMZAHAN

This is another tape I got from that friend who lived and studied in Yemen in the eighties. Here unfortunately there is no information about Habeet or the songs. My friend couldn't tell me anything about it either. Habeet is the singer and ud player with the usual backing. It is of course typical Sana'ani style. 
So if you know something about Habeet you know what to do ... 

download.wav

Maramureş

 

RENCONTRE AVEC LA ROUMANIE / MARAMUREŞ II

TRESORS FOLKLORIQUES 

            

  MEET ROMANIA/MARAMUREŞ II

FOLKLORE TREASURES 

Electrecord,  ?, ST-EPE 0891

Another item from this series intented for export. The first edition dates back to 1971 under a different reference so I think this is a reissue made in the seventies.
Here Maramureş is the region presented through different artists, a region quite recognisable especially through its music. 
As it is the case for all the other items it's the folkloric aspect that is highlighted with an orchestra with violins, clarinet, cymbalum etc... lead by G. Vancu. But the more traditional aspect is also present thanks to the Petreuş brothers who are real stars in the area and beyond. They travelled several times to France. Ion sings and plays the zongora, Ştefan plays the fiddle and what fiddle. Compare tracks 3 and 9 to feel the gap between the two approaches. You can guess that  I much prefer the brothers. 
There are two singers including Titiana Mihali a young singer at the time who sang a song to the Virgin Mary based on a range specific to the horn called bucium still in use in this mountainous area. She imitates that horn at the end of the song.
Texts in English and French.

 download.wav

 

TROUZERION

 CHANTS POPULAIRES DE BRETAGNE/TROUZERION 

FOLK SONGS OF BRITTANY

Arfolk, 1979, SB 378

This is the second album by this group of male singers from Morbihan in Brittany (see my post in 2022). The eldest singer was Job Kerlagad (real name Joseph Guillam) born in 1902; He lived in Carnac as an oyster farmer. He died in 1996. The second eldest one was Jean Le Meut from Ploemel a farmer born in 1925. He passed away in 2012 after twenty years in the band. The four younger singers are still alive and still singing. They all went to Washington in 1983 invited by the Folklife Festival. 
All songs are dance songs except for track B3. 
There is a difference with the first album : here they use what is called ''tiling'' meaning that the band starts singing before the leader finishes his part. This is unusual for this area of Morbihan around Carnac, Ploemel, Plouharnel ...
An inner sleeve is supposed to be sold with the album but I never got it. 
Their third album will be posted soon.

 download.wav

Soporul de Cîmpie

 

 TARAFUL SOPORUL DE CÎMPIE

Electrecord, 1987, ST-EPE 03228  

 Compared to the previous post this album is more traditional and local. It is one of those numerous string bands in Transylvania with bowed  instruments only, no cymbalum or wind instrument. 
This type of music is the legacy of small string orchestras that emerged in 17th-century Europe among princely courts, particularly in the Habsburg Empire. Very soon Romani musicians were quite dominant especially in Transylvania and this type of formation was widely spread from the 19th century onwards.
This music is shared by Hungarian and Romanian musicians although with some differences which enable knowledgeable enthusiasts to distinguish the origin of performers. Other people like the Jews and Saxons  also left their mark.
It was possible at one stage  to hear some people like Romanian intellectuals say that the Hungarians stole this music. Transylvania is still an area of conflict between Romania and Hungary.
 The musical leader is Zamfir Dejeu but he's not part of the band I think. The musicians are not identified except for the  singer Vasile Soporan on two short tracks. The repertoire is made of long sets starting with slow tunes followed by several dances.
They come from the area called the ''plain'' east of Cluj. 
There is a CD published by the French label Buda Musique in 1992 called ''Roumanie-Quatuor à cordes de Transylvanie'' with probably the same musicians.
Note that tracks 8,9,10 and 11 are in fact track 3 on side B. 

 download.wav

Gorj

 

RENCONTRE AVEC LA ROUMANIE / GORJ 
TRESORS FOLKLORIQUES 

 MEET ROMANIA/GORJ
FOLKLORE TREASURES 

Electrecord, ?, STM-EPE 0803

 Another album from that series issued perhaps in 1973 according to Discogs. This second-hand album features the band named Doina Gorjului from the city of Târgu Jiu and led by Gelu Barabancea. 
Gorj is a district in South-West Oltenia. The famous sculptor Constantin Brâncuși was born there. 
Nothing much to add; the whole series works on the same pattern. The band plays  with soloists : Costel Burleanu on fluier, Sandu Trohonel and Nicu Lătărețu on fiddle, Nelu Ciocan on naï; two female singers sing two songs each, Ileana Leonte and  Filofteia Lăcătușu. 
Texts in English and French.

 download.wav

ZPÍVÁNÍ

 

HANA A PETR ULRYCHOVİ / JAVORY

ZPÍVÁNÍ / SINGING

 Folk Songs from Moravia

Panton, 1982, 8117 0209 G 

 Hana and Petr Ulrych (sister and brother) were famous  rock singers in Czekoslovakia from the late 1960s.  Their band  ''Javory'' (meaning ''maples'') was formed in 1974 and was a two-sided group :  one folk side,  Javory, with acoustic instruments like violins, cymbalom and double bass and one rock side, Javory Beats, with electric instruments. The members were different ones in either bands though. Hana and Petr were therefore interested in several types of music.

The presentation text says that they acted similarly to Alan Stivell or Steeleye Span but the result sounds more like folklore than modern revival à la Stivell.

However it is well delivered. The singing is well done in the ''national music'' style and the repertoire consists of eighteen  traditional songs and four compositions by Fanoš Mikulecký (real name František Hřebačka) who was a Slovakian composer, folklorist, playwriter and painter. He died in 1970 and several of his songs are well known everywhere in Czekoslovakia like Vínečko Bílé (white wine) sung here by the men of the band.

Note that tracks A7 and A8, A10 and A11 as well as B5 and B6 are copied together. 
Panton was created in 1968 in Prague but disappeared in the early 1990s. 
Text in Czech and English.

 download wav

PEBEZH EURED

 

                           GERARD GUENEGOU        JEAN-MICHEL GUILLANTON

''PEBEZH EURED'' 

Biniou Bras                                       Bombard 

SELAOUIT !  

Paris Album, 1977, 4-3390 

 This second hand album is a good example of the revival in Brittany that was also felt among traditional musicians who could record albums and sell them easily.
Guillanton and Guenegou are ''sonneurs'' : bombard and bagpipe in the form of the scottish bagpipe called biniou bras or ''big bagpipe''. 
Guenegou played a lot with the late Yann Péron who died in 1975 (see my post of the 9th August 2024). 
Guillanton comes from the Morbihan the biggest Breton departement; his father Joachim was a famous musicians and collector who took part with Polig Monjarret and others  to the creation of Bodadeg ar Sonerion (musicians' assembly). Jean-Michel was also involved in passing on knowledge to younger generations and collaborated with Dastum for the preservation and dissemination of Breton traditional music. He died in 2022 at the age of 68. 
The title means in Breton :''what a wedding; listen !''
On side A marches and melodies alternate while side B has two fisel suite, one laride and one scottish. 
Paris Album was a label based in Paris  that was mainly focused on blues.
Text in French and Breton. 

 download.wav

Ballades et fêtes en Roumanie

 BALLADES ET FÊTES EN ROUMANIE 

 

BALLADS AND FESTIVALS IN RUMANIA 

 

Le Chant du Monde - CNRS, 1985, LDX 74 846/47  

This double album is part of the series ''CNRS-Musée de l'Homme'' and made of recordings by Bernard Lortat-Jacob and Jacques Bouët; both died in 2024 and  2018 respectively. 
They worked on the music made by the lautari from Southern Rumania mainly in Oltenia in villages during weddings and social events. 
They focused on the ballad type which was already at that time (1980-1981) fast declining in competition with more modern style of singing. As they emphasise the ballad is sung first to the oldest people in the crowd who are ready and willing to listen to epic or mythlogical stories. More and more younger people try to prevent a singer from singing if it's not to their taste. 
Here several ''taraf'' or a single singer perform for a public. Lortat-Jacob explains that these semi or fully professional musicians are generally Rom and that some of them are local performers in a small area while others have a bigger reputation and play with several players over a large region.
Apart from the singers we can hear fiddles, guitar, cymbalum, accordion and double bass.
Seven ballads are presented here along with three short dances, one song improvised I think to welcome the French scholars, one song when the bride leaves her home and family, one song sung for the wedding procession and finally a ''modern'' song. 
Strangely the text is in French only.You can nevertheless read it here :

https://archives.crem-cnrs.fr/archives/collections/CNRSMH_E_1986_002_001/ 

download.wav 1

download.wav 2 

La Bretagne

 

LA BRETAGNE NOCE ET FEST-NOZ 

BRITTANY WEDDING AND FEST-NOZ 

Barclay licence Arion,  1964, 86 086

Reissued in 1974  this is a document,  about a traditional Breton wedding ceremony in Inner Brittany. But the groom was not an ordinary man : he was Millig ar Skañv aka Glenmor who was a famous singer and composer whose life was dedicated to Breton culture and politics. So, many people attended the wedding including some famous musicians. 
The album is divided in two parts : on side A we can join the crowd and follow the successive steps of a Breton wedding like going to the bride's house, make her cry (because she'll leave her family), play for the horses bringing the couple to the church; then in the church a few cantiques are sung by Andrea Ar Gouilh; after the religious part it's time to go to the place where the meal is ready; first a dance is usually played (danse du bouquet) and then we can hear singers and musicians during the banquet.
Side B is time for dancing; famous singers like the Morvan brothers sing a plin and a fisel, sonneurs Yann Peron, Georges Cadoudal play a gavotte and Albert Poulain sings  a laridé in French. The two last tracks were recorded when the sonneurs and people bring a milk soup (soubenn al laezh) when the newlyweds   are already in bed; this soup is full of edible and inedible things meant to remind them that life has its ups and downs
The bombarde player Yann Peron is in great form and we can appreciate his talent in slow and fast tunes.

Text in French.

download.wav

Balinese Theatre and Dance Music

 

 

 BALINESE THEATRE AND DANCE MUSIC

UNESCO COLLECTION MUSICAL SOURCES

 

Philips, 1973,  6586 013 

 

 

The prestigious collection ''Musical Sources'' has been partially reissued on compact discs but as it is the case for other labels some of the original albums have escaped  reissue to some extent. Why I don't know but this album allows us to discover some less-known types of music thanks to Jacques Brunet the tireless researcher  in the field of music from the south-east of Asia. He recorded several types of orchestras in 1970 starting with track A1 on an archaic form of Balinese theatre called ''gambuh''. Gambuh is in fact a flute (four flutes here) which plays the major role along other instruments and a narrator and two singers. 
Track A2 presents the gender wayang a sacred puppet theatre whose repertoire is that of the Mahabharata.
Track B1 is about ''arja'' a kind of total performance with some comedy, tragedy, comic interludes and lyrical episodes. Arja is very popular and can last several nights with first-rate performers as it is the case here. 
Track B2 is called ''Jangar'' which is a set of dances created in the 1930s based on trance and exorcism dances. Two groups of singers (male and female) sing together with the orchestra. The public can join in the dance.
Track B3 ''Joged Bumbung'' is a relatively recent dance of seduction where a female dancer faces one male spectator and tries to get him dancing. The orchestra includes four bamboo xylophones. 

 

download.wav

 

Кyrgyz küülörünün antoloyasy 6

 

   Кыргыз Күүлөрүнүн Антологиясы

Биринчи бөлүм

ANTHOLOGY OF KYRGYZ MELODIES (PART ONE)

Melodiya, 1974, M30.35589-90

This is the sixth album of this series (out of seven). As previously mentionned I didn't copy the cover nor the information provided with the set of LPs. I can't be more precise about the three sections presented here (but the first one would be about ''lyrical pieces''). The titles and performers list comes from discogs. Also as already mentionned the introduction tracks in Kyrgyz have not been copied (here K1, K8 and L1).

	Лирикалык күүлөр K1 Кириш  Read By – З. Мамбеталиева К2 Гүлойрон Dombra [Komuz] – Асанаалы Кыштообаев К3 Алыска кеткен кыз Dombra [Komuz] – Болуш Мадазимов К4 Кошок Dombra [Komuz] – Болуш Мадазимов К5 Көч Dombra [Komuz] – Асанбек Жаналиев К6 Дарты өттү Dombra [Komuz] – Болуш Мадазимов К7 Апей жигит Dombra [Komuz] – Шекербек Шеркулов Куш аваз күүлөр К8 Кириш сөз Read By – Т. Абдракунов К9 Шактагы булбул Dombra [Komuz] – Курманаалы Калботоев К10 Сары барпы Dombra [Komuz] – Эркесары Бекбазаров К11 Каркыралар кайтканда Dombra [Komuz] – Асанбек Жаналиев К12 Боз торгой Dombra [Komuz] – Асанбек Жаналиев Айрым күүлөр L1 Кириш сөз  Read By – З. Мамбеталиева L2 Сурнай күү Dombra [Komuz] – Чалакыз Иманкулов L3 Ырчы күү Dombra [Komuz] – Асылбэк Эшмамбетов L4 Кыял күү Dombra [Komuz] – Абдракман Кыдырбаев L5 Терс күү Dombra [Komuz] – Жээналы Короочиев L6 Үркүн күү Dombra [Komuz] – Усуп Орозов L7 Букар күү Dombra [Komuz] – Самсаалы Алыкеев L8 Сабыр күү Dombra [Komuz] – Бөжөй Шадыканов L9 Терме күү Dombra [Komuz] – Курманаалы Калботоев
	download.wav

Palais Royal de Yogyakarta

 

JAVA / PALAIS ROYAL DE YOGYAKARTA
MUSIQUE DE CONCERT 

JAVA / ROYAL PALACE OF YOGYAKARTA
CONCERT MUSIC 

Ocora, 1982, 558 598

Another  album that is not in the present catalogue of Ocora. Recordings were made by Jacques Brunet (see earlier posts about him) in 1972 and 1973 at the keraton or royal palace located in Yogkarta which became one of the most important artistic centres on the island of Java. As usual the presentation text is detailed enough about the gamelan and the music performed here. 
Note that I copied Gending Wasitasih (A2 and B1) together.
Text in French and English.

download.wav

BUCOVINE

 rencontre avec la / meet Romania

ROUMANIE

BUCOVINE

 TRESORS FOLKLORIQUES 

Electrecord, ?, ST-EPE 0963

''Meet Romania'' is a series made for export  so that foreign audiences can discover what Romanian popular music sounds like. Hence the text in English and French.
But as I said in previous posts this is ''national'' music developed by urban and professionnal musicians working for the state. This tendency increased during the communist period. 

Of course the basic material comes from the rich rural traditions for which Romania is rightly renowned but finally most of these ensembles and orchestras sound similar whatever the relevant region. A lot of the tunes and songs are in fact modern creations supposedly respecting the characteristics of such and such area.

Here Bucovina is a very particular area part of Moldavia divided since 1945 between Ukraine and Romania. Bucovina was part of the Austrian empire for a long time and its population was very mixed with ruthenian, polish, romanian, hungarian, hutsul and jewish people. Now the population is probably very homogeneous on the Romanian side. 
The period during world war II was terrible with two deportations organized by Staline in 1941 when 60 000 Romanians were expelled from Bucovina followed between 1944 and 1955 by an even more massive deportation of 253 000 Romanians. There were groups of resistance fighters against Soviet Union until 1958. Only four villages still have a Romanian speaking inhabitants in Northern Bucovina. 

As I said also before, the musical appeal of this kind of recording lies in the soloists. Silvestru Lungoci appears on six tracks because he plays several wind instruments. Others play cobza, trumpet, clarinet and fiddle. Three tracks are songs by a female singers band and a the vocalist Sofia Vicoveanca. The ensemble is named Ciprian Porumbescu who was  born in 1853 of Polish descent;  a composer and activist against the Habsburgs he died at the age of 29 of tuberculosis. 
The orchestra is led by George Sîrbu who was according to the presentation text very active in researching folklore from different areas of Bucovina.

download.wav

Musiques du Gabon

MUSIQUES DU GABON 

fang                 ndjabi
kota               obamba
              masango         pounou             
     pygmées     

Ocora, 1968, OCR 441

Here is a cassette I borrowed somewhere also published as a vinyl by Ocora. The recordings were made by the Belgian musicologist Michel Vuylstecke with the help of the Gabonese National Radio. 
Unfortunately the cassette was not issued with all the information that are on the vinyl version. This is nevertheless an opportunity to discover rarely recorded people like the Obamba or the Kota while Fang and Pygmies are well documented. There is an amazing march song by Obamba men on B1. 

download.wav

ПЯHДЖИГAX

ДВЕНАДЦАТЬ УЙГУРСКИХ МУКАМОВ 

MУKAM  ПЯHДЖИГAX

Melodiya, ?, C30-14847-48 

Back  to the Uyghur Twelve Mukam system (see my post 22/08/2022). The mukam penjigah is the fifth one in the series  (پەنجىگاھ مۇقامى, Пәнҗигаһ; 潘尔尕). 

Part of the singing comes from the poem/dastan  ''Garib and Senem'' two lovers  whose fate I do not know but as it is the case in other Turkic traditions it might be a story of impossible love ending with the death of the two lovers. 

download.wav