Iran / Vol.2

 

IRAN/Vol.2

Anthologie de la musique traditionnelle

Santur par Majid Kiâni
Musiques traditionnelles vivantes
III. Musiques savantes

Ocora, 1980,  558550

As far as I know, Ocora never reissued these albums of the series called ''Iran'' and subtitled ''Anthology of traditonal music''. There are six albums all under the artistic direction of Jean During.
The santur almost diasppeared in Iran around the 1930s because masters of this instruments were rare enough. The last of them was Somâ'i son of Somâ Hozur who never designated a successor worthy of continuing his tradition. So a more modern style has established itself. But Kiâni wanted to retrieve the old playing technique. So he spent hours listening to old recordings and talking to former Somâ'i's pupils. Thus Kiâni could stick again to the deepest tradition which conveys aesthetic and spiritual values. More details from the text.
Text in (French) and English

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Rais Lhoucine Amentague

 

 الرايس الحسين أمنتاݣ

RAIS LHOUCINE AMENTAGUE

La Voix El Maarif, ?, LVEM 63

This is the last tape out of four that a friend of mine brought back from Morocco between 1985 and 1989. Once again I asked Tim Abdellah for his help since he knows how to read the cover. It is the same style as the other Moroccan tapes posted here, tachelhit or Berber songs and music. Not much is known about Amentague. Tim knows another Amentague (Ahmed) but doesn't know about possible connections between the two. Rais is a ''title''of respect used by many singers.
Side A has only one track so I suppose several songs are performed in one go. Side B has two tracks.
El Maarif was based in Agadir.
You can visit Tim's site; it's really something ! https://moroccantapestash.blogspot.com/

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Long Acre

 

LONG ACRE

Traditional music from Ireland Scotland & Brittany

no label,  1986, SE 16

This a demo tape with only eight tracks (unfortunately) made by some young musicians in Birmingham. People of Irish descent are still quite numerous in Britain and Birmingham is one of the places with a strong Irish community with pubs, cultural centers, shops etc...
Long Acre was a band that included five talented musicians and singer. Three of them are now widely known.
Kevin Crawford on flute and bodhran is now Lunasa's flute player with a rich career behind him with Moving Cloud and several solo albums with great other musicians in Ireland or the US. Kevin is the most famous of the three. He lives in the US.
A bit less known by the general public but highly respected by fellow musicians Joe Molloy was born in a musical family; his father Paddy from county Galway was a fiddle player and very active in the community. I consider Joe to be one of the five best banjo players; he used to perform with the Furey Brothers but he never recorded under his name. He lives in Dublin.
The fiddler Mick Conneely was from Bedford between Birmingham and London and born also in a musical family. His father was also a fiddle player. Mick's sisters Kathleen and Pauline recorded albums; he has one album released under his name and takes part in numerous other albums as a bouzouki or fiddle player.
Ivan Miletitch came from Paris at the beginning of the eighties for short periods before he decided to stay for good in Birmingham around 1985. He was quite famous in Paris as a guitar player.
Bernadette Davis sings in English and Irish.
There is one Breton dance (plinn), three songs and four sets of reels and jigs.
They came over to France at least once.

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