musique non écrite

 

MUSIQUE NON ECRITE - FOLK -

NON WRITTEN MUSIC

Expression Spontanée, 1976, ES 35

The man behind this album is Gérard Dôle who was one of the pioners of the French folk revival. He was one of the first French musicians to go to Louisiana and meet some of the big names of Cajun music such as the Balfa Brothers. Dôle has been playing Cajun music on the melodeon for decades. At the time of the release of this album he had already produced three Cajun albums in France.
This album is a kind of manifesto; the title ''musique non écrite'' was an expression to name something that was not classical music. He says on the back cover that these three words had the power to get on professors' nerves in conservatories who coudln't understand how one could play without reading a score of music. This is still now the position of some of them. By calling popular music ''non written music'' was to bring French trad and other musical expressions onto the side of ethnic musics from Africa and elsewhere and out of the normal creation process through classical teaching.
For Dôle the main point in the revival was to tell people to pick up whatever instrument and try and do something with it the way they want.
Here we have some of the other pioneers of the French revival like Michel Hindenoch, Patrick Lemercier or Michel Legoubé. The majority of the tracks was recorded by Dôle in his flat in the center of Paris between 1975 and 1976. Two tracks were recorded live including Dewey and Rodney Balfa; one was recorded in Louisiana and another one in the street with a blind accordion player. Tunes and songs from Vendée, Lyonnais, Poitou or Morvan are part of the album along with some Cajun repertoire by French revivalists and Cajun singers.
The label Expression Spontanée (literally spontaneous expression) was a left-wing friendly label founded by Jean Bériac in 1968

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CAMOДEЯTEЛЬHOE ИCKУCCTBO HAPOДHOCTEЙ CEBEPA

 

CAMOДEЯTEЛЬHOE ИCKУCCTBO HAPOДHOCTEЙ CEBEPA

THE ART OF THE AMATEUR GROUPS OF NORTHERN NATIVE PEOPLE

Melodiya, 1983, S 9019759-007

This is another of those albums I could borrow from the Soviet Cultural Center in Paris around 1986. At that time I didn't think necessary to copy the front cover but thanks to Leonidas here it is as well as the text in Russian.
These amateur groups are like national groups for different small people like the Evenks, the Saami, the Nenets or the Khantys. They are organised as folk ensembles performing on stages but they are still a reflection of traditional cultures that have been endangered since the time of the Russian colonization.

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Muhammad Jum'ah Khan

 

This is a copy of a commercial tape by the great singer and ud player Muhammad Jum'ah Khan. Born in 1903, perhaps, he mastered different styles of Yemeni singing. He was from a region called Hadramawt in the east but could sing in other styles like those of Sana'a, Lahji or Yaf'i. He died in 1962 but he is still highly venerated according to the Yemen Times where I found the following : 

He learnt the basics of reading and writing in the local madrasa and was distinguished by his voice. He was apt for reciting verses from the Holy Quraan and poetic verses and he was among the pupils who were usually performing on public occasions.

When he was fifteen, he joined the Sultanate brass band, led by an Indian and he remained a member of it until he was 29. He got promotions while he was there as he could successfully play various types of musical instruments and excelled particularly in playing qanbous and oud. Ultimately he was appointed a leader of the band.

Mohammed Jum'ah Khan formed his own band when he retired from the Sultan band. He took up singing as a profession. His first appearance with the band was in a solo performance playing oud and tambourine. Later, his fame grew and spread over Arabia and Africa.

He sang for different producers using verses from the poetic collections of many great Arab literary figures such as Basharah al-Khawri, Zuhair bin Abi Salma and Antarah bin Shaddad. Khan could reach the hearts of the people through his mastery over the art of signing and his identification with the versifier.

Of the testimonies made in his favor is that of late Farid al-Atrash, famous Egyptian singer, who, when listening to the audio recording of the performance of Khan with his band, praised him and could hardly believe that the band consisted of only four members.

This tape besides Jum'ah Khan features an anonymous (for me) violin player, an instrument rare enough in Yemen it seems, and a percussion player. So it's an example of Yemeni music at its best.

There are no titles; I got the tape from a friend who lived in Yemen for a while.

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Paddy O'Brien from Tipperary

 

PADDY O'BRIEN (1922-1991)

As a musician and trad music lover I was lucky to meet other musicians and collect from some of them tapes of all sorts of music.
Here is a tape about the great Irish box player Paddy O'Brien from Nenagh (county Tipperary). I think it was made during a session when O'Brien was then in Garrykennedy on the shores of Lough Derg. It's difficult to know when exactly that session was held but it could be during the seventies. There are several fiddlers and a piano with Paddy in the front leading the session; they play together all the time except for one set of reels by Paddy and the piano. Lots of reesls of course with some jigs and one set of slip jigs, two sets of hornpipes and one march. Paddy O'Brien was not only a brillant box player (G/C#) but also a very prolific composer. In fact many of his tunes have been played ever since where Irish music is played. These tunes are considered traditional now and often musicians don't know about the origin of these tunes.
This is a copy of a copy I suppose but the quality is not that bad and the music is just great.

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Moravian Folk Songs

 

Ej, Brode, Brodečku

MORAVIAN FOLK SONGS

LUBOMÍR MÁLEK

BRNĚNSKÝ ROZHLASOVÝ ORCHESTR LIDOVÝ CH NÁSTROJŮ

BRNO RADIO FOLK INSTRUMENT ENSEMBLE

Supraphon, 1988, 11 0059-1

A typical album of Moravian folklore with the singer L. Málek from the region of Uherský Brod. Moravia is part of the Czech Republic bordering with Slovakia. There was a certain Hungarian influence on the local music with violins and hammered dulcimer I suppose brought initially by Gypsy musicians. Uherský means Hungarian in Czech. All the songs are from the same area.
Texts in Czech and English

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