ROCKING THE CRADLE-Séamus Ennis

 

ROCKING THE CRADDLE

SONGS IN ENGLISH & GAELIC 

SEAMUS ENNIS

Folktracks Cassettes, 1982, FSA-45-169

S. Ennis (1919-1982) was one of the greatest pipers in Ireland. He could also sing in English and Irish and play the fiddle, the flute and the war pipes. He was also known for his works as a collector of songs, tunes and tales all over Ireland in the forties and fifties for the Irish Folkore Commission and later for Radio Eireann.
Some of  the songs  he performs on this tape are delivered with short stories or explanations about them. There are 10 songs in English and 9 in Gaelic.
Unfortunately the production is rather poor as the cover shows : a simple piece of paper perhaps due to a lack of funding.

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SKED

 

SKED

Production Velia, ?, 2230025

Among the numerous Breton bands Sked is probably one of the least know now. Sked (meaning ''glossy'', ''shiny'' in Breton) made only one album maybe in 1975. The band had some musicians who became famous later like Jean-François Sibéril known as Soïg Siberil on guitar and Jean-Pol Huellou on tin whistle and classical metal flute. Others were also very important at that time like Alain Le Hegarat on uilleann pipes who was one of the first Breton people to have discovered Irish music at the end of the fifties; he went to Ireland in 1960 and started with a practice set around 1972. He was born in 1939 and is still with us. He and Alain Trovel (keyboards) recorded a beautiful album with uilleann pipes and organ which was reissued on CD. In the band were also present the Colleu brothers, Philippe on banjo and Yvon on accordion and guitare. Philippe is well known in Brittany and Normandy for his works on the maritime repertoire from these regions. Two more musicians were parts of the band : Brendan Fahy on guitar, bodhran and vocal (but he doesn't sing on the album) and Gunter Buchwald on fiddle.
The repertoire is mostly Breton with two Irish sets; there is also one melody maybe Scottish, Kingussie Flowers. Note that B1 is not the Humours of Lissadel but O'Neill's March and the Battle of Aughrim and is followed by B2 ''an dro''. The interesting thing about Sked is that like other bands they worked on a traditional Breton repertoire with an Irish approach which was quite innovative at that time. 

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RAUL MALDONADO

 

GUITARE ET CHANTS D'ARGENTINE

GUITAR AND SONGS FROM ARGENTINA

RAUL MALDONADO 

SFP, ?, 52005

 Raul Maldonado was born in Argentina in 1937 in a small place in the pampa but lived partly in France where he recorded this album during the sixties. At the age of twelve he met with Abel Fleury, one of the greatest Argentinian composer for guitar. Maldonado plays some of Fleury's works on side A. He also studied guitar with A. Yupanqui and other musicians. He is mostly a solo guitar player but he worked with Los Calchakis as well as other ensembles.
Side B has some compositions by A. de Robertis the kena player.
This is popular kind of music by learned composers and musicians who loved the songs and music of the people of Argentina and promoted them all around the world.

To know more about Maldonado : http://www.raulmaldonado.fr/

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