Giora Feidman

 

מוזיקת ​​נשמה  / גיורא פיידמ

GIORA FEIDMAN / "JEWISH SOUL MUSIC''

Hed-Arzi, 1972, BAN 14297

My father (who went  abroad    for his work sometimes) brought back this exceptional album when I was still a kid in the early seventies.
G. Feidman was born in Argentina in 1936 in a musical family originating from Bessarabia. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were musicians playing mostly for weddings. He went to Israel when he was twenty and stayed there as a professional musician with the Israel Philarmonic Orchestra. He became a renowned clarinet player and his discography is huge.
Here he plays with Ami Frenkel on electric bass and Yossi Levi on guitar, a perfect combination that highlights Feidman's powerful playing. Most of the tunes are traditional including superb melodies like Yah Ribon or Shalom Aleichem. I think it's difficult not to enjoy his music, the dynamics and mastering on the instrument above all his work on the reed. 

 

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Y. Marcus & C. Gibbons

 

YOURA MARCUS & CRISTI GIBBONS

sans titre ...  (untitled ...)

Arfolk, 1979,  SB 373

Youra Marcus was one of the pioneers in the French revival movement at the end of the sixties.  He played the five-string banjo and bluegrass and old-time music. He was a member of the first (probably) French band that specialized in American music with Gabriel Yacoub and Phil Fromont in 1969. The band was called the New Ragged Company. Then he met other important artists during the seventies like Bill Deraime, Patrick Desaunay, John Wright ... He played  in duet with the American banjo player Derroll Adams between 1978 and 1986. He passed away in 2020.
This album was recorded in 1977 and released two years later. Here he's with the female-singer, hurdy-gurdy and autoharp player Cristi Gibbons. There is no information about her on the album but I read on the web that she was at the time P. Molard's wife. I suppose she was American. The other musicians are Christian Gourhan on fiddle, J. Padovani on drums, Lolotte on piano, Dan ar Bras on guitar, P. Beaupoil on bass, Patrick Molard on flute, whistle and Scottish bagpipe, Dominique Molard on bodhran. Youra also sings and plays guitar and autoharp.
The repertoire is mainly American of course with some compositions by Marcus and Gibbons like ''Sans Titre".
On track B1 they play a ''Norvégienne'' which is a Norwegian reinlender similar to the scottish.
There is a mistake on the cover for track A5 where P. and D. Molard play as well. This track called Termaji was P. Molard' and Cristi's composition and refers to the way people in Brittany used to call the magic lantern at the beginning of the XXth century. Termaji was the name of the trio Marcus set up with Molard and Gibbons in Brittany.
There is an interesting arrangement on track B2 where Gibbons sings with Molard's pipe before he plays the tune as a pibroch to the end.
The lyrics in English are on the back cover. 

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Youcef Esseghir

 

FOLKLORE TUNISIEN

ORCHESTRE YOUCEF ESSEGHIR/MEZOUED  YOUCEF ELKAROUI

RBAÏBIYA VOLUME 2

Les Artistes Arabes Associés,  1976, 72612

One of the main characteristics of Tunisian folk music is the use of the bagpipe called mezoued. This bagpipe is also used in parts of Algeria near the Tunisian and Lybian borders. Youcef Elkaroui is very good on it. He plays throughout each song to support the singers along with a strong set or drummers.
Mezoued is a genre in itself.
I've never found the first volume but a compilation is available on Bandcamp (https://lesartistesarabesassocies.bandcamp.com/album/chanson-populaire-tunisienne) where three tracks of  the present album are part of that compilation.
This was an album I borrowed from my local library so it cracks at the beginning of each side but the sound of the music is clear. 

 

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The Distinctive Two

 

THE DISTINCTIVE TWO

Prof. V.G. Jog and Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia

Violin & Flute Jugalbandi

Ragas : Jog . Hansadhwani
Holi Mishra Kafi

Tabla Pandit Mahapurush Mishra 

HMV, 1978, ECSD 2808

This is one of the numerous albums edited by His Master's Voice India  with great names of Hindustani classical music. As said in the presentation text the idea of playing along with another solo partner is not new to Hindustani music. Dhrupad gave many examples of this combination. But mixing instruments like the violin and the bansuri is more recent in the long history of Indian art music.
V.G. Jog and Hariprasad Chaurasia are two amazing exponents of classical music. I find Jog a bit stiff though at times while Chaurasia is just perfect as usual.
Each piece is shortly introduced to with basic information about each raag.
Note that the rhythmic cycle called ''tritaal'' is also  known as  ''teentaal''

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