Pingtan Xu Lixian

 

PINGTAN - XU LIXIAN

Monography on the art of traditional singing part 1

评弹 - 徐 丽 仙

  唱腔艺术专辑（一） 

China Record, 1984, HD-148

This is what seems to be the first tape of a series about traditional chinese singing.The style we can listen to here is the Pingtan also known as Suzhou Pingtan and typical of Southern China. It is said that it was created under the Song dynasty and it mixes different narrative musical traditions. There is a bit of acting, joking, talking provided by the musicians and singer. Xu Lixian on the cover has a tea mug in hand probably to remind us that tea houses are the places where you can listen to that style. But it is also broadcasted on radio and TV. String instruments dominate with the lutes pipa and sanxian. Pingtan is a lovely style with a sweet and relaxed way of singing as in other southern styles. There are 6 songs (titles in pinyin) : on side A ''xin mulan ci'', du shi niang shu zhuang'', ''xiao mama de fan nao'', side B ''dai yu zang hua'', ''wang kui fu gui ying'', ''luo han qian hui yi''.
Notes in Chinese included if you can read it.

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DENIS GASSER avec ALAN KLOATR

 DENIS  GASSER avec ALAN KLOATR

Cezame, 1976, CEZ 1020

The French folk revival started during the 60's materialised in 1969 with the opening of the first folk club in Paris by John Wright and Catherine Perrier among others. Denis Gasser and Alan Kloatr were among the pioneers with Yvon Guilcher, Marc Peronne or Lionel Rocheman. A. Kloatr passed away in January 2018. He was one of the first uilleann pipes players in France and is remembered as a member of Alan Stivell's band. Here he plays flutes, uilleann pipes, crumhorn and bodhran.
D. Gasser is also a pioneer in folk guitar playing with a solid practice of flat picking he probably got from the playing of British guitarists such as Davy Graham, John Renbourne or Martin Carthy. He is also a good piano/harpsichord player and sings here two ballads from Quebec.
The other musicians on this LP are Bernard Blanc on hurdy-gurdy and cabrette (bagpipe from Auvergne), Dominique Paris on Northumbrian pipes, Phil Fomont on cello and Gérard Lavigne on bass.
The repertoire is typical of folk musicians with a large spectrum from Irish reel and Breton gavotte to medieval dance tunes.
Cezame is a major French label for folk music established in 1975 and has in its catalogue prestigious artists like Marcel Dadi, Pierre Bensusan, the Balfa Brothers, Bill Deraime, etc...
Note that tracks A2 and A3 are linked together.

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SERGEY SIMONIAN

 SERGEY SIMONIAN PLAYS ARMENIAN MELODIES

СЕРГЕЙ СИМОНЯН ИГРАЕТ АРМЯНСКИЕ МЕЛОДИИ

Melodiya, 1987, M30 47659 02 

S. Simonian was a clarinet (side A) and zurna (side B) player from the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. The clarinet replaced the zurna in some areas but the zurna is still in favor generally speaking. In fact the Armenian clarinet is not that well-known here in France. It is played the same way as the Azeri clarinet for the same type of music partly originating in zurna playing.
Edik Avetissian plays the accordion (drone) and Babken Avoyan plays the dohol. Some tracks are Simonian's compositions in the traditional idiom, some are traditional dance tunes and two are by Gusan Ashot. 

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Fête plin du Danouët

 

FETE PLIN DU DANOUËT BOURBRIAC 15 AOUT 1993

PLIN FESTIVAL OF DANOUËT BOURBRIAC 15th of August 1993

Dastum, 1993, DAS-120

Dastum was launched in 1972 as an association to preserve and promote Breton culture through workshops, lectures,  collecting and publishing. In Breton ''dastum'' means ''to collect, to put together''. Here we have a good example of the vitality of the revival in Brittany with the annual competition held at the Danouët, Bourbriac in the Cotes d'Armor department (there are ''countries'' in Brittany like Bro Plin in the Center of Brittany). There are in fact several contests : for dancers, for sonneurs (bombarde and biniou players as well as clarinet-treujenn gaol players), for singers. The dance called ''plin'' or ''dañs tro fañch'' comes from old forms of ''branles'' which were in practice in France during the Middle Ages and after. It is made of 3 parts : first dance, break called ''bal'' and second dance. Marches and melodies are also part of the competition. We can listen to big names in Breton modern music like singers Yann-Fañch Kemener who died in 2019 and  Erik Marchand or sonneurs like Le Féon and Lehart. The repertoire is completely traditional. 

You should visit Dastum site on https://www.dastum.bzh/  although it's all in French.

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JALIBA KUYATEH

 NJAI-KUNDA IN PARIS

JALIBA KUYATEH AND KUMAREH BAND, GAMBIA

no label, 1998

This is one of the tapes made by J. Kuyateh with that band. He has 15 albums altogether issued between 1993 and 2012. He sings and plays the kora with a modern band with brass instruments, bass and drums. The style is reminiscent of Mory Kanté's. You can get some information about his career on Wikipedia.
The sound is perhaps a bit weak but there is a big energy in it. 

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TÜRK SAN'AT ...

 TÜRK SAN'AT MÜZİGİNDEN SEÇMELER

TURKISH HIT PARADE

Request Records, no date, RLP 10075

Don't trust the picture of the cover; this album doesn't deal with some folk country music but with urban kind of music. Some of the musicians are well known like the Erköse Brothers, tanbur player Necdet Yaşar or Ulvi Erguner on ney. It is mostly Ottoman music played by soloists or a band lead by Cevdet Cagla. The Erköse Brs plays popular dance tunes on track A1 which is divided in two tracks (I think the sirto is in ''a'' while the çiftetelli is on ''b''). The quality of the sound is not very good and the album is not in very good shape either.
Request Records was an American label with a large catalogue. Their main public was perhaps not connoisseur hence the ''Turkish hit parade'' mention while the Turkish title could translate as ''selections of Turkish musical art'' which it is really.

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BOBBY CASEY

 

BOBBY CASEY / TAKING FLIGHT

Mulligan, 1979, LUN 018 

Fiddler Bobby Casey (1937-2011) was considered as a legend in his life time. He learned his music with his father Scully who taught Junior Crehan as well. This LP is an excellent way of discovering Bobby's huge talent with lots of ornamentations and variations and requires an attentive listening. No backing at all. B. Casey lived most of his life in England but he was a big name in Ireland where he used to go back from time to time as in 1977 when he was recorded. He composed a few tunes, Porthole of the Kelp being the most famous and played probably.
Mulligan was a very good Irish label founded by Donal Lunny in 1976. The catalogue is now owned by an US label.
If you want to listen to other LPs like this one go visit the site https://ceolalainn.blogspot.com where you can get a good deal of information about the musicians and Irish music.
I said that I wouldn't post LPs that are already on other blogs but I think that the more it is shared the better when we come across such brillant albums.

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