Inde-Nagaland

 

INEDIT 3 - INDE  NAGALAND

CHANT DES TRIBUS SEMA ET ZELIANG

SONGS OF THE SEMA AND ZELIANG TRIBES

Maison des Cultures du Monde, 1985, MCM 003

 When vocal polyphonies are mentionned we think almost immediately of Corsican, Georgian or Albanian polyphony. But this very ancient vocal practice is also present in other areas especially in Asia. There South China is one of the richest zone with Vietnam and Laos. Much less known is that part of India named Assam located between Bhutan, China, Burma and Bangladesh. There live different populations including the Naga speaking several dialects of the tibetan-burmese language family. They are Chistians since the British occupation which occurred in order to stop human sacrifices, head hunting and slavery practiced by some tribes. Nagaland became the 16th state of the Indian Union in 1963 with special status regarding the civil administration, criminal laws or the transmission of property.
For the first time in France and during the ''Year of India''  a group of Sema and Zeliang people were invited by Maison des Cultures du Monde in Paris for several concerts recorded on the 19th and 20th of September 1985. The Sema women and men sing separately while the Zeliang sing together on this album. There are mixed choirs as well among the Sema. The Sema  never use musical instruments when singing; they sing in thirds and in antiphony. 
The notes are in French only but I translated the titles.
There were 1500 items released my copy being numbered 0671.

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Musique au temps des Croisades

 

MUSIQUE AU TEMPS DES CROISADES

musique instrumentale & vocale du XIIIe siècle

LE FLORILEGIUM MUSICUM DE PARIS

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MUSIC AT THE TIME OF THE CRUSADES  

instrumental & vocal music of the XIIIth century

CBS, 1973, 76083

This is the first album in ''Early music'' category. I said in the introduction to this blog that I would post some LPs of this type. As a lover of traditional music I was also attracted at an early age to Medieval and Renaissance musical culture. After years of listening and reading about traditional cultures I could see the links that were at work between early music and late traditions. The folk or revival movement in France was close to this kind of music from the beginning along other influences. What we consider as typical of certain regions comes to some extent from the Middle-Age and Renaissance periods.
Here the band called ''musical florilegium of Paris'' was led by Jean-Claude Malgoire and was one of the most important ensembles in France at the time. I remember that I used to go to their free concerts in the early 70s on Sunday afternoons. They recorded several albums this one being the first one. 

Their goal was to give a new life to the vocal and instrumental music from the medieval period to our times. They worked from original manuscripts from Montpellier, Bamberg and Apt, the major part of the compositions being anonymous. The text written by Marie-Françoise Bloch is rich and informative but in French only. It discusses the possibility of the Arabic influence on the Southern culture in France as well as how  the vocal music evolved between the XIth and XIIIth centuries.
The term Crusades refers as well to the ''Croisade des Albigeois'' when the French king at the pope's request invaded the South of France in order to eradicate the heretics known as Cathares or Albigeois. 

If a certain number of you feel interested in this album I'll post more of it.

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El litoral pacifico

 

9  MÚSICA TRADITIONAL Y POPULAR COLOMBIANA

EL LITORAL PACIFICO / Aguacerito llové

TRADITIONAL AND POPULAR MUSIC FROM COLUMBIA

THE PACIFIC COAST / Little rain

Procultura S.A., 1987, ?

This album is the number 9 of a very good series of 16 albums issued by Columbian label Procultura, each LP focusing on a special area or type of music in Colimbia.
Here it's about a large zone on the Pacific Ocean that covers parts of the departments of Choco, Valle del Cauca and Cauca y Nariño. A good part of the population is black (Los Morenos) mixed with Indians and white people. So the instruments are the marimba, the chirimia, lots of percussions. Singing is dominant. African and Spanish influences are very strong; the bands were recorded between 1979 and 1983 locally or in Bogota. There are two tracks with some clarinet playing.
The ''slogan'' at the bottom of the cover on the right says ''let's learn to love our music''. There is a fascicule is Spanish that is not included here.

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An-Nour

 

AN-NOUR

HYMNS OF THE NEAR EASTERN CHURCHES

LCPS 101

I bought this second hand LP in New York about 30 years ago. These hymns are part of the Byzantine and Maronite rites in Lebanon and sung by Fairuz and Wadih El Safi (1921-2013). Fairuz sings on the 3 first tracks with a choir in Arabic and Greek. W. El Safi sings the remaining 5 hymns with the accompaniment of an organ or harmonium and a (discreet) violin. There is no date of publication or recording but I read somewhere that Fairuz was at the beginning of her career when she sang for this album. So I suppose that it was around 1957-1960. The sound recording is not very good but if you like Fairuz you won't be disappointed.

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Aşιk Nesimi

 

LE CHANT DES TROUBADOURS DE TURQUIE

ACHIK NESIMI

THE SINGING OF THE TURKISH TROUBADOURS

Anthologie de la musique des peuples, 1979, AMP 7 2905

 Aşιk Nesimi Çimen (1931-1993) was what we call in French a bard, somebody who can sing old texts as well as his own compositions set on traditional or composed tunes. Nesimi was an Alevi and heir of a long tradition of singers politically concerned by the place of poor and oppressed people in the Ottoman and Turkish society. There are information in English about Nesimi's life and all the songs are translated.
The number of Alevi people is estimated at 25% of the total population but because they don't go to the mosque or fast during the ramadan, they are not considered as good muslims by the Sunnites. Women are not confined to domestic chores only but are active in the ceremonies with men. Nesimi sings a love poem by Latife Bacι.
The death of Nesimi on the 2nd of July 1993 is an example of that situation. Some Alevis went to Sivas to celebrate Pir Sultan Abdal, Nesimi among them. When the inhabitants of Sivas knew about this meeting some of them went to the hotel in order to stop or protest against the presence of these Alevis in Sivas a town known for its strict and rigorous practice of Islam. The police were there as well but didn't move when the crowd set fire to the place killing 37 and injuring dozens of  participants. It was  displayed on TV but the President of the Republic said publicly that it was ''an isolated act'' only not worth acting about it. Nobody was arrested afterward. I don't think that the global perception of the Alevis has changed since with Erdoǧan in power. About 100 000 persons were present at the victims' burial.
So this album is an important document; Nesimi recorded another album in France ''Chants de luttes révolutionnaires d'Anatolie'' in the sixties. If one of you has it I'd like to know.

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Kayageum Sanjo

 

KAYAGEUM SANJO

JIN YANJO - JAJIN MEORI

Asia Records, 1984, ALC 1039

Another Corean tape issued in the eighties and brought back by a friend at that time.
I still don't have means of translating the covers but somebody helped me a bit with the transcription.
Side 1 : Jin Yanjo/ Jung Meori/ Jung jung Meori. The three tunes are played as one set.
Side 2 : Jajin Meori/ Hwi Meori/ Jae Taryeong. Played as side A.

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Ustad Bismillah Khan

 

USTAD BISMILLAH KHAN & PARTY Shehnai

EMI, 1983, 6TCS 02B 2458

Ustad Bismillah Khan (1914-2006) brought the shehnai out of the rituals with which it was associated to the concert stage. The formula is always the same : the lead shehnai backed by several shehnai including a drone and usually several tabla and dhol. This recording is also available on LP. 

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The Pan-Islamic Tradition/3

 

THE PAN-ISLAMIC TRADITION - VOLUME 3

MUSIC OF MOROCCO

Lyrichord, 1975, LLST 7240

Philip Schuyler recorded lots of material in Morocco and Yemen over a 45 year period. He wrote the notes for this album. Most of Lyrichord  production is avalaible on their site (https://lyrichord.com) as downloads but not this LP. 

Side A focuses on the Gnawa tradition with outdoor music played on drum and qarqabus and indoor music with singing, gembri and percussions. Schuyler tells us about Bilal the first muezzin and patron saint of the Gnawa brotherhood. A good musical picture of this style which is now internationally famous.

Side B is about the Jbala people in the north of Morocco between Fes and Tanger. There the music is played on the flute gasba and the drum bendir often played in pair. They support one singer to whom one or several singers respond. Notice the fact that Schuyler gives the names of all the musicians.

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Micho Russell

 

MICHO RUSSELL

Triskel Records, 1982, TRL 1009

Almost all the recordings made by Micho Russell are avalaible on CDs except for this one and another one I posted earlier.
This album is similar to the other ones with Micho introducing some of the tunes and playing them without any accompaniement.  However he is joined on the eight first tracks on side A by a mandola player which was quite unnecessary to my opinion. That player is anonymous but I heard that he could be Frank Hogan who was known to play with another great name of Irish traditional music, the flute player Paddy Carty. Here the mandola is badly tuned and the backing doesn't suit Micho's flute playing. On the other tracks Micho plays his whistle with his fantastic style. He died in 1994 in a car accident and was one the finest exponents of the true traditional music practiced by farmers and inhabitants of small communities in North Clare. This album is very valuable for its little-known tunes like the Rising Sun or Tom Bawn. There is one song in Irish on B9.
For the connoisseurs and real lovers of Irish music.

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