Après la marée noire

 

APRES LA MAREE NOIRE

VERS UNE NOUVELLE MUSIQUE BRETONNE

AFTER THE OIL SLICK

TOWARDS A NEW BRETON MUSIC

Le Chant du Monde, 1979, LDX 74703

On the 16th of March 1978 the tanker Amoco Cadiz was adrift due to rudder failure. In spite of many rescue attempts, the tanker drifting towards the coast of Potsall finally opened its hull on the rocks. 300 km of coastline were polluted in the end; It took 6 months to relatively clean the area while the marine wildlife needed over 7 years to recover from the biggest pollution known in Brittany at the time. This catastrophy had also a political aspect : the mayors of the 98 concerned municipalities  have joined forces to sue the oil company Standard Oil of Indiana and make them pay for the pollution. In 1992 the company was ordered to pay 225 million francs (around 34 million euros). 

During the seventies many things happened in the Breton music revival generated by Alan Stivel among others. There was a desire to create others ways of expression like mixing traditional and jazz music.
Francois Tusques was born in Paris in 1938 and thanks to his parents he discovers jazz through concerts of S. Bechet, C. Luter or R. Urtreger. His career as a jazz piano player starts in the early sixties in Nantes and Paris. After May 1968 he's more and more politically committed and plays with singer Colette Magny. At he beginning of the seventies he thinks that French jazz is at a dead end and he creates the Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra which brings together musicians from all backgrounds to present a less elitist style of jazz. This album is a good example of this approach to popular music. All the music is Tusques' works.
Among the musicians we find three traditional Breton bombard and biniou players, one Catalan singer and jazzmen like the Occitan Michel Marre or Jo Maka born in Guinea (1929-1981).
There is only one song ''Caball'' (the Horse) sung in Catalan by Carlos (Carles) Andreu which tells about the situation in Brittany after the oil slick when the local peasants had to collect fuel on the beaches for months. There is one line that sums up what the song is about : ''la llei del profit es la llei del progrès'' meaning ''the law of profit is the law of progress''. Andreu uses a vocal technique  from the ''cuantre'' typical of  Ibizza.
Most of the tunes are based on Breton ''gavotte des montagnes'' danced in Inner Brittany.
Note that tracks A2 and A3 form a single track (track A3 starts at 9'23")
Text in French.

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Myrdhin

 

MYRDHIN, HARPE CELTIQUE 

Productions Velia, 1974, 2230010

Myrdhin's real name is Rémi Chauvet born in Brittany in 1950.He has about fifteen albums under his name or associated with other musicians like Pol Huellou or Mariannig Larc'hanteg.
This is his first album  during the seventies after Stivell had open a new path for Breton music. Myrdhin plays the harp and sings in French (his own compositions) and Breton (traditional songs) but he wanted to create another approach to the Celtic culture and mythology. He mixes here bits of Irish legends with Breton stuff as well as his own tunes with Irish traditional reels or jigs.
Among the musicians he invited we can notice Patrick and Dominique Molard and Patrick Sicard who were beginning to be very big names in Brittany and beyond.
This album is quite different from what was produced at the time and illustrates well the need for something new and different among young Breton artists.

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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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Binali Selman

 

BINALI SELMAN 1

Harika, no date, 58

Binali Selman was a well known Turkish  zurna player. He was born in 1931 in Bayburt and started his musical career in 1954 after winning a competition organized by Radio Istanbul. He could play all sorts of tradtional instruments including the ney. He had been part of the folk orchestra in Radio Istanbul for thirty years. He worked with big names of Turkish folk/pop scene like Cem Karaca, Barış Manço and Okay Temiz. During the eighties he was awarded the title of world champion zurna player in India. He died in 1996.
This tape is one of many tapes and LPs he recorded; Some of the tunes are availbale on different albums. Seven tracks are mentionned on the cover but there are eight tunes on side A. Side B has nine tracks supposedly but there are eight tracks really. Hope you can find out by yourself what is what.
The davul player is anonymous.

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Berbères du Maroc

 

Berbères du Maroc - "ahwach"

Berbers of Morocco

collection C.N.R.S. Musée de l'Homme

Le Chant du Monde, 1979, LDX 74705

 Bernard Lortat-Jacob who made these recordings in 1972 and 1975 is a well known French ethnomusicologist who also worked on Sardinia.
This album is an impressive example of one of the most representative musical form of the Ayt Mgun Berbers, among others, in which the whole community is involved. Ahwach is a generic term for a great variety of dances though. Each side presents one type of ahwach in its entirety.
The booklet is quite complete and informative. 

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Muhammad Hamud al-Harithi

 

MUḤAMMAD ḤAMŪD AL-ḤARITHĪ / AL-SHAWQ AʽYᾹNĪ

LOVE HAS EXHAUSTED ME

Sawt al-Jazira, no date, GAZ. 11

Al-Harithi  is a great singer and ud player from Sana'a. This tape is a good example of his talents. There are six songs but the two first songs on side A are together; the same about the two last songs on side B.
He's backed mainly by a sahn player which is a large copper plate giving a special effect to the songs.
Al-Harithi was one of Jean Lambert's informants for his work on the music in Sana'a. He wrote ''la musique de l'âme'' with a CD included. Al-Harithi was also recorded on the volume 3 of ''Péninsule arabique : le sowt, musique des villes'' by the prestigious label VDE-Gallo based in Geneva.
I posted another tape of his in January 2022.

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Féerie Sud-Marocaine

 

FEERIE SUD-MAROCAINE

tout le folklore musical pré-saharien recueilli et présenté par JEAN MAZEL

SOUTH MOROCCAN  ENCHANTMENT

 all the pre-Saharan musical folklore collected and presented by JEAN MAZEL

Philips, 1955, N 76.048 R 

Jean Mazel was a French writer and cineaste who also recorded in the field especially in Morocco. This album was the first one he ever published and got an award ''le Grand Prix de l'Académie du Disque Français''. He reads his own text of introduction to the brief musical examples. In spite of their short duration the musical parts are interesting with predominance of singing.
I think that this kind of presentation was necessary at the time because this album was aimed at the general public with no knowledge of Moroccan musical culture. The text is quite literary at times but the music is quite authentic.
Text in French.
Side A : from ''Introduction'' to ''le grand Crescendo'' part of ''le Grand Haouache de Telouet''; the rest on side B.
The musical parts of this album are now part of a CD with other recordings by Mazel (free download on Bandcamp).

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CHANTS MONGOLS ET BOURIATES

 

CHANTS MONGOLS ET BOURIATES

Enregistrements de Roberte  Hamayon

COLLECTION MUSEE DE L'HOMME

MONGOLIAN AND BURYAT SONGS

Recordings by R. Hamayon

Vogue, 1973, LDM 30138

The French label Vogue was founded in 1947 by Léon Cabat and Charles Delaunay. A very eclectic label with Jazz music, popular music, opera, Soviet archives and some ethnic music like this album which was made in partnership with the Musée de l' Homme in Paris.
Roberte Hamayon was born in 1939 and is an anthropologist; her research focuses, among other things, on the shamanic model, the traditional religious substrate of the indigenous peoples of Siberia and Mongolia. After a first stay in Mongolia and  in the Republic of Buryatia in Eastern Siberia in 1967, she participated in the creation of the Centre for Mongolian and Siberian Studies in 1969, which she directed until 2007.
The present recordings were made in 1967, 1968 and 1970 in Central Mongolia and near the Lake Baikal in Buryatia.
Side A is about five solo songs and two songs with morin xuur : love song, in praise of the horse or the camel, hunting stories etc...
Side B has three more Mongolian types of vocal pieces, including an imitation of the flute ''with the nose'' and one flute solo. The six following tracks are Buryat songs (hunting song, archery song, ring dance song etc...). Two songs remind us that women are not always in good position in a former nomadic society (B8 and B9). The album ends with a ring dance ''jooxor'' rarely recorded.
The booklet is quite informative in French and English. A nice album for those who like the Mongolian ''long song'' captured in the steppe.

 

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Lee Saeng Kang

 대금 : 이성진 

 

DAEGEUM : LEE SAENG KANG

Dae Seong, 1985, DAS-0238 

 

This is another tape brought back by a friend of mine. The player is  Lee Saeng Kang one of the greatest masters of the Korean flute. He's backed by a changko player (Lee Song Jin ?) as usual for the sanjo style.
There are two pieces by side but I put them together in one track on each side.

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У HAC OЛEHБKA ДA ЦBETOЧEK

У HAC OЛEHЬKA ДA ЦBETOЧEK
CBAДEБHЫE ПECHИ ЛEHИHГPAДCKOЙ OБЛACTИ

OUR DEAR LITTLE OLGA IS LIKE A FLOWER
WEDDING SONGS FROM THE LENINGRAD OBLAST

Melodiya, 1981, S20 16721-2

This is another LP from the eighties I copied on tape first then from tape onto CD.
Two ensembles from the region of Leningrad  were recorded : the Folk Ensemble from the village of Rudna district of Slantsveskiy (tracks 1-5) and the Folk Ensemble from the village of Zagriv (same district near the Estonian border) (tracks 6-20).They are both  choirs of women with a local repertoire. Some of the melodies are beautiful and they sing as if they were in their villages and not in a studio.
An exceptional production by Melodiya.

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КAЗAKИ-НEKPACOBЦЫ HA KOHЦEPTE B MOCKOBCKOЙ KOHCEPBATOPИИ

 

КAЗAKИ-НEKPACOBЦЫ

HA KOHЦEPTE B MOCKOBCKOЙ KOHCEPBATOPИИ

THE NEKRASOV COSSACKS 

IN CONCERT AT THE MOSCOW CONSERVATOIRE

Melodiya, 1984, S20 20435 009

 

''Real'' Cossack music and singing is rare enough; although this is a ensemble called the Folklore Ensemble of the Stavropol Territory it sounds like authentic tradtional singing. No arrangements or fiddling only straight and lively way of delivering the songs. This ensemble is mainly a choir of women singing in Russian with one solo song (here in Turkish) and some instrumental on harmonica and ''concertina'' (in fact an accordion).
Stavropol is a city north of Caucasus founded as a fortress first by Potemkin to stabilize the conquest of the area over the Ottoman empire in 1774. Don Cossacks were settled there in order to defend the new borders. But that group Nekrasov had been in the region already since 1708 after their rebellion was defeated; they decided to flee toward Kuban under the lead of Ignat Nekrasov hence their name. They were Old Believers and persecuted by the Orthodox Russian Church. In 1737, probably when Nekrasov died, they settled in the Ottoman empire. A number of them choose to fight with the Germans during the Second World War. Then some prefered to go to Turkey, others emigrated to the USA and the rest stayed in the region.
This is a copy I made during the eighties and the cover I have is different from the one we can find on line now.

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An Bhanaltra

 

AN BHANALTRA
Songs in Irish Gaelic
CONAL O DONNELL & others

Folktracks, 1975, FSB-60-003

Folktracks was Peter Kennedy's label to commercialize his own recordings. He worked for the BBC. Here we have the original recordings of the songs selected for the book ''Folksongs of Britain and Ireland.

These singers are traditional singers from Donegal mainly, from the gaeltacht where Irish is spoken daily by everybody. It's a very nice collection with various ways of singing from men and women. Most of the songs are introduced in English. Conal O'Donnell sings ten songs out of nineteen. It's a pity the edition was so poor (just the one sheet of paper); a lack of means I suppose.

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Iran / Vol.2

 

IRAN/Vol.2

Anthologie de la musique traditionnelle

Santur par Majid Kiâni
Musiques traditionnelles vivantes
III. Musiques savantes

Ocora, 1980,  558550

As far as I know, Ocora never reissued these albums of the series called ''Iran'' and subtitled ''Anthology of traditonal music''. There are six albums all under the artistic direction of Jean During.
The santur almost diasppeared in Iran around the 1930s because masters of this instruments were rare enough. The last of them was Somâ'i son of Somâ Hozur who never designated a successor worthy of continuing his tradition. So a more modern style has established itself. But Kiâni wanted to retrieve the old playing technique. So he spent hours listening to old recordings and talking to former Somâ'i's pupils. Thus Kiâni could stick again to the deepest tradition which conveys aesthetic and spiritual values. More details from the text.
Text in (French) and English

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Rais Lhoucine Amentague

 

 الرايس الحسين أمنتاݣ

RAIS LHOUCINE AMENTAGUE

La Voix El Maarif, ?, LVEM 63

This is the last tape out of four that a friend of mine brought back from Morocco between 1985 and 1989. Once again I asked Tim Abdellah for his help since he knows how to read the cover. It is the same style as the other Moroccan tapes posted here, tachelhit or Berber songs and music. Not much is known about Amentague. Tim knows another Amentague (Ahmed) but doesn't know about possible connections between the two. Rais is a ''title''of respect used by many singers.
Side A has only one track so I suppose several songs are performed in one go. Side B has two tracks.
El Maarif was based in Agadir.
You can visit Tim's site; it's really something ! https://moroccantapestash.blogspot.com/

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