Jean Carignan

 

Musiciens traditionnels québécois
Traditional musicians from Quebec

    JEAN CARIGNAN 

Disques Patrimoine, 1985, PAT 180009

Jean Carignan (1916-1988) was one of the legendary fiddlers in Quebec. He taught the fiddle himself from the age of five and by the age of fouteen became completely obcessed with it. The notes in French give some details about his early career . His repertoire is in fact quite Irish particularly from County Sligo. He met Michael Coleman at least once. In 1977 he went to Ireland to participate to the Michael Coleman Festival. Another huge name he met was Yehudi Menuhin. Carignan loved classical and romantic music. He had a huge collection of records by the greatest violonists such as Menuhin, Oistrakh or Stern. He could have had when still a kid private lessons with a classical music teacher but his father refused because he couldn't believe it was possible to make a living with music.
Here is backed by Herbert Ruff on piano and Aldor Morin who played spoons and ''feet'' typical of French Canadian music. I think there is also a double-bass not mentionned but too loud at times. The sound quality is not always good; these recordings were made in 1962.
Behind the French titles are Irish reels, jigs and hornpipes mostly. 

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Angus Chisholm

 

THE EARLY RECORDINGS OF ANGUS CHISHOLM

Legendary performances of traditional Scottish Fiddling

Shanachie Records, 1978, 14001

Angus Chisholm (1908 or 1909-1979) was a legendary fiddler from Nova Scotia-Cape Breton. He was one of the first fiddlers to cut 78RPM discs for Decca in 1934 (here tracks B1 and B2). All the recordings gathered for this album were made in the 1930s and 1940s. As it is still the case now, the piano is the main accompanying instrument on all tracks and played by three women (see names on the back cover). One guitar player (Mickey McIntyre) is also present on some tracks. The repertoire comes above all from Scotland with some tunes composed in Cape Breton and some Irish jigs and reels. It is said that  even decades after Chisholm's death the local fiddling is still measured by his fiddling that became sort of standard.
Shanachie Records founded in 1975 by Richard Nevins and Dan Collins are now Shanachie Entertainment.

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АЛА-TOO КҮҮЛѲРҮ 1

 

АЛА-TOO КҮҮЛѲРҮ 1/ MEЛOДИИ АЛА-TOO 1

ALA-TOO MELODIES 1

Melodiya, 1984, M90 46031-32

This is the first album of a serie of five LPs about Kyrgyz folk music recorded between 1930 and 1980.
Once again I got a loan of it from a cultural center in Paris and this copy is different from what I found on the web. Here there is only one disc while  the other issue has two discs per album. Again one track (A10 : ''oy oy'') mentionned in the notes is missing in my copy. Side 1 is about ''folk music'' with soloists playing komuz, choor, surnay, jew's harp, kyak with some singing. Side 2 focuses on ''masters of folk music'' meaning musicians who are also composers. Some of them play their own pieces like Ibray Tumanov, or Musa Baetov while other compositions are played by instrumental bands or other soloists.
It is difficult to know what ''ala-too'' refers to : it is the name of a range of mountains but also of a square in Bichkek the capital of Kyrgyzstan. It could be something else though...
Below content in Russian; in Kyrgyz language in the scan.

МЕЛОДИИ АЛА-TOO (album 1)

(Первая пластинка): Киргизская нар. музыка – side A

 1. На джайлоо; Шакин Жоробекова - жы-гач ооз комуз

2. Пастуший наигрыш; Асанбай Каримов - чоор

3. Кю сурная; Жунусаалы Куттубаев - сурнай

4. Помни, милый; Ажар Карачинова - ооз комуз

5. Табун; Сайд Бекмуратов - кыяк

6. Кара озгей; Кара Молдо Орозов - комуз

7. На скачках, из эпоса «Манас» (отрывок); Саякбай Каралаев ооз комуз

8. Милая; Муса Баетов - пение, комуз

9. Песня любви; Мыскал Омурканова - пение, комуз

(10. Ой-ой,)

 Мастера нар. музыки – side B

1. Кербез (Т. Сатылганов); Алымкул Усембаев - пение, комуз

2. На скачках (М. Куренкеев); Муратаалы Куренкеев - кыяк

3. Пестрые горы (А. Байбаатыров); ансамбль комузистов

4. Ибарат (К. Орозов); Кара Молдо Орозов - комуз

5. О, девушки (М. Баетов); Муса Баетов - пение, accordion

6. Победа (И. Туманов); Ибрай Туманов - комуз

7. Виртуозный ботой (А. Огомбаев); ансамбль комузистов

 8. Камбаркан (М. Куренкеев, обр. С. Ряузова). орк. киргизских нар. инстр. им. К. Орозова п/у Н. Давлесова

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MAGYARNEMEGYE

 

MAGYARNEMEGYEI HANGSZERES NÉPZENE

VÁLOGATÁS KONKOLY ELEMÉR GYŰJTEMÉNYBŐL 

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INSTRUMENTAL FOLK MUSIC FROM MAGYARNEMEGYE

SELECTION FROM THE ELEMÉR KONKOLY COLLECTION

ETNOFON, 1993, ED-MK 001 

Etnofon is a very interesting label founded in 1992 immediately after the fall of the fall of the communist regime. Most of the albums are CDs but some were issued as cassettes only and never released on CD. Elemér Konkoly is a musician who was part of the Hungarian revivalism in the 70s as well as a musicologist who worked in the field. This cassette is the result of his work on the village of Magyarnemegye. There he met a local gypsy band and brought it to Budapest for a studio recording. The notes in Hungarian and English are short but give enough information about the general context.
For some people this would be just another recording among a huge amount of albums of traditional Hungarian-Transylvanian music but the aficionados would probably enjoy it as it should be.

 

 

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