Pays Sunda

 INDONESIE SUNDA
MUSIQUES DE L'ASIE TRADITIONNELLE vol. 11

TRADITIONAL ASIAN MUSIC volume 11

Playa Sound, 1972 ?, PS 33515

Jacques Brunet who made these recordings in Java in 1972 was first a concert piano player before becoming one of best if not the best French  connoisseur of traditional and art music from southeast Asia. Between 1963 and 1982 he spent a lot of time in Cambodia, Burma, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Indonesia recording a huge variety of music. All his productions are well presented with lots of details about the musical forms, history of the places concerned and singers and players he recorded. He was present enough on French radios especially France Culture in the eighties; I discovered and got an interest in these musics through  his passionate and exciting radio programmes and albums.
Java was one of his main interests; Sunda is western Java and lies over a third of the island. There was the ancient kingdom of Pajajaran which was very powerful between the fifth and the fifteenth centuries. Hinduism was quite dominant from an early period before competing with Islam from the fifteenth century.
Sunda is known for its very refined music based on suling flute and kacapi zither. Ono Sukarna the suling player was considered as the best flute player in the country. There are also two great singers.
There are seven tracks but during copying track seven was cut into two parts by mistake.
Text in French by J. Brunet. 

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Cheikh Imam : les Yeux des Mots

 

LE CHEIKH IMAM  CHANTE NEGM
الشيخ إمام, أحمد فؤاد نجم

LES YEUX DES MOTS
عيون الكلام

SHEIKH IMAM SINGS NAJM
THE EYES OF WORDS  

Le Chant du Monde, 1976,  LDX 74543

The series ''le nouveau chansonnier international'' was created to introduce French audiences to a range of politically committed singers, in keeping with the spirit of the founders of Le Chant du Monde. Among them Atahualpa Yupanqui, Joan Manuel Serrat or Jose Afonso. Some of these singers have had their work republished but not all as this record shows.
Sheikh Imam (real name : Imam Mohammed Ahmed Issa) has been one of the most powerful voices in the Arab world. Born in 1918 in Egypt he became blind at the age of one. There is lots of information about him in English.
The thing to remember is that he was a kind of moral and political conscience in the Arab world criticising Arab governments on their lack of help to the  Palestinians or their submission to the American imperialism. This has landed him in prison more than once.  He died in 1995.
All the lyrics are by Ahmed Fouad Najm (1929-2013) who spent eighteen years in jail also in Egypt for his attacks on Egyptian and other political leaders.
The first song of this album (when the sun drowns in a sea of mist) was used as a starter by Sheikh Imam for all his concerts from 1973 onwards.
The recordings were not made in studio but in public although the location is not mentionned.
The presentation text in in French only but the lyrics are also in Arabic. 

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Bali divertissements musicaux

 BALI 

divertissements musicaux et danses de transe

musical entertainments and trance dances

Ocora, 1983, OCR 72 

Recorded in the field in 1971 by Gilles Fresnais (with the help of the ORTF Musical Research Group) this album features some traditional Balinese music both profane and sacred. We can listen to gamelan Semar Peguligan with the usual type of instruments but the primary interest of this album is the orchestra called geng gong based on eight  bamboo jew's-harps (geng gong), a small flute, two zithers made also made of bamboo (a similar instrument can be found in Madagascar) and percussions. This orchestra is used to provide some entertainment during banquets. The other interest is the trance ceremony presented on side B.
The text in English is reasonably detailed to understand the progress and significance of such dances.
Ocora has an outstanding catalog of Balinese music but only a small number of these LPs has been reissued on CD so far.

 

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Chant en pays Bigouden

 

 

TRADITION FAMILIALE DE CHANT EN PAYS BIGOUDEN 

Chanteurs et musiciens de Bretgane N°4

 

FAMILY TRADITION OF SINGING IN THE BIGOUDEN COUNTRY

Singers and musicians of Brittany N°4

 

Dastum, 1991, DAS-114 

 

Bigouden country or Bro Vigouden in Breton is a small area west of  Quimper in Southern Finistère. The main city is Pont-l'Abbé. So we are in the Breton speaking part of Brittany in the greater region called Kernew (Cornwall). Singing is still very important in Breton mainly and in French. This tape is a good example of this part of the Bigouden culture with the grandmother Lisette Maréchal, her daughter Marie-Aline Lagadic and the third generation with two young singers Klervi Rivière who is now a well-known traditional singer and Anna Stéphan.

The repertoire is probably local with a certain number of songs about fishermen, sailors and the sea. The booklet that goes with the tape was missing so it's difficult to know better. All songs are in Breton except for A5 and B7 and unaccompanied as it should be. 

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Authentic Music of the American Indian

 

AUTHENTIC MUSIC OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN 

Volume I : War Dances and Honor Songs/Volume II : Social Songs and Folk Songs/Volume III : Ceremonial Songs and Chant

INCLUDES MUSIC OF THE FOLLOWING TRIBES !

                      CHEYENNE OMAHA  CROW  TEWA  PAPAGO  PONCA   TAOS   PAWNEE                           APACHE  ZUNI  SIOUX  KIOWA   SHAWNEE  UTE  HOPI  ARIKARA                                       NAVAJO  PLAINS   PIMA  PAIUTE

A THREE RECORD SET

Everest,  1971, 3450/3

A good part of this excellent set was reissued by  Spalax Music in 1994 and Legacy International. But as it is sometime the case some tracks have been excluded:  here 26 tracks out of 40 are available on CD.
So I'm posting the 14 tracks missing because the whole product  gives an good overview of the different types of singing from very different ''tribes'' (Indian talk about nations nowadays). Some of these Native American groups are not really known here like the Tewa and Pima. The others such as Apache, Navajo (Dine) or Sioux are easily found   in the album productions. But what makes the difference maybe with more contemporary albums is the five page booklet full with valuable information for people like us. It gives a real picture of what the Indians were and what they are at the time of recording : ''these remarkable people can drum and sing, joke and laugh - even if some of the jokes are now bitter. They have not given up''.
Everest Records was founded in 1958 and had its own recording material. So I suppose all the field recordings here were their work for there are no credits nor details about the actual recordings except for the solo or lead  singers names.

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Harpes Celtiques

 

HARPES CELTIQUES 1000 ANS D'HISTOIRE 

Conservatoire régional de musique, chants, danses et sports
traditionnels de Bretagne
racines pour demain  

CELTIC HARPS 1000 YEARS OF HISTORY  

Brittany regional music, songs, dances and traditional sports conservatory
roots for tomorrow

Conservatoire régional, 1987, CR 8701

This album features two Breton harp players : Mariannig Larc'hantec and Myrdhin. Myrdhin plays on tracks B1,  B2 and B3 on a metal string harp while Larc'hantec plays a nylon string harp on all other tracks.
The album is a kind of audio version of an exhibition presented by the Regional Conservatory about the history of the harp. France Vernillat, harpist and scholar, wrote the text in French to give a summary of that history starting in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt and ending with mention of Alan Stivell.
M. Larc'hantec had a classical and traditional type of formation. She won the first prize in Killarney in 1974 at the International Panceltic Competition.  She was a celtic harp teacher at the Regional Conservatory at the time of the recording. I find her approach to traditional music a bit too stiff especially on track A8 (gavottes des montagnes). She plays some medieval and Renaissance stuff as well as Irish harp music from O'Carolan, a menuet, a traditional tune from the Hebrides and a sicilienne. She composed the last tune on side B ''Excalibur''.
Tracks A1 and A7 were harmonised by Denise Mégevand who was Alan Stivell's harp teacher when he was a kid.
Myrdhin (real name Rémi Chauvet) is more creative in a way. There are some percussion instruments on his tracks and in the absence of any other information I suppose he also plays them. He tried to go back in a way to the ancient bardic world  when  imagination was valued and music forged links between man and the universe. 

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AL-SAMAH

 

AL-SAMAH/ ARĀKA ṬARŪBAN

This is a copy of a commercial tape I got from a friend who lived in Sana'a for a while. Numerous tapes and their copies were widely in circulation in Yemen the problem being that if the music can be copied the tapes covers were not; so apart from the name of the singer and sometimes the title of the tape nothing is available about the content. Of course it doesn't matter too much for Yemeni people who understand the lyrics and know the singers but for us it's a loss.
Ali Al-Simah (Samah) was a famous singer and lute player in the Sana'a tradition who was active between the sixties and the eighties (my guess) but it's difficult to find information about him.
There is only one darbuka player with him but it's enough to create a wonderful music based on vigourous ud playing.
Thanks to Leonidas plenty of information about Al-Samah in the comments below.

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Arapaho sun dance

 

SOCIAL SONGS OF THE ARAPAHO SUN DANCE

WIND RIVER SINGERS

Canyon Records, 1971, 6080

This album was recorded by Raymond Boley during the summer 1971 at Fort Washakie. There are eight songs without any names or information about them. The Wind River Singers were four male singers and two female singers. According to what I hear the men always start the songs but the women often end them.
The Arapaho were forcibly moved to Wyoming and Colorado but originated from Minnesota and Manitoba states;  they were closed to the Cheyenne and a bit less to the Lakotas. Some Arapaho warriors took part in the battle of Litltle Big Horn in 1876. 
Wind River is one of the reservations where Arapaho are with Fort Washakie build in 1871 and abandoned in 1909.
All the songs are part of the sun dance ritual; there are no information although there is much to say about it. Some details here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Dance and here https://www.notesfromthefrontier.com/post/the-sun-dance-sacred-ceremony

 

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Utriculus

 

UTRICULUS

CANTI E MUSICHE PER ZAMPOGNA E CIARAMELLA

SONGS AND MUSICS FOR BAGPIPE AND SHAWM

Associazione Culturale ''Circolo della Zampogna'', Scapoli. Molise. Italia, 1991, A&A 91

Circolo della zampogna is a  non-profit Italian cultural organization (NGO) that is actively working since 1990 for the safeguarding and promoting of the tradition, both musically and as a handicraft, connected with the zampogna (the bagpipe of the Centre and Southern Italy) and with the ciaramella (or piffero), the folk oboe traditionally played with the bagpipe as it is written on their site : https://zampogna.org/wpsite/
Scapoli has been the center of international bagpiping every year in July with some pretigious pipers from all over the world.
Utriculus (the latin name  for bagpipes) is a quaterly magazine with articles in different languages.
The man who came up with the idea for this cassette was Pietro (Piero) Ricci a famous piper born in 1955 in the province of Molise. He's said to have revolutionised the zampogna. He plays here the zampogna and percussions along with Lino Miniscalco on ciaramella and Mauro Gioielli, vocals. He composed six tunes out of nine; the three other works are Beethoven's Ode to Joy, an Italian version of Silent Night on which he plays a superb accompaniment to the ciaramella and a composition by A.M. De Liguori ''Quanno nascete Ninno''. So it's not traditional music stricto sensu but ideas about how the zampogna can be played nowadays. 

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Re Niliu

                                                                  RE NILIU

NON SULI E NO' LUNA

Madau Dischi, 1984, K 016 

 Re Niliu was formed in december 1979 by Ettore Castagna, Sergio Di Giorgio, Francesco Forgione, Gino Parise, Goffredo Plastino and Emilio Rinaldo in Catanzaro, Calabria. They became one of the most famous bands in the Italian revival. They were also probably one of the first revival band south of Rome.
What was called the ''folk movement''started in northern Italy in cities among young people looking for lost roots. This was typical of highly developped areas like Milan, Rome or Bergame. I believe that this revival started much later in poorer  southern Italy but widespread among young people especially students.
The name of the band was found by F. Forgione after the legend  about King Niliu who suffers from a curse : he can't stay in the sun or he will melt like wax.
This is their first tape/lp. Here is a copy of a tape but the cover and back cover are those of the dics version.
The band is still in activity but has recorded four records only plus one which was never released. The band is of course different now
Calabria is at the tip of the Italian boot and has a rich and somewhat eventful history; the Greek  cities and colonies were quite developped before Rome conquered them; then Normands, Muslims, Albanians settled there at different periods. Griko is a dialect which is still in use among the Greek communities which are the offspring of Greek refugees after the Ottoman conquest in Greece.
One trace of this Greek presence is the lira calabrese related to the ''lira bizantina'' a stringed instrument played with a bow and held between the legs or on top of the knee. The lira was almost extinct when the revival discovered it and saved it.
Re Niliu uses the lira a lot along with the zampogna, the double-flute, guitar etc... 

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Кыргыз Күүлөрүнүн Антологиясы 4

 

Кыргыз Күүлөрүнүн Антологиясы

Биринчи бөлүм

ANTHOLOGY OF KYRGYZ MELODIES (PART ONE)

Melodiya, 1974, M30-35585-86

 This is the fourth album of this series. All tracks are dombra/komuz solo music. On side A there is one female player M. Kozubekova. As with the previous albums I did not keep the introduction tracks in Kyrgyz; so tracks G1 and H1 are missing.

		Залкар күүлөр
G1		Кириш сөз = Вступительное слово = Introduction Read By – Т. Абдракунов
G2		Кара өзгөй (I вариант) Dombra [Komuz – Шекербек Шеркулов
G3		Кара өзгөй (II вармант) Dombra [Komuz] – Мейликан Козубекова
G4		Такмаза (I вариант) Dombra [Komuz] – Ыбрай Туманов
G5		Такмаза (II вармант) Dombra [Komuz] – Муса Молдоканов
G6		Насыйкат Dombra [Komuz] – Жөлөгөн Чымырбаев
G7		Оң насыйкат Dombra [Komuz] – Курманаалы Калботоев
G8		Эл насыйкаты Dombra [Komuz] – Эркесары Бекбасаров
		Эл-жер Жөнүндөгү күүлөр
H1		Кириш сөз = Вступительное слово = Introduction Read By – З. Мамбеталиева
H2		Керме тоо Dombra [Komuz] – Ыбрай Туманов
H3		Кер өзөн Dombra [Komuz] – Ыбрай Туманов
H4		Кызарт Dombra [Komuz] – Ыбрай Туманов
H5		Кең күңгөй Dombra [Komuz] – Ыбрай Туманов
H6		Кең күңгөйүм Dombra [Komuz] – Асанаалы Кыштообаев
H7		Уч коо Dombra [Komuz] – Кара Молдо Орозов
H8		Жай коңур Dombra [Komuz] – Асанаалы Кыштообаев
H9		Кыргыз калкым Dombra [Komuz] – Шекербек Шеркулов

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Traditional Folk Music & ballads of the Maltese Islands

 

TRADITIONAL FOLK MUSIC & BALLADS OF THE MALTESE ISLANDS

Anthony d'Amato, ?; ADC 7008

Malta is an archipelago made of three islands : Malta the biggest one, Gozo (Ghawdex) and between these two the smallest one Comino (Kemmuna). The language is semitic with a lot of other influences mainly Italian. Lying south of Sicily, Maltese traditional music sounds partly  like Southern Italian music with a repertoire of ballads sung in Maltese with guitar accompaniment. On this tape the guitar is also a solo instrument. But this tape is quite disappointing because of the total lack of information; no names and even the number of tracks is wrong : there are twelve of them listed but there are sixteen tracks really. But  maybe I made  mistakes in digitizing. 
Most of them are ballads sung by men with guitar in the local style which is quite distinctive. The other tracks are guitar music sounding more modern. There are other types of music in Malta especially bagpipe (zaqq)  music. The violin was in use too.
The sound recording is not always good and the whole lot looks like a compilation.
Anthony d'Amato seemed to have been the only local label. 

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Nuit précieuse au sérail

 

NUIT PRECIEUSE AU SERAIL

enregistrement réalisé à Topkapi (Istanbul) par Jean-Claude CHABRIER

PRECIOUS NIGHT AT THE SERAGLIO

recording made at Topkapi (Istanbul) by Jean-Claude Chabrier

Arion, 1970, 30 U 097 

This is another album that Arion didn't think suitable for reissue which is surprising when you know it. This recording was made by one of the best French connoisseurs at the time. I already gave some details about him in previous posts.
He wrote the full text (in French only) with a  brief introduction to oriental music in general followed by a presentation of the Turkish-Ottoman art music. He wrote as a conclusion :
''The Orient in not dead. Betrayed and ridiculed by a conceited and jealous West it still has the age-old wisdom and strength of its villagers and nomads to defend itself.../... The “Sick Man” is doing well; he will bury us''.
Unfortunately, what was maybe true in 1970 is not anymore in 2024. Turkey and the Near-East are  experiencing serious problems. But music can help us to feel closer to these cultures. 
This album is  a great way for us  to familiarize ourselves with this superb classical Ottoman music played on instruments like the kanun, the yayla-tanbur or the ney. All the pieces are taksim(s) on specific makam(s) lasting less than six minutes each. All are solos and demand to be listened to carefully; it is a real trip in time and space.
The ney is played by Hayri Tümer a neyzen Chabrier liked particularly (see earlier posts).

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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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''l'Afghanistan"

 

''L'AFGHANISTAN"

MUSIQUE DE LA ZONE INTERDITE DU NOURISTAN 

 MUSIC FROM THE NOURISTAN FORBIDDEN ZONE

Barclay, 1968, 920 086

Afghanistan as Nepal or India drew a multitude of travellers and adventurers in search of a powerful experience. This was possible in the sixties and seventies before the Russian invasion. And a number of them made recordings in the field throughout the country for Afghanistan was so rich in traditional and popular music that any kind of recordings could do for a good album. Yves Sommavilla was one of them and is presented as a ''keen traveller'' along with François Denis who spent time together in Afghanistan in 1968.
Now, what is really interesting in this album is the music and songs they managed to record in what is called now Nuristan formerly known as Kafiristan the land of the heathens in the north-east. This region was islamised at the end of the nineteenth century only by the emir Abdur Rahman Khan who conquered the area and changed its name.  It was probably difficult to go there even in the sixties and this looks like a ''tour de force'' but they don't explain why Nuristan was forbidden. Although the inhabitants are officially Muslims they nevertheless (at that time anyway) managed to keep some of their ancient beliefs.
There are six tracks : three about Nuristan and three from different parts of the country (Kandahar, Kabul, Chaga-Saray). The most amazing tracks are instrumental music on the flute ''tula'' backed by framed drums. The tula player is excellent and the sound recording is good. Sommevilla says that they recorded this music at night at the Waigel pass (4800 m above sea level). It was then outside  at night in a remote place but the festivities were stopped by the local imam. The Nuristani like the related Kalash had still the custom of singing songs to ancestors when one month after a death the body was replaced by a wooden effigy (track A3).
The others tracks are less exotic with surnay and dohol music, hashish-smoking house music with a singer, a harmonium, two tabla and dambura. The last track was recorded in a hotel in Kabul where  ghijak and zerbaghali players performed for tourists.
Text in French. 

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