Afghanistan

 

AFGHANISTAN

Enregistrements de Michel et Gérard MONTESINOS

Recordings  by M. and G. Montesinos

Disques Alvarès, no date, LD 491

Afghanistan has been very attractive to globe-trotters and sound hunters since the 50s and a certain number of LPs like this one were produced in France. Here two brothers went to record folk musicians mostly Uzbek with some Hazara and Pashtoon examples. Due to the important part of music in traditonal Afghani life it was possible and maybe easy to find good performers among adults but also among teenagers. There are no information about the Montesinos brothers but they certainly loved what they found and this LP is quite nice. Nevertheless, we miss the names of the songs and their content as well as information about the performers. This is the limit of such an album; fortunately there are very good albums (mostly on CD) made by musicologists and the present album is complementary to those scientific works. The notes are in French only.  

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Kinross Festival

 

SCOTS SONGS AND MUSIC

Springthyme Records, 1974, SPR 1001

Recorded in September 1973 at the Kinross Festival this LP features some of the great names of the Scottish tradition like Flora MacNeil, Charlie Murray or Tom Anderson and some of the revivalists of the time like the band The Clutha or the fiddler Aly Bain. Organised by the Traditional Music and Song Association of Scotland at the time the Kinross Festival is still there on a larger basis. There is another LP about that festival with the number 2. 

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Eddie Cahill

 

AH ! SURELY  EDDIE CAHILL
Accompanied by Mick Moloney
TRADITIONAL IRISH MUSIC 

Shanachie, 1979, 29014

Born in 1929 in Co. Sligo, E. Cahill left Ireland for America in 1950. The notes written by M. Moloney give a good picture of Eddie and his musical background on the back cover.I'd like to say that Cahill was one of the very first flute players I heard with that old flute playing style ie with a pulsating rhythm very common in Sligo and nearby. But I think the first one I heard was Séamus MacMathuna from Clare. That style influenced me a lot and is still part of my own flute playing.
M. Moloney plays guitar, bouzouki and mandolin and he recorded Eddie at home in Philadelphia between Octobre 1977 and April 1978. This explains why the sound is different from one track to another.
E Cahill was not very proeminent among other flute players but he was an inspiration for me and Moloney was a hundred per cent right to save some of Eddie's music for us. 

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Turquie

 

FOLKLORE ET MUSIQUES DE L'UNIVERS

TURQUIE

FOLKLORE AND MUSICS OF THE UNIVERSE

TURKEY

Disques BAM, ?, LD 5739

This series ''Folklore et Musiques de l'Univers'' was a good way to know a bit more about remote musical cultures although the people who recorded in the field were not always real connoisseurs. But generally speaking it was good enough for me; I was 10 or 11 years old when I got this LP for Christmas. The guy who collected the material was Merry Ottin, a French writer who knew enough about Turkish history. He divided the LP in three parts : Mehter, Mevlevi and Folklore.
Two tracks are particularly interesting : track A4 is named ''dance of  Kars'' and Ottin speaks about Russian and Turkish influences while for me that music sounds completely Armenian. It shows how heavy the Turkish propaganda was about the ethnic cleansing in the area during the first World War and how well accepted it was by foreigners  who wouldn't or couldn't question it publicly. But the players had probably introduced themselves as Turks. Nevertheless the term ''armenian'' was taboo at the time as it is still the case now. I think I got the LP  around 1969 so the recordings were conducted at the end of the 60s maybe. The other track is A9 about fiddle music by some refugee or descendant of refugees from Crimea. It is possible now to listen to CDs about this fiddle music but at the time it was quite new to me.
The other tracks are interesting too as the tracks about the resurgence of the Janissaries and their band of zurnas and davuls. 

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17 Macedonian folk dances

 

17 MACEDONIAN FOLK DANCES

EXCITING RHYTHM OF MACEDONIA PLAYED ON TRADITIONAL INSTRUMENTS 

BY THE "MACEDONIAN EARLY MUSIC BAND" OF THE  ŽIVKO FIRFOV 

FOLKDANCE GROUP

Goatbag Records, 1979, GB 1978

As the cover shows the folk dances on this LP are played on kaval, gajda, tambura and tapan. It was recorded in England (for Goatbag Records unknown label to me) by Chris Gunstone who is an ex-member of Blowzabella and is perhaps one of the tambura players. The information about these recordings are a bit confused. Are mentionned (in small print) Mile Kolarov on kaval, Lazo Nikolovski on gajda and Linzo and Kris on tambura; no name for the tapan player. It was produced by C. Gunstone and the band was  recorded with an Uher 4400 during a session in November 1978 before the departure of some members. It is thus a kind of ''field recording'' as it is called on the back cover.
The repertoire is quite interesting and very traditional especially the gajda solo on track B3 (Kukunesh). There is a booklet with the steps of the dances, musical scores and general information about Macedonia but it's not included here. 

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Azeri Mugams

 

AZERI MUGAMS

Азербайджанские Мугамы

Melodiya, 1980, S 30-17223-24

Here we can listen to Agahan Abdullaev  accompanied by an ensemble under the direction of Bahram Mansurov and Aliguli Ahmedov with Firhuddin Aleskerov on tar, Elman Badalov on kemanche and Vardan Avetisov on daf. Abdullaev sings the mugam rast while Ahmedov sings mahur-hindi.
Another good production by Melodiya for mugam lovers.

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TÜRKÜLER SEVDAMIZ 3

 

TÜRKÜLER SEVDAMIZ 3

OUR LOVE OF FOLK SONGS 3

TOLGA SAĞ  YILMAZ ÇELIK  MUHARREM TEMİZ  ERDAL ERZİNCAN

 Iber Müzik Yapım

These four singers and bağlama players are members of the Alevi community in Turkey. Of the four of them Erdal Erzincan is maybe the most known in France.Their association started in 1997 and this third tape is the last one. Each singer has his songs and they alternate with group singing and the result is very impressive. The notes are in Turkish only with the lyrics.  

I suppose you can find some information about Turkish-Kurdish Alevi people in English on the internet. I would recall nevertheless that these people are targeted by religious and civil authorities and are sometimes murdered as in the criminal fire of a hotel in Sivas in 1993 where 37 persons died when they gathered for the Pir Sultan Abdal festival. 

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