Festival of India

 

FESTIVAL OF INDIA PRESENTS

THE GREAT TRADITION

MASTERS OF MUSIC 

HMV, 1986, EALP-1453/54

Festival of India was a body which organised three exhibitions of painting, sculpture as well as series of concerts to international audiences until 1986. This double album is a compilation of the best singers and players in Hindustani and Karnatak musics. The aim was to allow young Indian people to rediscover that fantastic musical heritage.
There are 16 vocalists, among them Abdul Karim Khan, Gangubai Hangal or D.K. Pattammal and 9 instrumentists like Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan or T.R. Mahalingam.  The period covered goes from 1911 with Zohra Bai to 1982 with Doreswamy Iyengar. All the 78RPM are complete while recordings from the 1960s are excerpts of longer pieces. Some musicians were a discovery for me like the sarangi player Bundu khan (A2) or vocalist Krishnarao Shankar Pandit (A/6). One of the best tracks is the raag Nat Kamod sung by Kesar Bai Kerkar in 1946 (A5).
So this is an excellent way to discover old masters of the great Indian tradition.

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Kertalg 72

 

1er FESTIVAL POP' CELTIC 

KERTALG 72

1st POP CELTIC FESTIVAL 

Le Chant du Monde, 1972, LDX 74513

Four years after the festival of Wight, three years after Woodstock, and one year after the first Festival interceltique de Lorient  was held on the 13th of August a festival labelled ''celtic pop'' at Kertalg a mansion near Moelan-sur-Mer in South Finistère, Brittany. This festival lasted for three years between 1972 and 1974 but had to stop mainly because of the opposition coming from the municipality. Thus three records were released by the French famous label Le Chant du Monde.
The early 70s were a time of big changes after 1968 especially culturally when what was known as provinces or regions began to contest the position of Paris in the organization of the country. In Brittany the languages (Breton and Gallo languages) were another topic for a political evolution towards more acceptance of cultural diversity. Alan Stivell had really started his long career in February the same year at the Olympia in Paris. As he wrote himself this festival was ''an old dream that came true''. There was a ''international'' dimension to it with the participation of Irish and American singers.
On the French/Breton side were invited Les leprechauns playing Irish music, Ar Skloferien (Breton music), René Werneer on fiddle, the Goadec Sisters, traditonal singers, Alan Stivell, Katel ar Skanv and the bagad (or pipe band) Bleimor based in Lorient.
On the other side were invited Happy Traum and Doon a Moor.
Not everything is great musically but the goal of the festival was to bring on stage all sorts of  musical expressions. One the highlights is the singing of a lament by the Goadec Sisters with Stivell on the celtic harp. R. Werneer was Stivell's fiddler at the time but he performed on his own backed by H. Traum's guitar.
Texts in French only. 

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Ud Taksimleri

 UD TAKSİMLERİ (ERGİN KIZILAY)

IMPROVISATIONS ON THE UD BY  ERGİN KIZILAY

Kalite Plak, 1989, 257

 This cassette is part of a series about instrumental improvisations in classical Turkish modes or makam.
Here the ud is the only instrument played by E. Kızılay but he plays other instruments like the yaylı tanbur on another tape/album. Apart from the names of the makam no information are provided either about the player or the modes. Couldn't find anything on the net either.
Turkish ud is rare enough compared to Egyptian or Syrian production so I think this cassette is a good example of the greatness of Turkish ud playing. 

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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 evolved the vocal music 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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