CAVALCATA SARDA

 

CAVALCATA SARDA
CANTI E DANZE DELL'AUTHENTICO FOLKLORE SARDO

SARDINIAN CAVALCADE 
SONGS AND DANCES OF THE AUTHENTIC SARDINIAN FOLKLORE

Stella, 1969, LPS 6067

 Brought back from Sardinia by a cousin of mine, this is a good album for people who know nothing about Sardinian musical traditions. There are organettu, launeddas, choirs, singers with guitar and dances, ''poesia'', ''storia'' etc. There are two tracks that illustrate other types of music : track A7 with an ''ave Maria'' sung in Catalan by a group from Alghero (L'Alguer in Catalan), an area where the majority of the inhabitants still speaks Catalan. This track is technically bad but has always been since the first time I listened to it. Track B7 sounds more like popular dance music based on international pop but sung in Sardinian by Tony Piaceri.
The title of the album is the title of a composition by the organetto player Francesco Bande but I think it refers also to a big annual feast day held in May at Sassari when people put on their traditional clothes and parade through the streets on foot or by carts pulled by oxes and on horses.
Two villages famous for their ''coro'' are part of this compilation : Orgosolo and Orosei. The launeddas player is Giovanni Lai a very famous one but not related to Luigi Lai I think.
There are some good examples of what is called ''canto in re'' and ''muttos'' like track B6 with the exceptional singer Antonio Meloni. 

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Апостол Kucъов

 APOSTOL KISSYOV

RHOPODE FOLK SONGS

Balkanton, 1989, VNA 12529

A. Kissyov was both a singer and a piper. He was instrumental in bringing one hundred bagpipers to the meadows near Rozhen in 1961 along with one hundred thousand participants. He taught hundreds of young pipers.
Here he sings accompanied by either one kaval and two tamburas or two kabagaida. The tracks with kabagaida are the most vibrant I find. Table songs and dance songs alternate enhanced by his nice voice and traditional way of singing.
Text in Bulgarian and English.

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Tercera Muestra de Folklore Aragonés

 

TERCERA MUESTRA DE FOLKLORE ARAGONÉS

EDICION ESPECIAL PARA EL EXCMO. AYUNTAMIENTO DE ZARAGOZA 

THIRD SHOW OF FOLKLORE DE ARAGON

SPECIAL EDITION FOR THE CITY COUNCIL OF ZARAGOZA

BELTER,  1982, 2-27.431

This album was recorded live on the 17th of October 1981 at the Municipal Stadium de la Romareda, Zaragoza.
This show entitled ''la Fiesta Popular'' was organized in order to give the public an idea about the course of a big feast day  in any village of Aragon. Were invited two dulzaina players with their tambor, singers  grouped as Los Despertadores de Torrecilla and three ''grupos fokloricos" : ''Valle de Echo'', Grupo Folklórico Universitario ''Somerondón'' and Grupo Folklórico ''Los Mañicos''. Dance-wise the jota is quite present as the main dance in the area; other tunes/songs are a march followed by the dance for the ''Big Heads'', albadas (aubades), a song to the Virgin Mary, ...
One the highlights of this day was the revival of the ''gaita de Bestué'' played again for the first time by Angel Vergara from the band Ticotán. The last traditional piper was Juan Cazcarra from Bestué who died in 1941. Thanks to his niece who preserved Juan's bagpipe and repertoire Vergara was able to reconstruct the instrument. I supposed that the bagpiper on the cover is Cazcarra.
Each track is introduced in Spanish and some detail is provided about the whole event.
Belter was active between 1954 and 1984 and specialized in Spanish popular music. 

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