AUGUST 08′
GEORGIA SOUTH SEA ISLANDS, VOUME 11: SOUTHERN JOURNEY 2, FIELD RECORDINGS BY ALAN LOMAX
Many of these songs have roots in slavery, often sounding like Field Hollers which were a kind of work song dating to before the American Civil War. Akin to spirituals, Field Hollers were usually religious in tone, and often contained subtle hints for ways to escape enslavement. Steeped in hardship, what transcends here is strength in spirit, and a hopeful endurance. Taken as a whole, these are comforting songs, echoing a deep faith in a higher power, and reminding listeners that better days lie just ahead. Feel like times are tough? Take these for a spin.
“Alan Lomax started his career by recording songs sung by sharecroppers and prisoners in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. His parents, John and Ruby Lomax, are best known as the musicologists who embarked on the 1939 Southern States Recording Trip, which became a multi-format ethnographic field collection including nearly 700 sound recordings, field-notes, dust jackets, and other manuscripts documenting a three-month, 6,502-mile trip through the southern United States. Some of these recordings can be downloaded at the Library of Congress American Memory project.”
“Because of their isolation to other parts of the developing United States during the decades following the abolition of slavery, the folk and gospel traditions of the Georgia Sea Islands continued to show strong ties to African musical forms, as well as some crossover with traditions from the Bahamas and the Caribbean. Alan Lomax recorded the 14 songs and spirituals on this record in 1959 and 1960, capturing fragments of this unique expression of the African American experience.”
“The Georgia Sea Islands are a chain of tidal and barrier islands on the Atlantic Ocean coast of the United States. They number over 100, and are located between the mouths of the Santee and St. Johns Rivers along the coast of the U.S. states of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. They are noted historically for their distinct Gullah/Geechee Creole-type culture and language.”
The songs are credited to lead performers and their accompaniment. There are three groupings for the performers - Group A (Joe Armstrong, Jerome Davis, John Davis, Peter Davis, Bessie Jones, Henry Morrison, Willis Proctor, and Ben Ramsay), Group B (John Davis, Peter Davis, Bessie Jones, Henry Morrison, Willis Proctor), and Group C (John Davis, Bessie Jones, Henry Morrison, Nat Rahmings, Alberta Ramsay, Emma Ramsay, Ed Young).
Prestige International Documentary Series (INT 25002)
Side A
1. Moses - John Davis & Group B (4′14)
2. Turkle Dove - Bessie Jones & Group B (1′40)
3. Rock In The Weary Land - Peter Davis & Group C (2′31)
4. Eli, You Can’t Stand - Willis Proctor & Group A (2′56)
5. I’m Gonna Lay Down My Life For My Lord - Bessie Jones & Group B (2′19)
6. O Day - Bessie Jones & Group C, with Ed Young, fife; Nat Rahmings, drum; Hobart Smith, guitar (3′05)
Side B
1. Buzzard Lope - Bessie Jones & Group A (2′04)
2. You Got My Letter - Willis Proctor & Group A (1′52)
3. Raggy Lee - John Davis & Group B, with Peter Davis, Drum (2′06)
4. Reg’lar, Reg’lar, Rollin’ Under - Bessie Jones & Group C (2′17)
5. Adam In The Garden - Willis Proctor & Group A (1′47)
6. The Old Tar River - John Davis & Group B (2′08)
7. Pay Me - Joe Armstrong & Group A (1′28)
8. See Aunt Dinah - Bessie Jones & Group C (3′06)
[.zip]
SOUTH INDIAN STRINGS: PRESENTING THE ART OF DR. L. SUBRAMANIAM WITH PALGHAT T.S. MANI IYER
Lakshminarayana Subramaniam (aka Dr. L. Subramaniam), is an Indian violinist, composer, and conductor trained in the classical Carnatic and Western classical styles. The good Dr. tears asunder on this Lyrichord release, establishing himself as a virtuoso of the modern form. Severe in accuracy, his patient style is both poignant and graceful, as he moves deftly through the peaks and valleys of the Ragam with effortless intuition. These songs are vehicles for a transcendent player, and for me, a total standout in the genre. I have another 2X LP on Ocora by the Dr. which I’ll post soon, so stay tuned if you enjoy this one. *Although there are seven track titles listed below, there are no logical breaks on the record itself, so only three tracks are included in the MP3 folder.
“L. Subramaniam lived in Jaffna during his younger years, taking up music studies before the age of five. He began training in violin under the tutelage of his father, Professor V. Lakshminarayana. “Mani”, as he is fondly known by fellow musicians and his family, gave his first public performance at the tender age of six. Subramaniam developed a passion for music as well as science from a young age, studying Medicine and acquiring his M.B.B.S. at Madras Medical College. He registered as a General Practitioner, before deciding to pursue music full-time. He has a Master’s degree in Western classical music, which he acquired at the California Institute of the Arts.”
Lyrichord Records (LLST 7350)
1. Ragam and Thanam-Ragam:
2. Pallavi: Neraval
3. Pallavi: Trikalam
4. Pallavi: Swara Kalpana
5. Ragamanlika Ragas: Neelambari
6. Ragamanlika Ragas: Malatamarutam
7. Hamsanandi
[.zip]
SRI LANKA: MUSIQUES RITUELLES ET RELIGIEUSES
This Ocora recording characterizes some of the traditional hybridized musical forms that prosper throughout West and South East Asia, offering a sound odyssey in a distinctly sacred vein. In spite of the Buddhist devotional chants and ritualistic overtones of the recordings, it’s fairly distinctive in it’s amalgamation of influences, and offers a remedial cross-section of the endless musical panoply that is Southern India and the Pacific Rim. All are field recordings done in 1979, and one particular highlight is the recording of temple-side ambiance that features birds and myriad forest dwellers, establishing a lush and humid context for the different instrumentals and chants. *Although there are six track titles listed below, there are no logical breaks on the record itself, so only four tracks are included in the MP3 folder.
“Because of its location in the path of major sea routes, Sri Lanka is a maritime link between West Asia and South East Asia, and has been a center of Buddhist religion and culture from ancient times. The music of Sri Lanka originates in cultural traditions deriving from three influences: the religious practices of Buddhism, the aftereffects of Portuguese colonization, and the commercial and historical influence of Indian culture - specifically, Bollywood cinema. The Theravada sect of Buddhism has influenced Sri Lankan Music since Buddhism arrived in Sri Lanka two millenia ago.”
“Portuguese colonizers arrived centuries after the Buddha, in the mid 1400s, bringing with them cantiga ballads, ukuleles and guitars; as well as African slaves (referred to, historically, as kaffrinhas), who brought with them a style of music now referred to as baila. The people of these two regions, and the musical traditions they brought with them, served to contribute further to the diverse musical roots of modern Sri Lankan music.”
“Today, the country is a multi-religious and multi-ethnic nation, with more than a quarter of the population following faiths other than Buddhism, most notably Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. The Sinhalese community forms the majority of the population, with Tamils, who are concentrated in the north and east of the island, forming the largest ethnic minority. Other communities include the Muslim Moors and Malays and the Burghers.”
Ocora, 1982
1. Siva Linga Ritual, pt1
2. Siva Linga Ritual, pt2
3. The Introductions, greetings to Buddha
4. Three Chants - a. Set Pirit
5. Three Chants - b. Maha Pirita
6. Three Chants - c. Yuga Desana
7. Chant de Passion
8. Chant Kantaru
INDIAN STREET MUSIC: THE BAULS OF BENGAL
This one is highly infectious and atypical sounding, and I haven’t heard anything quite like it except for the “Lower Caste Music of India” release on Lyrichord, which also manifests a non-traditional appendage to the multifarious Indian folk music form. All the same, I can listen to these songs over and over, with their lilting vocals and plucky rhythms, they ground the spirit with melancholic dirge, then climb heavenwards with heartfelt flourishes, ultimately climaxing with whirling raptures that leave a little tingle up and down your chakras. A fine record.
“The Bauls of Bengal were a mystical order of musicians in 18th, 19th and early 20th century India who played a form of music using a khamak, ektara and dotara. The word Baul comes from Sanskrit batul meaning divinely inspired insanity. They are a group of mystic minstrels. They are thought to have been influenced greatly by the Hindu tantric sect of the Kartabhajas as well as by Sufi sects. Bauls travel in search of the internal ideal, Maner Manush (Man of the Heart).”
“Until the days of Rabindranath, few people paid any attention to the Bauls, except perhaps to heap abuse upon them for their heterodox ideas and practices. But since then, they have won the love and respect of many Bengalis for the belief they hold in common with other emancipated souls of India who have since Vedic times rejected priest-ridden orthodoxy: the belief that Man is the hightest truth. This is the basis of Baul philosophy, whether it be overlaid with Vaishnava, Buddhist, Tantric, or Islamic ideas. And though it be unorthodox, it cannot fail to seduce, at least temporarily, even the bigots, because of the charming way it is expressed in the music and dance of the Bauls” — From the liner notes by Charles H. Capwell, Dr. Suhas Catterjee, and Dr. Rakhal Raj Joardar.
Nonesuch Explorer Series (H-72035)
1. O ki garial bhai (5′41)
2. moner katha bolibar age (7′10)
3. O mon amar, shajo prokriti (8′13)
4. Tin gorbhe ache ak chele (6′56)
5. Chor poreche babur bagane (5′46)
6. O bholar mon amar, anande hariguno gao (4′20)
ELIZABETH COTTON “WHEN I’M GONE” VOL. 3
I have decided to post my entire Folkways collection, which officially begins with the delightful Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten, of which I only have this one from the three part series recorded by Pete Seeger and Alice Gerrard for the illustrious label. Recorded near the end of her life, these documents capture her unique craft and interpretive form, who’s influence is too widespread to fairly characterize. True to the folk tradition, hers was an adaptation of hybridized ragtime, gospel, and folk-blues styles that she would imprint, and most recognizeably pass on to a generation of popular recording artists in the mid to late 1960’s (and beyond). That period, labeled the ‘new folk revival,’ is a bit of a misnomer for me, in that all music, by it’s very nature, is viral and thus folk: As music continuously changes hands, it mutates and re-combines itself into new forms, establishing the very essence of the vernacular continuum that is folklife, or, cultural life — Elizabeth’s music epitomizes this notion. That said, these songs reinforce for me her innate musical gifts, and a soulfulness that exemplifies the African American experience, and pure love of song. In her eighties when these recordings were made, her fragile voice adds a delicate texture to the songs, peppering them with maturity and graceful wisdom. I can only imagine how many times she had sung and played the tune “Freight Train” by this point in time.
“She often mixes these styles within a given song, hardly ever plays her tunes in the same way twice, and is costatntly improvising. She consciously works with her tunes, adding to them, changing licks, sometimes making almost new tunes out of them.” — Mike Seeger & Alice Gerrard
“Self-taught and having no knowledge of conventional guitar tunings (e.g. standard ‘EADGBE’ tuning or any established open tunings), Cotten developed her own original style. Her unique approach to left-handed guitar playing involved keeping the guitar in standard tuning while holding it upside down. This position required her to play the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. Her signature, alternating bass style is known as “Cotten picking”.
Folkways Records Album No. FA 3537
1. New Year’s Eve (3′15)
2. Praying Time Will Soon Be Over (3′10)
3. Time to Stop Your Idling (2′30)
4. Gaslight Blues (4′45)
5. Jenny (2′40)
6. Street Blues (2′10)
7. Home Sweet Home (2′20)
8. Freight Train (3′10)
9. Casey Jones (1′45)
10. Willie (5′05)
11. Boddie’s Song (2′15)
12. Wilson Rag (4′50)
13. When I’m Gone (4′40)
[.zip]
TETUZI AKIYAMA “DON’T FORGET TO BOOGIE!”
A bit of a departure from any of the other Akiyama stuff I’ve heard, this conceptual homage/tribute to the electric guitar is a fierce set of burners with minimalist overtones — not to mention a couple ditty’s to remind us Tetuzi knows EXACTLY what he’s doing. Long on tone and Detroit rock atmosphere, the tracks are deep fried in tape-delay and monophonic bliss. Equal parts riff and sumptuous analogue fuzz, even the most discerning shredder not sold on the tongue-in-cheek will appreciate the sound. With ample volume and a wholesome black death-haze to keep it real, this is a critique of, and fascination with a uniquely American cultural expression. If you love guitar tone, appreciate minimalism, and are familiar with Akiyama’s output, this impossible to find Idea Records LP from 2003 will make you glad.
“Tetuzi Akiyama is an experimental guitarist who readily applies free improvisation and noise. Besides guitar, he also plays electronics, viola, and self-made instruments. Akiyama released his first solo album Relator [slub music] in 2001. Mixing country and blues with free improvisation, Akiyama began to perform solo with greater frequency playing both acoustic and electric guitars, turntables without records and other effects. Using a prepared resonator guitar with a Samurai sword, Akiyama recorded his second solo album Resophonie (a bruit secret, 2002) which can be described as sonic sculpture with guitar. In 2003, his third solo album Don’t Forget to Boogie! was released. Performed in a minimal one chord Boogie/Rock/Blues style with vintage electric guitars, Akiyama sees this LP as a tribute to the guitar.”
Idea Records catalog #IDEA 2008
It’s a Boogie Thing (4′10)
With Black Thompson (1′14)
Doll House Shakin’ (4′03)
Money, Love Rock (2′08)
Dead or… (10′09)
Oh, Johnny (2′11)
Blues for Dirty Hunter (2′17)
She’s a B-girl (2′34)
Fast Machine (8′29)
Way over the Bridge (1′16)
Don’t Forget to Boogie (7′21)
Acid Highway (2′15)
City of Gold (1′59)