Pylon Sounds

Africa Is The Future

While doing my usual Google-sniffery (as a result of being curious about the composer being featured at the Shiraz Ensemble concert), I happened this very astute and incisive scholarly article about the notion/role/ discourse of improvisation within Iranian classical music and how this concept superimposed itself upon the tradition via the polarizing effects of the introduction of the Western notation system, ethnomusicological readings of "Oriental" music and other forces.

The author, Dr. Laudan Nooshin, makes a very strong and well-researched argument, mounting a critique of the generalized binary opposition between "composed" and "improvised" and also exposing the rather disturbing eurocentric and colonial discourses of difference which built and now bolster the division between the two. This is further elaborated through a thorough discussion of this within Iranian music.

From Araz Salek:

"Shiraz Ensemble is performing on Sep. 16th and 17th at the Music Gallery. The focus of this concert is on compositions of a very avant-garde Iranian composer, Reza Fayaz. Fayaz is a perfect example of a progressive artist moving Persian music forward while still maintaining its traditional roots. Shiraz ensemble is proud to showcase new and exciting directions within traditional Persian music, please join us for this unique musical experience meshing new and old sonic traditions."

Where: Music Gallery, 197 John St., Toronto When: Thursday and Friday, Sep.16 & 17 at 7:30pm Tickets available online: www.musicgallery.org at IAUT (Iranian Association at the University of Toronto, iaut.org)
Pegah Book store (5513 Yonge St.)
Shawrak Music (11 Steeles Ave. E.) 20$ Students, members, seniors and 25$ Regular

Geeta Dayal has written a lovely bit on Bollywood Disco for the Wire--one of my favourite styles of music! Here's a link to her blog that I found on the Wire's website.

http://www.theoriginalsoundtrack.com/2010/08/studio-84-the-history-of-disco-in-india/

After seeing this I decided to re-jig one of my old posts and repost it (it got removed, I think, because I was linking one of those sketchy/ illegal Bollywood MP3 sites).

Here's my original post with replaced links (to streaming Youtube versions!)
http://endofworldmusic.blogspot.com/2008/06/disco-from-subcontinent.html

Ooh Poo Pah Doo - Part IICREATING A DISTURBANCE
As fate would have it, I found myself in New Orleans for the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on August 29th. The mainstream media guys were all over the place with their satellite trucks and all of that, but the feeling I got from most of the local people I spoke with was that they had already moved on, and they didn't need anybody to remind them of the incredible ordeal they've lived through these past five years. Remnants of the flood are still visible, especially in places like the Bywater and the Lower Ninth, yet New Orleans has managed to survive - with its unique character, and sense of humor, intact.

The work that the Make It Right Foundation has been doing has been simply top shelf, and the affordable housing they've been creating just east of the Industrial Canal has been built to last. When I last visited that Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood (where Fats Domino was born) in 2006, it was hard to imagine that it would ever be rebuilt, and the powers that be were talking about just bulldozing the whole place... you go Brad Pitt!


Anyway, I was happy to support the Foundation by attending the benefit concert that was held at The House of Blues on August 28th, A Night Of Treme. As I'm sure you know, in addition to being the name of the oldest African-American neighborhood in the United States, Treme has also become the name of the highly acclaimed HBO series about post-Katrina New Orleans that 'finally got it right'. The concert, in anticipation of the Treme Soundtrack CD (which will be released later this month), was a raucous celebration of this culture that refuses to die.


The band - much to HBO's credit - was anchored by The King of Treme (and heir to the Smokey Johnson legacy) Shannon Powell, and also featured Davis Rogan (the guy they based the over the top WWOZ DJ character on in the series) on keyboards and a host of other local talent. Favorites like Irma Thomas, Lloyd Price (!), John Boutté, Kermit Ruffins and Jon Cleary did their thing before giving way to the grand finale, an unbelievable blowdown with the Rebirth Brass Band being joined by James Andrews, surrounded by Guardians of the Flame Mardi Gras Indians and Treme Sidewalk Steppers just funkin' it up. We had us a time up in there, bra!


It was James Andrews that stole the show, however, with the high energy trumpet playing and vocals that have earned him his nickname of Satchmo of the Ghetto working the crowd into a frenzy. At the 'after-party' later on he wasted no time, jumping in there and playing with the brass band out on the patio, and just kicking things up a notch. Suddenly the light bulb went on... I had mentioned him in something I wrote way back in 2005. It was no wonder he was such an incredible performer - he was Jessie Hill's grandson!

James, in addition to coming from a musical family that also included Papoose Nelson and Prince La-La, studied with the man who is credited with breathing new life into the Brass Band tradition, Danny Barker. Along with his younger brother Troy (now known as Trombone Shorty), Andrews came up out of Barker's legendary Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band and just kept on blowing. Strongly rooted in the tradition, he would hang around Preservation Hall as a kid and kind of soak it all in, learning from legends like Milton Baptiste and Percy Humphrey.

He is the real deal.

As we walked out of the House of Blues, James - in true New Orleans fashion - couldn't resist strolling into the first bar we passed that had a live band, and sitting in. His genuine passion for the music and his gregarious personality combine to make him one of the most-loved figures to come out of the Treme Brass Band scene, and one of its greatest ambassadors. As he told Ken Burns some years ago, "A lot of people try to portray Jazz as being intellectual... but for us in New Orleans, it's more of a down-home thing. I look for the more extreme feeling... that's what makes us so well known - we put the horn stuff on top of that fabulous beat, man."...just like his legendary Grandfather, James told me that he's all about 'creating a disturbance' - yeah you rite!

James Andrews will be performing all this week as part of the Generations in Jazz Festival at Lincoln Center in New York, where they will be celebrating The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong. Don't Miss It!

Below is my original post about Jessie Hill from November of 2005 (which had been taken down in one of those DMCA corporate raids)... thanks!
______________________________________________


The importance of the disc jockey in the R&B market cannot be overstated. If a hot DJ liked your record and plugged it on the air, you were pretty much guaranteed a hit. The hottest DJ in New Orleans back in 1960 was a cat named Larry McKinley. Many's the R&B classic he "broke" on his show and sent on it's way to the top of the national charts (not the least of which was Ray Charles' "What'd I Say"). It was a stroke of brilliance when vinyl distributor Joe Banashak asked him to be a partner in his new label, MINIT records. Talk about air time!

In January of 1960, McKinley arranged to hold an open audition at WYLD studios as a way of scouting talent for the new company. That one night resulted in the signing of Benny Spellman, Aaron Neville, Allen Orange and Jessie Hill (Irma Thomas and Joe Tex also tried out but were still under contract to other labels). Allen Orange brought along a piano player to accompany him, one Allen Toussaint. He ended up playing behind most of the other folks who had shown up, and so impressed McKinley and Banashak that they asked him to be the new label's producer and arranger.

Jessie Hill was a drummer that had worked with such luminaries as Professor Longhair, Bobby Marchan, and Huey "Piano" Smith as well as with his own group, "The House Rockers" (Longhair claimed he was the only drummer who could keep up with him!). He brought a "raggedy" tape to the audition with him of a tune he had written that was just tearin' it up at his live gigs. That song was the immortal Ooh Poo Pah Doo, and Minit decided to go with it. Toussaint produced the session, playing piano along with Jessie's regular band.

The record broke big in New Orleans, and absolutely buried poor Al Johnson's Carnival Time as the big Mardi-Gras record in 1960. After Banashak worked out a few kinks with national distribution, the song just ate up the R&B charts. Although it was the truly incredible Part 1 that was creating a disturbance in everyone's mind, and has become a perennial Carnival classic, it was today's B side, Part II, that crossed over to the pop charts and actually is listed as #28 in Billboard's Hot 100 for 1960 (I guess white America just wasn't ready for Jessie's vocals...)! This track provided the first national exposure of Toussaint's piano based productions and laid the groundwork for Minit's string of big hits. It also is one of the first recorded examples of true "9th Ward Music" - that infectious call and response funky thang that guys like Eddie Bo and Oliver Morgan (who jammed with Jessie as neighborhood kids) would run with so well.

In addition to good ol' Alvin Robinson on guitar, The House Rockers at this point also included the awesome David Lastie on sax, as well as future AFO Executives John Boudreaux on drums and Richard Payne on the bass. They went out on a national tour to support the record, making it as far as the famed Apollo Theater in New York City. Jessie had never seen that much money in his life, and apparently was blowing it as fast as it was coming in, without saving too much for the rest of the band. Before they even got back to New Orleans, the group had broken up for good. Minit released a few more singles on him, but Jessie never was able to match the success of his first hit.

In 1961 he discovered a young singer named Barbara George and brought her around to Harold Battiste's newly formed AFO records along with his brother-in-law, Lawrence "Prince La-La" Nelson. George went on to score the number 3 record on the pop charts that year, while La-La would become the stuff of New Orleans legend.

The following year Jessie left town on a tour with Joe Jones and just walked away, winding up in California. By the mid-sixties he was working with Battiste, Rebennack and the rest of the NOLA in exile crowd in L.A.. He had never stopped writing music, and teamed up with Rebennack to form a publishing company called "I Found It Music". They would hole up for days at a time and crank out tunes for Battiste's productions on ATCO and PULSAR. BMI lists Jessie as the author or co-author on 132 tunes covered by artists ranging from Sonny & Cher to Ike & Tina Turner to Paul Revere & the Raiders!

He teamed up with Shirley Goodman (of Shirley & Lee fame) to record some duets for Wand records (Jessie and Shirley also became founding members of Dr. John's "Night Trippers", appearing on the voodoo classic Gris-Gris), and released a few singles of his own on Pulsar and Chess, without much success. A universally panned album, "Naturally", was released on Blue Thumb records in 1972.

By the mid-seventies, Jessie's fortunes in California seemed to be on the decline (punctuated by a trip to jail and a stolen Cadillac), and in 1977 he returned home to New Orleans. Despite the occasional gig at Tipitina's and the annual dual-tambourine shakin' second line at Jazz Fest, Jessie wasn't doing much musically. He actually began operating a black Caddy nicknamed "The Poo Cab" as a way of making some money...

Some time in the eighties I saw a show upstairs at The Village Gate (now a CVS pharmacy...ugh!) in NYC; Dr. John along with Allen Toussaint and Jessie Hill... My, My! Toussaint on piano, Rebennack on guitar, and Jessie just brought down da house!

The 90s were some hard times for "Poo". Years of heroin addiction and booze began to take their toll. Despite a few benefits held for him around the Crescent City, there were reports that he was actually homeless for a while. When he died in 1996, Antoinette K-Doe made matching outfits for herself, Ernie, and Jessie (as pictured in the truly bizarre, only in New Orleans photo at right...). He left behind 14 children, and 50 grandchildren (one of whom, James Andrews, is following in his footsteps, making records with Allen Toussaint and Mac Rebennack!).

Jessie's Minit material is available on CD.

They called him The Most!________________________________________________

One more thing, while were on the subject of Treme...


I found our friend Tony Owens down by Jackson Square, where he is most weekends, working his 'Trap & Mule' for the tourist crowd. He is fondly remembered by everyone in the neighborhood as possibly the greatest Soul singer to ever rise up out of the Treme, as well as being the proprietor of the sorely missed Tony's Lounge up by Armstrong Park. When I asked him how come he wasn't asked to be in the TV show, he just kind of shrugged. If anybody from HBO ever reads this, do yourself a favor and sign him up!

Similar to that of Soul, the Reggae reissue market seems to be somewhat geared at purists.

And talking to people who consider themselves soul aficionados I've observed that the mainstream of the soul-reissue microindustry has its market cornered. Some collectors have pretty rigid criteria for what's 'soulful' and what's not. As soon as there's the merest proto-Disco soupcon or slightest Quiet Storm sleekness to the production, said people immediately get turned off and start frothing about authenticity of emotion and over-production.

Perhaps being invested in making electroacoustic music and other genres that are all about "the magic" of the studio, I'm not under the same delusion that it's a question of over- or under- production. Recordings are inherently mediated and totally fake. I'm completely unrepentant about this. Whether it's analog or digital, or whether you've got some soulful diva doing one take with a band with a mere few mics or Charles Stepney at the controls overdubbing zillions of Minnie Ripertons doing whistletones, it's all artifice! Recordings never 'capture' a performance acurately! They are (re)creations and (re)constructions of performance as soon as you've got a recording device engaged, whatever's being transferred to that medium has already been extracted out of the realm of performance. Even without editing and overdubs you're still making artistic decisions: mic placement, equalization, the sort of room you're using, and the recording media. And there is great artistic potential within the realm of recording. For me, it's not a case of authentic recording it's a case of ultimately eliciting authentic feeling in the listener.

Perhaps my outlook is what makes me less inclined to be suspicious of mid-70's and even 80's soul, and also the subgenre of Reggae known as Lovers Rock.

Lovers Rock is a somewhat-maligned, smoother counterpart to Rocker's Reggae that emerged in Britain in the 1970's. Employing light, airy, (yet still dubwise) production values, lazy-afternoon arrangements and often sweet, girlish vocals. Its emphasis on mushy lyrics and sweet tones make much of this musician easy target for the soul police.

It's the same rubric that would frame Deniece Williams' This Is Niecy as 'unsoulful.' Not only do its nylon-over-the-camera-lens the production values immediately trigger alarm bells. Its also the glistening-diamond Rhodes pianos, silvery strings and breezy trombones, lite-funky rhythms, and vocals full of wide-eyed innocent glee. It's not macho enough to have true 'soul'. Even if all that emoting can get a little silly too. I mean really... how authentic can the endless stream of soul sides be... going on about being treated so "ba-a-a-a-d bay-beh bay-beh." Not that that music is bad or that it doesn't come from a real place. I just think that the hampered joy and love Niecy portrays on "That's What Friends Are For" (we all know she likes him MORE than a friend!) is just a tangible as anybody bemoaning the loss of a cheatin' lover, it's just a different feel (much like the accompanying music and production style)

A lot of Lovers' Rock as a genre, has pretty been swept under the rug by the reissue machine. Sure there's been some nice compilations devoted to that music, or prominently featuring the genre's golden era, but many of the best albums of the era are hardly even available.

Janet Kay's Silly Games and it's accompanying set of dubs (courtesy of the original records' producer, Dennis Bovell), Dub Dem Silly is among the best music of the genre. The title cut is of course very widely known, but the full album remains pretty much in limbo, unfortunately.

Kay possess a uniquely heady, light-toned voice that almost has a slightly otherworldly character, especially when she swoops up into her higher register. The production on Silly Games is a great complement to her voice and the songs. The rhythm section is lean and economical opting for that submerged, woody snare-and-kick drum sound, glazed with whispery tickle-your-ears hi-hats and the occasional steely interjection of taut-skinned tom-toms. The guitar tones are transparent, and bass deep but buoyant. Smooth brass and winds fill things out, as some careening dub-isms inject just the right amount of cosmic wonder.

"Rock The Rhythm" is a sensuous, humid song which opens with Kay harmonizing with herself over slinky reggae beat. The arrangement remains simple, but something about her voice envelopes the listener, giving the illusion of lushness while maintaining a dusky funkiness.


"Do You Really Love Me" (please ignore the video's visuals!) sees her giddy with excitement over new love yet is fearful because of the potential for hurt. Again the arrangement is decidedly mid-tempo and tight, yet slyly oceanic and dreamy. The smooth uniformity of overdubbed backup vocals which provide the response to the lead Kay's contribute to this feel, while there's a great level of urgency as anxious synth bleeps punctuate the beat, which is also riddled with hurried tom-tom fills. Kay's delivery is hotter, begging her lover not to "break her tender heart", but still her vocal floats with mild vibrato resembling the soft bends of a ribbon.

The slippery, detailed melody on closing cut "Capricorn Woman" is suffused with a yearning sexuality, and in the verse almost recalls vintage Bollywood songcraft. The flute counterpoint woven through bolsters this impression as it darts in and around her surprisingly ornamented singing. Her misty voice is surrounded by delicate nylon guitar and gentle splashes of percussion. Again her light, yet full singing gives the impression of saturation yet allows the song to waft along gently like the smoke of a dying fire on some imaginary beach (this is British music after all, so that imaginary tropical warmth is an important ingredient in its particular brand of smoothness!).

The versions created by Bovell further accentuate the peculiarities of this recording. One of the most important aspects to it is the interplay between slightly chilly and aloof Northern Soul Englishness and the sunny warmth and sensuality of Reggae. The plumes of echo and reverb send the remainders of her voice spiraling and curling upward as the polished surfaces of the backing music glisten beneath, cast in new dubby light. While nowhere close the sort of batshit-crazy dub antics you occasionally hear, the dubs certainly tease out hidden features. When used as echo fodder you truly get a sense of the strangely ethereal quality of her voice. It balances on a certainly breathy invitation, spectral detachment and wide-eyed girlishness which stirred into a dub provides mysterious and alluring atmospherics.

Enjoy the two albums here.

Toronto (well... Brampton, technically) guzheng-ist and free improviser David Sait has long been endeavouring to forge links between the local experimental community and forward-looking performers of global traditional/ classical musics.

For a spell he was curating the (in my opinion unfortunately named, but curatorially brilliant) series Night Bazaar which put together the two communities. His own work, too, operates from a position of understanding the traditional facets of his instrument while also having an exploratory outlook.

Aside from solo work, he's done collaborations with like-minded Toronto improviser Michael Keith (as Cracker & Shoe), John Oswald, LaDonna Smith, Sarah Peebles, a disc with Eugene Chadbourne and other projects.

Most recently he's pushing his mandate further, curating a worldwide compilation of minute-long improvisations. While very diverse from a stylistical and musical background point of view, Sait has elected, thankfully, to scramble things up and treat this simply like 60 individuals from all over the place playing their own individual music, where it would be tempting, of course to have them be emblematic of their respective race/ culture/ region.

The compilation features contributions from people of different professional statures which is nice. You've got known people like: John Oswald, Joe McPhee, Michael Snow, John Butcher, Lawrence Casserley, Susan Alcorn, Helena Espvall, Chas Smith and Ignatz, but many other new names (to me at least). The compilation also features people on everything from conventional western instrumentation like guitar to esoteric homebuilt contraptions of their own devising (eg. rubber glove bagpipes, samchillian, kaisatsu) to electronics to traditional instruments from everywhere (hurdy gurdy, tar, shamisen, harpsichord) to mundane objects (chair, platform).

Here's info on the contributions to the disc!

And here is a generous smattering of samples from the disc provided by David himself which you can stream through SoundCloud!
Various Artists - Sixty Interpretations of Sixty Seconds (Part 2) by endofworldmusic
2/1 Yurko Rafaliuk - tsymbaly (UKRAINE)
2/2 Jeff Albert - trombone (USA)
2/3 Laure Chailloux - accordion diatonique (FRANCE)
2/4 Leon Gruenbaum - samchillian (USA)
2/5 Leanid Narushevich - electric guitar (REPUBLIC OF BELARUS)
2/6 Araz Salek - tar (CANADA)

Various Artists - Sixty Interpretations of Sixty Seconds (Part 3) by endofworldmusic
3/1 John Oswald - alto sax (CANADA)
3/2 Christine Sehnaoui - alto sax (FRANCE)
3/3 Susan Alcorn - pedal steel (USA)
3/4 David Sait - guzheng (CANADA)
3/5. Pekko Käppi - jouhikko (FINLAND)
3/6 Andrea Centazzo - gong (USA)

Various Artists - Sixty Interpretations of Sixty Seconds (Part 5) by endofworldmusic
5/1. Damon Smith - field recordings/7 string double bass/laptop (USA)
5/2. Lawrence Casserley - monoharp/breath/signal processor (UK)
5/3. John Butcher - saxophone controlled feedback & piano resonator (UK)
5/4. Tom Boram - analog modular synth (USA)
5/5. Ignatz - guitar/voice/drum (BELGIUM)
5/6. Helena Espvall - cello/effects (USA)

The album can purchased here, through CDBaby on disc or digital format. (More samples here too albeit without any proper attribution to the various artists' contributions)

OR

HERE through EMusic!

ENJOY!

See... That was quick!

A lot of the best grandiose torchsong-type music has somewhat of dark overtone to it. Moments where the whole song is engulfed in a big maroon-coloured wave of maudlin moroseness.

Edith Piaf's brilliant "Belle Histoire D'Amour" one of her lesser-known cuts is a classic example of this bordering-on-comical lugubrious sweep. Portishead also built their career on teasing out the haunted bits of the torch song genre and painting it over crackle-infested beats.

Simin Ghanem was introduced to me by a good Iranian friend, Golbarg, who shares a passion for dark-hued female voices and melodramatic songs. A big Nina Simone fan, I had introduced her to Roberta Flack's reading of Van McCoy's "Sweet Bitter Love" which she took to with great enthusiasm. If you're familiar with that tune you have an idea of the kind of scale we're talking here.

Like her more famous pre-revolution (both are still active now but the general consensus is that the golden era of their careers was pre-79) contemporary Googoosh (famous, yet still criminally neglected by the world music industry!) Ghanem's output consists often of full-fledged orchestral arrangements with splashes of rock instrumentation and Persian classical colours. What differentiates her and Googoosh however is the same thing that distinguishes Brigitte Fassbaender and Janet Baker's readings of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder (arguably the spooky great-aunt to gloomy torchsongs). Whereas Baker brings a certain maternal softness and longing to the piece, Fassbaender's copious vibrato and throaty attack bring a certain level of dread and even insanity to the songs. While it still contains sensitivity there is a grain of unpredictability in there. (This is not to say one reading is more desirable though!)

Googoosh certainly has her intense, tear-jerking moments (if you're about to label that cheesy you can stop reading now!) but there is something about her singing that always remains graceful and refined even when she's teetering on the edge of emotional precipice.

Simin Ghanem carries her thicker, deeper voice more boldly and assertively than her contemporary. Still more than amply agile she employs less restraint ending up with larger, stickier ornaments which drag the melody around rather than lifting it up and dancing with it daintly. Her rounder. more pushed tone, is almost akin to that of Fassbaender, who is definitely a few notches closer to a shout than Baker.


In addition to her voice being more deeply connected to her physicality, the arrangements and production tend to be less glossy than Googoosh. In the above song, "Seeb" you hear cheaply sinister synth on top of the sort of heavy, flaccid drumming favoured by Ringo. The rest of the arrangement (consisting of guitars, synth strings, and bass) is murky and pushed to the background by cavernous slap-back echo.

For a real tenebrous treat, you must check out "Marde Man" in the downloadable album below. This is her at her most epic (in the true sense of the word) and deliriously climatic. Starting from a low simple melody, she grows in intensity deploying her elongated wavering ornaments and stretching out each note, until, bolstered by violins she's brought to a wailing, saturate climax.

Other highlights include the protracted "Besozan" which sounds more related to days-of-yore Persian singers with more traditional melodies and sonorities. Her voice and the hollowness of the arrangement and its slow deteriminated pulse actually recalls Nico's Desert Shore. (Ironically it's clearly also a jumping-off point for Lisa Gerrard's The Mirror Pool). A later track on the disc, "Raha Shodam" delves deeper into traditional Persian music, featuring tar, santur and tombak alongside strings, as well as the certain rhythmic lilt of Persian song.

"Gole Goledoon"(or "Az Tou Tanha Shodam" neither the CD jacket, CDDB, or online version seem to properly align with this particular song! As a non-Farsi speaker I can't figure it out... seems wrong to me!) is considerably more informed by Western pop--offering a spare and plaintive backdrop of nylon string guitar and taut drum tones for her powerful vocals. "Gholake Cheshat" has an almost Morriconesque flavour to the instrumentation, featuring harmonica and trumpet, amidst organ, nylon guitar, plunky Pet Soundsish bass and drums. Her voice quivers and also bellows against this.

Simin Ghanem's rich, raw delivery against an often pop-oriented yet dark musical underpinning is magical. Fans of Nina Simone, Scott Walker (of Scott 1-4) and Nico may want to take note.

Investigate it here.

Also... you can also purchase it through Pegah Books in Toronto (near Finch Station)

Since having vanished all but completely for I can't remember how long, I've probably squandered whatever meager readership I had accumulated...

Even if that is in fact the case I'm here to tell you (excitedly) that soon I plan post some new things. I've been hearing some great music and thinking to myself "If only I still had the blog... Oh wait I still do!" ... Here I am!

As some of you who know me personally know, things have been quite wild in various capacities for me in the past year and half to two years. So c'mon cut me some slack. I'm excited that I'm going to be sharing more stuff!

Manu Dibango - Afrovision

The early recorded folk music of Mediterranean islands is diverse and, with the possible exception of the islands of Greece, generally unexplored on reissue CDs. The European multinational record companies that readers of this website are by now very familiar with, were vigorous in their pursuit of any available market, and this included then far-flung and relatively isolated communities of the Balearic Islands, Malta, Corsica, Crete and the Greek islands, Cyprus, and Sardinia. Most of these markets – again, with the exception of the Greek islands – were miniscule when compared to, say, the classical music recordings of Russian tenors! The sales of Mallorcan 78s couldn’t even come close. It’s no surprise that comparatively few discs of these musical types were produced, and sales were, of course, smaller.

For instance, take the island of Malta, with its guitar-based ballads in the unique, Arabic-based Maltese language which dates from about the 9th century. Major recording labels of the early 20th century – Odeon, Polydor, HMV – only recorded Maltese music on 78s during a short period between the wars in the early 1930s. Those labels did not even record in Malta – Maltese musicians traveled either to Tunis or Milan to be recorded. On Malta, there were just one or two shops that sold those fine records. And that appears to have been beginning and the end of early commercial recording in Malta until the LP era.* In Spain, the Gramophone Company recorded music of Mallorca as early as September of 1924, and later in 1932 – just a handful of tracks as far as I can tell, although some appear to have been popular enough to have been reissued on their Spanish subsidiary imprints later in the 1930s. These examples can provoke two feelings that I’ve mentioned numerous times: fascination that such regional music was captured by these companies who were, of course, out for capital, yet at the same time, disappointment that they did not record more.

Sardinia has always remained independent from Italy in numerous ways, not the least of which is its local, non-Italian language, or its status as an autonomous community. There are no freeways. Cattle and sheep farming are a major source of the economy. Sardinia is also one of the least populated regions of Italy, therefore it’s not surprising that recording of Sardinian music was spotty. However, the musical traditions are rich, indeed. In Nuoro, the center of the island, there is the sonettu accordion dance music, and powerful, secular, vocal polyphony music called a tenore. In the south of the island, there is the folk dance music on the launeddas single-reed pipes, and the fisarmonica, a local accordion. The north of the island, particularly the regions of Logudoro and Gallura, is known for its mutos, or canto a chiterra songs – essentially voice and guitar music which developed in the early part of the 20th century, which allows the both singer and guitarist plenty of room for interplay. This is the type of music featured today.

At least in terms of the Gramophone Company, the 78rpm-era music of Sardinia, as with Malta, was primarily recorded in the early 1930s, with a spate of tremendous discs featuring singers such as Gavino de Lunas, Antioco Marras, and launeddas player Efisio Melis. However, other companies along with Gramophone, such as Odeon and Pathé, had been sporadically recording Sardinian music throughout the 20s, beginning at least as early as 1922.

The story goes that in 1928, an executive from the French Pathé company heard the voice of Maurizio Carta, and immediately signed him to a record for the label. This record was probably made not long after. Carta was born in 1904 to a middle-class family in Mogoro, a town in the Sardinian province of Oristano. He later gained fame with his recordings on Pathé. He is, in fact, not forgotten, as a choir named for him, the ”Coro Maurizio Carta,” is active today. The term “disisperata” is used on both sides of this disc. Canto e chiterra songs have been divided into 12 different types, and the “disisperata” is usually the 12th and final song. “Tempiese” could be referring to a type of canto a chiterra singing known as La Tempiesina, which comes from the town of Tempio Pausania in the Gallura region. As always, I await your contributions and knowledge. For now, a Sardinian bagatelle…

Maurizio Carta – La Disisperata di Tempiese

Technical Notes
Label: Pathé Actuelle
Issue Number: E. 15405
Matrix Number: N88696

For more early Sardinian music, please see the fine In Dialetto Sardo CD, on the Heritage label. And for a beautiful launeddas workout, see the Secret Museum Volume 1 (of course!). For more on Maltese music on 78rpm, keep checking this site.

Special thanks to Rod Stradling, James Cheney and Tony Klein.

* Apart from what appear to be later re-pressings of the earlier material on the local Dischi Maltin label.

I came across this clip from the BBC program Welcome To Lagos that introduces us to Vocal Slender—an aspiring musician who collects scrap at the Olusosun dump to make ends meet.

His debut album, Vocal Slender - Send Them Come is available on Itunes.

» vocal slender on myspace

via 3dnam on vimeo

An hour of global cover songs started off the show, celebrating the musicianship and life of reggae icon Bob Marley, who would have turned 65 tomorrow. Not your regular reggae show...one listener even described it as "trippy." Plus new releases and more in the second hour. Congrats to the listeners who won the CD and ticket giveaways this week.

Global Reggae-Tribute to Bob Marley: Spin The Globe playlist for 5 February 2010
as heard on radio KAOS, 89.3 FM


Listen/download for a limited time at: soundroots.podomatic.com
More show info at spintheglobe.earball.net

Hour 1
Dhol Foundation  -  Colours of Punjab (theme)  -  Big Drum Small World
Ojos de Brujo  -  Get Up Stand Up  -  Backspin
Yeshe  -  No Woman No Cry  -  World CitiZen
Yat-Kha  -  Exodus  -  Re-Covers
African Showboyz  -  Three Little Birds  -  Spiritual Song
Ruia & Ranea  -  Maakona Tamaroto (Satisfy My Soul)  -  Waiata of Bob Marley
Nenes  -  No Woman, No Cry  -  Cover the World
Liam Teague  -  Jammin’  -  Impressions
Joshua Lebofsky  -  Redemption Song  -  Play a Little Prayer
Karamelo Santo  -  So Much Trouble in the World  -  El Baile Oficial
Wyclef Jean  -  No Woman No Cry  -  The Score OST
Ruia  -  Koingo Atu Nei Kia Koe (Waiting in Vain)  -  Nehenehe Nui

Hour 2
Them Mushrooms  -  Tribute to Bob Marley  -  Kazi Ni Kazi
Bob Marley  -  One Love/People Get Ready  -  Legend
Tommy T  -  East-West Express  -  The Prester John Sessions
SambaDa  -  Sangue African  -  Gente
Soweto Gospel Choir  -  O’Nkosi Yam  -  Grace
Jerry Leake  -  Geo  -  Cubist
The Erev Ravs  -  Naphtaly’s Freylach  -  advance single
Farafina  -  Nening  -  Kanou
Rag Dharma  -  Rag Jog (excerpt)  -  Live at the Mark
Mahotella Queens & Ulali  -  Ma’ Africa  -  1 Giant Leap
Bakithi Kumalo  -  African Mountain  -  In Front of My Eyes
Buena Vista Social Club  -  Chan Chan  -  World Circuit Presents…


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• Bob Marley Trivia (psychedelichippiemusic.blogspot.com)

SoundRoots

No, SoundRoots isn't setting you up with a journey to the Great Beyond to converse with the late great father of Afrobeat. But Afropop Worldwide has the next best thing: a contest that will result in two people receiving airfare to New York, a hotel stay, and tickets to the Broadway musical FELA!
Is it a good show? I haven't seen it, but Ben Brantley's review in the NYT begins thusly:

There should be dancing in the streets. When you leave the Eugene O’Neill Theater after a performance of “Fela!,” it comes as a shock that the people on the sidewalks are merely walking. Why aren’t they gyrating, swaying, vibrating, in thrall to the force field that you have been living in so ecstatically for the past couple of hours?

And since the contest is free to enter, you should head over to Afropop.org where you can get more details and enter right up through Valentine's Day.

Seun Kuti talks about FELA!
And a little glimpse of the show itself:






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• Theater Review | 'Fela!': Making Music Mightier Than the Sword (theater.nytimes.com)

SoundRoots