GREECE Greek Folk Music Volume III – Wedding Songs - Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation PFF 3

GREECE
Greek Folk Music Volume III – Wedding Songs - Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation PFF 3, recorded 1976 (LP)

Ioanna Papantoniou (b. 1936) created the Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation in 1974 to collect and preserve artifacts from Greece’s disappearing traditional and folk cultures, including costumes, embroideries, jewelry, tools, etc., which where exhibited in the museum she opened in Nafplio in 1981. The Foundation also published four outstanding LPs of Greek village music between 1975 and 1979.

We now present Greek Folk Music Volume III – Wedding Songs recorded throughout Greece in 1976. Weddings are essential moments of joy in a community, where music, song and dance play a central role. This anthology of traditional village wedding music features zurna oboe (A1), gaida bagpipes (A2, B2), violin (A6, B4, B6), long-neck fretted laouto lute (A6, B4), lyra (A4, B1), kanonaki kanun (B6), daouli drum (A1), toumbeleki goblet drum (A2, B6), tambourine (B1).

Ioanna Papantoniou (née en 1936) a créé la Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation en 1974 afin de collecter, d'étudier et de préserver des traces des cultures traditionnelles et folkloriques grecques en voie de disparition, notamment des costumes, des broderies, des bijoux, des outils, etc., qui seront exposés dans le musée qu'elle ouvre à Nauplie en 1981. Entre 1975 et 1979, la Fondation publia également quatre remarquables albums de musique de village grecque.

Nous partageons maintenant Greek Folk Music Volume III – Wedding Songs enregistré dans plusieurs régions grecques en 1976. Les mariages sont des moments de joie collective essentiels dans la vie d’un village où la musique, le chant et la danse jouent un rôle central. Cette anthologie de musique de mariage présente le hautbois zurna (A1), la cornemuse gaida (A2, B2), le violon (A6, B4, B6), le luth laouto (A6, B4), la lyre ( A4, B1), le kanun kanonaki (B6), le tambour daouli (A1), le tambour gobelet toumbeleki (A2, B6), et le tambourin (B1).

MACEDONIA – Meliki, Imathia

A1 – The Bride's Song / Georgios Th. Zafiriou and Thomas Ch. Patmos, zurna oboes; Dimitrios S. Arabatzis, daouli drum

MACEDONIA – Episkopi, Naousa

A2 – G(o)vana / Christos I. Tantsis, gaida bagpipes; Athanasios G. Athanasakos, toumbeleki drum

MACEDONIA – Prosotsani, Drama

A3 – Now, as Evening Falls / Zoe Pelechra, vocals.

DODECANESE – Karpathos

A4 – Syrmatikos / Ioannis M. Vlachakis, lyre.

PELOPONNESUS – Nestani, Tripolis

A5 – Dowry Song / Group of female vocalists.

ATTICA – Megara

A6 – Syrtos – Patinada / Iakovos Ilias, violin; Haralambos I. Ilias, lute.

MACEDONIA – Xiropotamos, Drama

B1 – Patinada / Vasilios Tragosis and Georgios Arnaoutis, lyre; Antonios Samaras and Christos Totsios, tambourine drum.

MACEDONIA – Xiropotamos, Drama

B2 – The Bride's Song  / Athanasios Alexiou, gaida bagpipes.

EASTERN THRACE – Kessani

B3 – Table Song / Athanasios Didakis, vocals.

CYCLADES – Kythnos

B4 – Patinada / Georgios Manesis or Philippakis, vocals; Georgios Vitalis or Kazeros, violin; Georgios Manesis or Philippakis, lute.

PELOPONNESUS – Kefalovryso, Argolis

B5 – Dowry Song / Yannoula Tsetseni, vocals.

ASIA MINOR – Silli, Ikonion

B6 – Patinada / Nikos Stefanides, kanonaki kanun; Stefanos Vartanis, violin; Mattheos Valavanis, toumbeleki drum.

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Many, many thanks to Nuno for his expert help with the visuals for every post.

Our other Greek music shares:

Musik der Pontos-Griechen– Museum Collection Berlin MC5 here

Orient - Okzident –Musik Aus Südost-Europa – Museum Collection Berlin MC3 here

Greece in Music & Song – Argo ZFB 70 here

Please help me purchase important traditional records to pursue my global 

curation project and share the best finds with you on this blog:

NIGERIA Johnson Adjan and his Opiri Group of Orhokpo – Me Ra Ighorokpe – MELP 006

NIGERIA
Johnson Adjan and his Opiri Group of Orhokpo – Me Ra Ighorokpe – MELP 006 (LP)

For the Urhobo People in the Delta State in Southern Nigeria, where the mighty Niger River traverses their heartland, many of the traditions and activities revolve around water. For example, the Ohworhu water spirit festival in Urnenurhie, celebrated with dancing, music, and masquerades. Their traditional rituals and ceremonies center on the worship of Oghene (God) and the ancestors, and the interaction with the divinities with their own symbolic powers, to maintain a cosmic balance.

This rare album by Johnson Adjan and his Opiri Group of Orhokpo features Adjan’s powerful voice, harmonically-rich backing vocals and mellow drums and percussion. This understated and reflective music, with a unique, well-defined musical signature, goes to the very heart of Urhobo identity, much like the music of Haruna Ishola and Yusufu Olatunji for the Yoruba, which we featured in several posts.

Les traditions et activités des Urhobo qui vivent dans l'État du Delta au sud du Nigéria, traversé en son cœur par le puissant fleuve Niger, gravitent souvent autour de l'eau. Tel le festival de l'esprit de l'eau Ohworhu à Urnenurhie, célébré notamment par des danses, de la musique et des mascarades. Les rituels et cérémonies traditionnels des Urhobo se focalisent sur le culte d'Oghene (Dieu) et des ancêtres, et l'interaction avec les divinités et leurs pouvoirs symboliques afin de maintenir l’équilibre cosmique.

Cet album rare de Johnson Adjan and his Opiri Group of Orhokpo présente la voix puissante de Johnson Adjan, des choeurs riches en harmonies et une polyrythmie fluide et douce à l’oreille. Cette musique méditative et toute en retenue a une signature musicale unique et bien définie, qui va au cœur même de l'identité Urhobo, tout comme la musique d'Haruna Ishola ou de Yusufu Olatunji pour les Yoruba, que nous avons présenté dans des posts précédents.

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"I grew up in a tradition where there are simply more dimensions to reality: legends and myths and ancestors and spirits and death. […] We like to think that the world is rational and precise and exactly how we see it, but something erupts in our reality which makes us sense that there's more to the fabric of life. I'm fascinated by the mysterious element that runs through our lives. Everyone is looking out of the world through their emotion and history. Nobody has an absolute reality."*

Ben Okri (b. 1959), one of Africa’s most celebrated writers, born to an Urhobo father and Igbo mother. 

https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/books/ben-okri-novelist-as-dream-weaver-1.395947


Photographs below are from Arts du Nigéria dans les collections privées françaises by Alain Lebas, 5 Continents:

Mask, Idoma People, Benue State:

Ogbodo Enyi mask, Igbo-Izzi People, Ebonyi State:

Dance crest mask, Ejagham (aka Ekoi) People, Cross River State:

Please help me purchase important traditional records to pursue my global 

curation project and share the best finds with you on this blog:

PAKISTAN Sabri Brothers – Vol. 43 - T Series 1224 SCI

PAKISTAN
Sabri Brothers – Vol. 43 - T Series 1224 SCI (Cassette)

We now present Qawwali music by the Sabri Brothers, founded by Ghulam Farid Sabri (1930-1994) from Kalyana, East Punjab, and his younger brother Maqbool Ahmed Sabri (1945-2011) in the late 1950s. The two lead singers—who also play harmonium, accompanied by a chorus of male singers, tanpuras, tabla, dholak drums, and hand-clapping—created a highly popular hypnotic and soulful Sufi devotional music based on mystical poetry and the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad.

This superb cassette conveys the live Qawwali experience via an extended free-flowing lyrical performance of reflective recitations, with the full band gradually increasing the tempo behind the Sabri Brothers’ soaring rapturous voices, and sung variations on the repetition of key verses that move the musicians and audience into a common state of enchanted ecstasy in the remembrance of God (Dhikr).

Nous présentons maintenant la musique Qawwali des Sabri Brothers, fondé à la fin des années 1950 par Ghulam Farid Sabri (1930-1994) de Kalyana, Punjab oriental, et son jeune frère Maqbool Ahmed Sabri (1945-2011). Les deux chanteurs – qui jouent également de l'harmonium, accompagnés d'un chœur d’hommes, de tanpuras, de tablas, de tambours dholak et de claquements de mains – ont créé une musique dévotionnelle soufie hypnotique et sensuelle très populaire au Pakistan fondée sur la poésie mystique et les paroles du Prophète Mohammed.

Cette superbe cassette nous fait vivre la véritable expérience du Qawwali avec une performance fluide et lyrique faîte de récitations contemplatives, avec les musiciens accélérant progressivement le tempo derrière les voix extatiques des frères Sabri, avec des variations sur la répétition de phrases sacrées qui mettent les musiciens et le public dans un état de transe collective à travers le souvenir de Dieu (dhikr).

Side A (and the beginning of Side B) – Man bole man shah-e-zaman, kaali kaali kamli hai, noor sa badan

(My heart says, Emperor of the earth (world), black is his blanket and glowing is his body (like light))

Side B1 – Mohammed ki taqdeer ne bhi kya taqdeer payi hai

(How fortunate is even the mat of Mohammed)

Side B2 – Hazrat Abu Bakr ne sadaqat sameit li

(Abu Bakr took upon truthfulness)

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Many thanks to João for sharing his collection of Qawwali cassettes.

And to our friend Eden from India for the translations of the Hindi on the cassette cover (the singing is in Urdu). Eden also hosts an excellent Qawwali website, which includes music from many hard-to-find vintage Sabri Brothers albums (click on the record covers):

https://maqboolsabri.com/

Our other Pakistani music shares:

Instrumental Music of Pakistan – HMV LKDE 20018, 1975, here

Mohammad Sharif Khan Poonch Wala – BM 30 L 2029 here

Photographs below are from Pakistan - The Music of the Qawal EMI 3C 064 - 18226 (LP) and Pakistan/Insight Guides, edited by Tony Halliday, photography by Heinz Grosse, Ara Guler, 1998:

The Tomb of Bibi Jaiwindi, Sufi shrine, Uch Sharif:

 
Please help me purchase important traditional records to pursue my global 
curation project and share the best finds with you on this blog:

CUBA Carnaval à Santiago de Cuba – Le Chant du Monde - LDX A 4250

CUBA
Carnaval à Santiago de Cuba – Le Chant du Monde - LDX A 4250, 1961 (LP)

Carnival in Cuba dates back to the 17th-century Spanish colonial times, when both Catholic religious festivities were celebrated as well as the Day of the King, when, for 24 hours, the Spanish permitted slaves to parade and perform neo-African music and dance in the city. The annual summer carnival recorded here was held in Santiago de Cuba, on the island’s south-eastern tip, in July 1960 or 1961, and also celebrated the Cuban Revolution of 1959. Carnival played a major role in defining Cuban identity, by bringing together people of all races and classes in revelry, and hybridizing and integrating Cuba’s many musical cultures and influences.

Le carnaval à Cuba remonte au XVIIe siècle, à l'époque coloniale espagnole, lorsqu’il célébrait des fêtes religieuses catholiques, ainsi que le jour du roi, lorsque, pendant 24 heures, les Espagnols autorisaient les esclaves à défiler dans la ville avec des musiques et des danses néo-africaines. Le carnaval estival annuel enregistré ici à Santiago de Cuba, sur la pointe sud-est de l'île, en juillet 1960 ou 1961, célébrait également la révolution cubaine de 1959. En réunissant des personnes de toutes races et classes sociales dans la fête, le carnaval a joué un rôle majeur dans l'identité cubaine et dans l’hybridation et l’intégration des nombreuses cultures et influences musicales de l’île.

A1 Ambiance in the streets

A2 El Macuquillo Oriental, with the quirky “Chinese” trumpet

A3 Suavecito by the great Ignacio Piñero (1888-1969) & Septeto Nacional

A4 Comparsa improvisation by a Carnival band with dancers

A5 Piruso Y Su Boina

A6 El Manisero (the peanut vendor), a Cuban classic revisited

B1 Carabali-Burundanga, includes the “Chinese” trumpet

B2 Song on the Land Reform by Ensemble Los Matanceros

B3 Ecue-Ecue

B4 Glory to Cuba by Ensemble Los Matanceros

B5 Comparsa improvisation by a Carnival group with dancers

B6 Barrel organ

B7 My People are Content by Ensemble Los Matanceros

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Our other Cuban music share:
Musique Afro-Cubaine - Disques Alvarès 453 here

Charanga from the golden age is my favorite Cuban musical genre. Charanga Francesca is a remarkable example of the rich cross-fertilization between “African” (drums, percussion, timbales, polyrhythm, call-response, neo-African dancing) and “European” (flutes, strings, piano, harmony, orchestration, Spanish language) components. Here I share two excellent Charanga tracks from my collection, followed by the video of a dancer at an Orquesta Aragon performance recorded by Cuban national television in the 1950s:

Rosendo Ruiz Jr. - La Jicotea, c. late 1950s (excellent violin solo)

Orquesta Super Estrellas de Gonzalo Fernandez - Bailarin, mid-70s (great dance music)

Orchestra Aragon dance number

  Please help me purchase important traditional records to pursue my global curation                            project and share the best finds with you on this blog: