Free Jazz

Ofamfa LP by Children of the Sun
Universal Justice Records, 1971

 My wife thrift shopped a remarkable record for me. Its title is Ofamfa and the name of the group listed is Children of the Sun. Searching in Google for Ofamfa doesn't yield many results. There's a new media company situated in the Netherlands in Nijmegen of all places (it's where I'm from), with ties to Africa and Asia. And then there's an African-centric twitter account with that name. Thirdly the very record I have in front of me appears on the first Google page. On the next pages these results are repeated before I finally stumble upon the meaning of the Ofamfa I'm looking for:

  Ofamfa is the Akan symbol of critical examination.

Children of the Sun on the other hand yields many results but (looking at Wikipedia) none refer to the group of jazz musicians (or muse/icians) that play on the record. The best known of these musicians is Oliver Lake who went on to have a distinguished solo career as a jazz saxophonist. Children of the Sun operate under the umbrella of B.A.G. (Black Artist Group), an organization of creative people of all disciplines from St, Louis, MO. The record is a raw example of free jazz with equal attention to poetry and jazz. The sound reminds me of the recordings by The Last Poets many years later.

The Joyfulaires

The Joyfulaires – In the Valley He Restoreth My Soul
Joyful Records LP: JS-73-1

05 (In the Valley) He Restoreth My Soul.m4a

'Tis the season for thrift stores to organize their records. Once a year the Christmas records are separated from the secular records. I enjoy this, it makes it easy, I only need to browse through a considerable smaller selection to try to find something I like than I do the rest of the year. So why did I browse through the Christmas bin the other day? God only knows. 

I picked up this LP by the Joyfulaires last Christmas when I was still living in Ohio. When there still was the potential for a white Christmas to look forward to. The Joyfulaires are from Albany, Ohio.

"Dianna is a young married student and has dedicated her talents to God. She was a neglected child, but God sent Mr. and Mrs. Pinney, wonderful christian parents, to adopt her as their own." (—The Joyfulaires, In the Valley He Restoreth My Soul)
Dianna plays piano in the group. Karen and Bonnie are young mothers who sing. Bonnie's phone number is listed on the LP (for bookings, I suppose) and it would be only a local call for me but I won't dial it (no, I'm not passing on that number either, it's 40 years old, for heaven's sake).

Unsere Heimat

Music of the Austrian Alps
Capitol of the World
Capitol Records, DT 10016

When I titled this week's musical thrift store treasure I had no idea it is also a title of a once popular patriotic song from East Germany that played an important part in the film Goodbye Lenin! I could have known, I could have guessed, it's just that the song hasn't shown up for me yet in a thrift store like Mother Russia or Dear Siberian Land (see post on Siberia) have. I'm not very proud of my Dutch musical heritage (but I do have a large collection), and I don't think many fellow music enthusiasts from Austria and Switzerland are proud of their traditional folk music either. They should be though. The proof is here. Their folk music is as exciting as their neighbors' with a folk tradition of much higher esteem (Italy, Hungary, Czech Republic). Both these records here are released by a major label (Capitol). The authentic serious academic field recording labels and musicologists (think Alan Lomax or Nonesuch Explorer Series) have remarkable little to say about the folk music of Switzerland and Austria (and Germany too for that matter.) The Alps are considered a very conservative region and their music far removed from ancient times, a tribal past, or pagan ritualistic rites. But  listen to these outtakes. Consider a true yodel, a real alphorn, or encountering a folk musician in a polar bear costume.

http://www.box.com/s/4u4olja04lsijyaaztia

01 Appenzeller Yodel.m4a 

http://www.box.com/s/6yhv7ys2soikcbcq81bz 

02 Tiroler Schuhplattler.m4a  

Swiss Mountain Music
Capitol of the World
Capitol Records, T 10161

Nobody

10 Something's Gotta Give.m4a

Ladies of Burlesque, LP
Sandy Hook Records, CT
S.H. 2019, 1979

This bawdy little record I found—a bit out of place, at a Goodwill store. A compilation of Hollywood's Burlesque variety show songs from the thirties through the sixties. B Movie outtakes by some of Hollywood's great actresses and some of the forgotten ones as well. "'There's Rita Hayworth', "No it isn't", 'Kim Novak', "No it isn't", "then who is it?" 'It's nobody!'" Joanne Woodward is our nobody, the song is called Something's Gotta Give from the film The Stripper (1963), easily the most exciting track on this bizarre collection of Americana. The atmosphere reminds me of Bollywood, just a sitar is missing. It was the debut of the prolific film music composer Jerry Goldsmith who went on the do the music for Planet of the Apes and The Boys from Brazil, among many others. The film also featured the legendary Burlesque striptease dancer Gypsy Rose Lee.

Lover's Lament

Two musicians from the Gagaku ensemble
Songs and Sounds of the Orient (cover)
A custom recording by Japanese Air Lines, JAL 5581-666

In the 1970s commercial use of the vinyl record was at its prime. It was the golden age of the recording industry. Sales were peaking and companies flooded the LP market with whatever they thought could earn them a profit. A handful of record companies issued immense amounts of commercial recordings and turned into billion dollar corporations. But the 1970s also saw many new record companies established while existing smaller labels were able to hold their own. According to my finds at thrift stores many companies that had nothing to do with the music industry whatsoever also wanted to take a bite out of the blooming record industry pie. I don't know how many of the world's air lines produced LPs but in a single day I came home with a record produced by the Italian Alitalia and the Japanese JAL. The Italian one is a football record with commentaries and interviews on and with the 1978 Italian world cup squad, beautifully adorned with the original owner tourist's ephemera such as snap shots, a signed photograph of the airplane pilot, and a picture of the pope. It's hard to listen to the record if you don't (and I don't) speak Italian. The Japanese record (from which I picked the musical example below) is as well documented as the best of the scholastic field recordings by say, the Smithsonian, biased however by the commercial interest of selling airplane tickets. The records has both sounds from places of tourist's interests and music, richly illustrated with pictures, stories, and a booklet full of information. Side A of the record deals with Japan while side B covers some of the countries visited by JAL. The track A-ri-rang that can be downloaded below is from side B. It's a lover's lament sung and recorded in Korea, believed to originate more than 300 years ago. "The song is a dialog between a heartbroken girl and her fickle lover. She pleads with him not to leave her, but his roving eyes have already found another."
01 Lover's Lament.m4a

The Soul of Mbira

01 Nyamoropa Yevana Vava Mushonga.m4a

The Soul of Mbira
cover by Donald Leake and Robert L. Heimall
Nonesuch Explorer Series, H-72054
Nonesuch Records, New York, 1973

Scholarly level musical recordings are not the type of records you would expect to show up at thrift stores. Half the records however, I own from labels such as the Nonesuch Explorer Series and the Ethnic Folkways Library, I have found for less than a dollar at thrift stores. The recordings on these records are not hard to come by, the Nonesuch records are mostly reissued on CD format while the Folkways recordings can be ordered as a download or as a CD from the Smithsonian Institute. The original vinyl copies is a different story though as you would pay a minimum of $25 on line for a used copy, if available at all. I'm excited when I find a record such as this The Soul of Mbira for 99 cents but I get a little sad too thinking who it could have belonged to. I imagine that records such as The Soul of Mbira belonged to people who were serious about the music they bought, I imagine that they were once part of a serious collection. The Soul of Mbira was published almost forty years ago and I wonder about the fate of the original owner. Did he (or she) pass away? Did their children come in the house after this happened and just picked up these "worthless, obsolete" vinyl records to drop them off at the nearest thrift store? If that's the case I think the previous owner will be pleased that his/her precious item found a home that truly appreciates all the aspects surrounding the album. Nyamoropa Yevana Vava Muchonga by Muchatera Mujuru was my favorite track when I first listened to the album back in 1991 when I borrowed it from the library, and now 20 years later it still is. With the purchase of the album I learn that Nyamoropa, according to Paul Berliner, is played on "one of the few remaining varieties of an older style 25-key Mbira Dza Vadaimu, having the lowest and most traditional tunings".

The Soul of Mbira: Traditions of the Shona People of Rhodesia was first released in 1973, when it was issued on CD in 2002, the title changed to reflect a new political name for Rhodesia: Zimbabwe: The Soul of Mbira, Traditions of the Shona People.

Rahsaan

05 Raouf.m4a
http://www.box.net/s/3ecy2ni2veshhuc910qx

Roland Kirk - Slightly Latin
(sleeve design by Daniel Czubak)
recorded 1965 at Capitol Studios
Monaural LM 82033, Limelight

Last week I meant to comment on records that you would never find at a thrift store. Those records that you would, without blinking your eye, pay 6 or 7 dollars for if you find a used copy somewhere, and even spent 12 dollars for a brand new release on CD. Records by musicians you esteem so high that it wouldn't even occur to you you'd find them for 50 cents at a Volunteers of America. Captain Beefheart, Pere Ubu, the Velvet Underground, and even Cat Power and Bob Dylan belong to this category. One of the names I included in this list—a rough draft I had already written—is Rahsaan Roland Kirk. By Jove, days later, at a Goodwill store on Route 41, Slightly Latin by Roland Kirk (from before he added the Rahsaan to his name) appeared. I never even saw this record before, I didn't even know it existed, but there it was, in mint shape, with all the colorful pages originally attached to the folding sleeve still intact. I chose the song Raouf for the following reasons:

1. Raouf was composed by Roland Kirk himself.
2. Raouf is the new, self assumed, African inspired, name of one of the singers on Raouf whose original name was Ruth Perkinson. I have the feeling that the photographic portrait on the sleeve, as well as all the other color photographs in the attached book, is of her. Kirk, as well as the photographer Daniel Czubak, must have been infatuated with her. The voices on the record are arranged by one Coleridge Perkinson by the way.
3. It's a great tune.

Slightly Latin is the seventh vinyl record I own of Kirk (I also have several cds) and the first one bought at a thrift store. It brings the Average Kirk price I paid for an album (including cds) to about 6 dollars.

Children's songs

01 Haj szén'alja, szén'alja.m4a
http://www.box.net/shared/sfs1hz9z4tpp8xd3045o

Hungarian Folk Music, sleeve design by Gyözö Varga,
presented by the Hungarian Academy of Science,
Budapest, 1964

Often a children's song or two are included in such albums that seek to give an overview of the musical traditions of a certain cultural or geographical group.  I have gathered quite a few but to say I'm collecting is an overstatement, they're simply included in some of the records I collect. My interest in these children's songs is fairly new. I'm attracted to the uncomplicated spontaneous nature of these songs. They're happy songs, playful songs, free from the burdens of the hardness and sadness of life, complex psychological identities, and sexual rejection. I was never interested in their songs, their aesthetic, or their play, but something changed. I think my interest started with teaching drawing and painting to children this summer, I had never done this before, and never thought I would like it, but I did.
—It has recently been discovered that some of the iconic ancient cave paintings have been done by small children. In the recently discovered Rouffignac  caves in the Dordogne, the most prolific artist was a five year old girl. Learning about this fact impacted my worldview and my attitude of how I view children.

The LP Hungarian Folk Music contains a really nice children’s song. it is called Haj szén'alja, szén'alja which translates to Ah, bundle of hay, bundle of hay. The LP Hungarian Folk Music (not to be confused with Bartok's better known Folk Music of Hungary) is so far the year's best thrift store find. The number 194 taped in the top left corner on the record indicates that it once belonged to a collection. I bought 20 records from that collection in one day, the numbers ranging between 185 and 232. All records are from Eastern Europe with a majority coming from Poland. I assume the collection once belonged to an immigrant from Poland. I really should revisit that thrift store to see if other numbers from the collection have been released.

Sad Song

04 Gloomy Sunday.m4a
http://www.box.net/shared/fng0kve6vxnsne287sad

George Boulanger, King of the Gypsy Violin
Colosseum Records CRLP 200, New York, 1955

Our family home had a painting of a guitar playing gypsy boy with a tear in his eye in the living room. It was the only painting we had. Many living rooms in the Netherlands in the 1960s had a painting similar to ours. As a young boy paintings like this were synonymous for me with the whole of painting, the whole of art for that matter. Not until years later my horizon broadened and I knew our gypsy painting was kitsch, art for the masses. In that same decade, and well into the 70s, gypsy records were popular in our country too, on the continent, and from what I find in thrift stores these days, in the United States as well. A gypsy violinist was synonymous for virtuosity in music. Times have changed, the gypsies go by the name of the Rom people now, their music celebrated in the most advanced cultural cycles, but the records of the 60s, made for a mass audience, commercial as they are, still hold moments of brilliance, magic, and that equivalent of the “tear-in-the-eye painting” for me.
My latest 25 cent gypsy record is one of George Boulanger, the “King of the Gypsy Violin”. The best tunes are like that painting on the wall of my parent’s house, a tear running down the cheek. The tracks on the record are partially standards and partially Boulanger’s own compositions. The stand-out track is Gloomy Sunday, a song recorded by many singers in the western world. Billie Holiday’s version is one of sheer beauty. I did not know until recently that it originally was a Hungarian song, written by Rezsö Soress. Gloomy Sunday in Hungarian is Szomolá Vasárnap. On Boulanger’s record the title is listed in English, Boulanger is from Romania.

With friends we sometimes play the game “YouTube-off”, in which each participant selects a YouTube video within a certain category, the participants then vote on the winner. In the category “sad” I nominated the song Szomolá Vasárnap in the version by the Hungarian actress Erika Marozsán. The video was just a still, a photograph of a sad statue of a woman’s face that was rained upon (so it looked like tears).
It didn’t get any votes :_(

But I didn’t take the opportunity to elaborate on the song’s history. It was written in the direst of circumstances and myth has it that many people committed suicide after hearing the song. It may well be the saddest song ever written.

Siberia

09 Dear Siberian Land.m4a

http://www.box.net/shared/zazpi9n0qo66h1diyo7d

Siberian Russian Folk Chorus  (LP sleeve)
Art Director Vladimir Chirkov
Melodia C 01669–70, made in the USSR

International records in thrift stores roughly fall under the two categories of those acquired by tourists and those imported by immigrants. (A third category is that of academic folk music archives, by far the best category but not too often found in thrift stores.) The records for tourists typically have English titles while immigrants’ records are usually in their native language. Last week I briefly discussed tourists’ records typically from countries where vacationers like to visit. The records brought in by immigrants are often from places tourists don’t usually go to like this one here from Siberia. Often these records are nostalgic and/or patriotic. My pick for this week’s song was a toss up between Mother Russia by Antoli Novikov (in Cyrillic) and an album by the Siberian Russian Folk Chorus (both in English and Cyrillic). I opted for the latter. The two best songs on the record are Age Old Pines Above the Shusha and Dear Siberian Land. Since somebody (a kindred spirit) already posted Age Old Pines (which happens to be written by the famous Soviet composer of patriotic songs Antoli Novikov) on his/her blog I chose the patriotic Dear Siberian Land (by Vladimir Chirkov, the art director of the chorus).

Maria

07 Estrellita.m4a  
 http://www.box.net/shared/0lcixk29f5cklm3y5ouq 

Latin Sampler
Record sleeve, Allegro 1908
Record Corp. of America, 1956

Ask me what I think the most beautiful name for a woman is and without hesitation I'll answer Maria. I always adored that name and the few I've met are beautiful people. It was my destiny that I would end up marrying a Maria, and she is beautiful. During our white bread weeks I made her mix tapes, all with happy and sweet music about love and romance. On one of those tapes I collected all the singers I had  available named Maria. Back then (14 years ago) it was not easy to fill a C60. I had to use three Maria Callas arias to fill an hour's worth. Now it would be easy as cake because ever since that tape I've kept up the collection. Don't ask me how many different singers I have, I lost count, there must be at least forty. The name Maria is found in many places. I have records from Poland, Russia, Spain, Portugal, from all over Latin America, but (unless you consider Maria Callas an American) the only American Maria in my collection is one record by Maria Muldaur. Maria Callas, of course, is the most famous of them all. I love Maria Callas. I have twelve records dedicated to the American born Greek opera diva and many of these are box sets. The aria Casta Diva is her signature song and one of her recordings of it represents for me the most beautiful voice on record. 

The latest addition to my Maria collection is a song on the compilation record Latin Sampling by a singer named Maria Plaza. I have no idea where the singer is from or anything about her, but there is a picture of her on the sleeve. The treasures I find in thrift stores often have no presence on the web. There are various Maria Plazas found on the web but all refer to geographical entries. The sampler itself is not that interesting. The record contains commercialized Latin beats, romantic Latin mood orchestras, and even an instruction how to dance the rumba (I tried it, but I suck at dancing). Only the very last track of the record has artistic and aesthetic merit. Indeed, this is the Maria Plaza tune Estrellita. First you think the tune is going to turn into On the Sunny Side of the Street but then the aria Casta Diva lingers through the rest of it. Every time Plaza hits the high note at the end of a strophe I hear Casta Diva setting in. Estrellita, so I learn through Google, is a song written by the Mexican composer Manuel Ponce in 1912. Like Casta Diva it has been performed by numerous singers and musicians. 
Casta Diva is from the opera Norma written by Vincenzo Bellini (libretto by Felice Romani), it premiered at La Scala in 1831. This is the English translation of Casta Diva.

Pure Goddess, whose silver covers
These sacred ancient plants,
we turn to your lovely face
unclouded and without veil...
Temper, oh Goddess,
the hardening of you ardent spirits
temper your bold zeal,
Scatter peace across the earth
Thou make reign in the sky...

...and then the English translation of Estrellita

Little star of the distant sky,
you see my pain,
you know my anguish.
Come down and tell me
if he loves me a little,
because I cannot live without his love.
You are my star, my beacon of love!
You know that soon I shall die.
Come down and tell me
if he loves me a little,
because I cannot live without his love.

Ole! Amparo Garrido

08 Ole tus Lunares.m4a
http://www.box.net/files#/files/0/f/121516455/Thrift_Store_Mixed_Tapes

Amparo Garrido: Ole!
record sleeve, Antilla records #582
Armada & Rodriguez of  Florida, Inc.

People go on vacation and on vacation they buy souvenirs. Postcards they buy for a visual memory and records they buy for a memory in sound. Records used to be great souvenirs, People got them everywhere. These days the souvenir records are all at thrift stores: Memories of Italy, Souvenir de Paris, Grüße aus Tirol, and the like, containing romantic night music based on popular melodies in the particular vacation destination. Some of the richer vacationers go on a cruise, or go to nightclubs. Their souvenirs are the records from the singers, the bands or the orchestras performing and the most adventurous traveler returns home with a signed copy. Signed or not, eventually the records end up at the thrift stores. I've collected numerous signed records, the most famous one is a signed (and dedicated) Rusty Warren record. The Lord Saints signed theirs while at work performing their calypsos at a cruise ship and Sandor Lakatos Deki signed a copy of his orchestra's Romantic Music of Hungary—Instrumental Gypsy Tunes. Sometimes a record has even more: Inside a signed record (by a airplane pilot?) produced by the Italian airline Alitalia I found snapshots, religious prayer cards, and business cards. I like it when records are personalized like that. Whenever my record collection ends up at a thrift store some collector will have a lucky day. In my Elvis 45s I stuck collectible Elvis cards, my Jolie Holland and Alela Diane's records are signed and dedicated, and when a 45 doesn't have a sleeve I make one (and you must know that my own hand-made 45 sleeves contain so much more info and interesting visuals than any store bought sleeve would!) 

The person who bought the Amparo Garrido record I have in front of me, must have seen her at the Columbia Hotel in Tampa, Florida. The hotel is advertised in the liner notes and various other recordings made in that hotel are offered for sale on the back of this record called Ole! Amparao Garrido is accompanied on this record by Panchito Calimano Y Su Combo. Ole Tus Lunares, is the opening track—click on the link above for a free download. Enjoy :)

A Polka from Cleveland

Third Edition by Joe Hezoucky
record sleeve
Souvenir Records

03 Kdo Valchik Mival Rat.m4a
http://www.box.net/shared/dn7qlnonzpk1d6ym588s

I haven't quite figured out how to embed sound to the blog so for now there's just a link to the sound recording that can be downloaded into your iTunes or whatever program. I'll work on it and change it to a ready to play format as soon as I can.

Moving from Columbus, Ohio to Fort Myers, Florida didn't really change a whole lot in regards to what records can be found in thrift stores. They say that Southwest Florida is the place where Ohioans retire. Case in point: one of the first people I met is a retired plumber from Columbus who lives practically next door—we have become good friends.
Just as in Ohio you will find polka records here at any single thrift store, dozens in an afternoon of shopping. I had given up buying any more polka records after I purchased a 4LP box-set with the best recordings ever made. I thought that would do, never was a big fan anyhow. So why I bought yet another one is easy to explain. This one features a female vocalist, a feature not found on any track on the 4LP greatest ever recordings. This record is by far the greatest polka record I own. The vocalist is Marie Danek singing with Joe Hezoucky and his Bohemian Orchestra from Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland, with its large Eastern European community, is the polka capitol of the United States. The king of polka, Frankie Yankovic is from there too, and he too retired in Southwest Florida.

The selected tune is not really a polka but rather a waltz titled Kdo Valcik Mival Rat (Who Loves to Waltz). It was recorded in Edcom Recording Studios on Tungsten Rd. in Cleveland and released by Souvenir Records on Drake Ave. in that same city. 

"It is my sincere hope, that by listening to this album, your days will become just a bit more enjoyable. May the sun shine forever in your hearts"
                     —Joe Hezoucky, liner notes to Third Edition

Joe Hezoucky together with Marie Danek made my day.