Folk Music of the United States

01 Old Rattler.m4a

Folk Music of the United States, Album VIII
Negro Work Songs and Calls, Edited by B.A. Botkin
The Library of Congress, Division of Music, 78 rpm discs
Washington, D.C., 1943

Rarely do I look for 78 rpm records when I browse through thrift store bins. And when I do I hardly ever get rewarded with something I'd want, it's even rarer when it is in OK condition. My collection of 78s is modest at best, I have about 40 of them but only half of these are valuable to me... and only two that I'm proud of having. The album Folk Music of the United States, Album VIII is one of these, even though the album is not complete, it is however in mint condition, and it includes the original booklet. There is a stain on the album cover that I first considered an eyesore but after I saw that it vaguely resembled the shape of the United States I considered it a bonus. If I were to sell the record on ebay (which I won't) I would advertise it as a 78 rpm record in mint condition with an original US stain on it. (The shape of Florida is cut off on the image above, it really is much more US than the photo suggests. I still don't have a scanner big enough to scan a full size record, the LoC album is oversized, it measures 14" x 12.5"). The song I picked to share with you is Old Rattler, sung by Moses (Clear Rock) Platt and James (Iron Head) Baker. It was recorded at the Central State Farm, Sugarland, Texas by John and Alan Lomax in 1934.

I found this album about two years ago at the Ohio Thrift Store next to the DeVry University on Alum Creek Drive in Columbus, Ohio.

Au Clair de la Lune

01 Au Clair de la Lune.m4a

Colette Renard – Chansons 
gaillardes de la vielle France
Disque Vogue LP, CLD 615
Made in France

A good day at the thrift store for me consists of finding a whole collection of records interesting enough and cheap enough to keep the set intact. Good days like that occur more often than you would think. My collection of popular music from around the world got started when I came back home from a thrift store with a whole box of Latvian records in my hands. Later on I came back with a great Czechoslovakian collection, then a large number of medieval records, on another day with 40 or so Polish records, a few weeks ago I wrote on this blog about a collection from the Philippines, and now I've come home with a large collection of French records. They once belonged to a certain Henri Janneau who lived in Sunrise, Florida (nice name for a town! Must have been on Florida's east coast.) I found them all in a Goodwill store on the Tamiami trail just before entering Miami. From the stack of records I brought home (I didn't buy them all) I picked this one by Colette Renard to share. The record is a collection of old French (bawdy) folk songs. The song I picked from it is Au Clair de la Lune —click on the link above for a free download. Au Clair de la Lune is a childrens' lullaby but with a double entendre, many versions have been recorded, as a lullaby or as a bawdy libertine song, Renard's belongs to the latter. The song, according to some written by an anonymous composer in the 18th century, others credit the composer Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687), was the first song ever to be recorded. In April 1860, seventeen years before Edison recorded Mary Had a Little Lamb, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville managed to record sound for the first time. To Edison's credit, his Little Lamb could be played back immediately whilst the Frenchman's recording was never heard until 2008, when some American scientists managed to make it into a digital sound file. 

Just South of 1700

04 Leu chansonet'e vil.m4a

Chansons der Troubadours: Lieder und Spielmusik 
aus dem 12. Jahrhundert (sleeve)
Das Alte Werk, Telefunken-Decca, 6.41126, 1970
Made in Germany

A consequence of the habit of shopping for records at thrift stores is the creation of several subcategories inside the larger collection. These categories range from record labels such as Nonesuch to geographical locations (such as Mexico), topical recordings (laments), musical styles and eras. The latter category includes a large collection of music composed before 1700, a date midway through the baroque period that includes the likes of Vivaldi and Monteverdi but not Bach or Handel. A large part of this collection overlaps the Nonesuch collection since they house a large collection of early classical as well as medieval music. The earlier the better. 

Some of my categories I started collecting well into the last Century. In 2000 I made two mixed tapes I distributed among friends that officially established I was collecting early and Mexican music. One was called Just South of Texas, the other Just South of 1700. My first favorite composers of early music were Carlo Gesualdo and Josquin des Pres but as time goes on I realize more and more that the performing musicians are just as important as the composers. The older the music the more open the the compositions are for interpretation. The music of the troubadours (12th through 14th Centuries) barely has any musical notation. The performers of such music rely on written accounts of performances, previous recordings of the material, associations with similar, later, and better documented music, but most of all their personal creativity and interpretive abilities. As far as my humble musical expertise can evaluate these criteria, I rank the group Studio der Frühen Music among the best. While still not fully accepting the vocal interpretations (I have yet to hear a solo voice performance that I think is fantastic) the instrumental music is superb. It is ecstatic, it feels authentic and time-less at the same time. What I like too about it is the clear oriental influence of the music. The performers on Chansons der Troubadours (that I picked up recently) are Andrea von Ramm, Richard Levitt, Sterling Jones, Thomas Binkley, Nigel Rogers, Johannes Fink, Max Hecker, Robert Eliscu, and David Fellow. The song reproduced above was written by Guiraut de Borneilh from Limoges. The song was dedicated to three of his patrons and the 'e vil' of the title is purely coincidental with 'evil'.

Yoyoy

07 Granada.m4a

Yoyoy is Barok (LP sleeve)
Plaka Pilipino, TSP-5244
Victor Music Co. 1978

Popular records from the 1970s from other countries than the US and the UK can be really pretty bad (well, records from the US and UK can be bad too, but maybe not quite as pathetic). One of the worst countries I've encountered in that respect is the Philippines. When I saw over forty records at a thrift store just off McGregor Boulevard that were printed in the Philippines, I had the suspicion that none of them would be very good. I was right alright, but it didn't keep me from buying no less than twenty-two discs anyway (if you like what you hear here, the other twenty-two are still there, you should go get them—only fifty cents a piece!) Bad or not; I'm quite happy with my little collection of Philippine records.  My take on the collection is that at one point the Philippines aspired to be like Hawaii (and their music as popular as Hawaiian music once was). Some records are sung in Filipino and others in English. The record above by Yoyoy Villame is a mix of both (Filenlish). I had to have it, for obvious reasons, even though I knew it was going to be a bad one. Don't expect any miracles here but it wasn't as bad as I thought.

Cantorial music

06 Akavyo Ben Mahallalel.m4a

Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt Sings His Original Compositions
The Greater Recording Co. LP GRC 36, 1964, Brooklyn, NY

I don't think people care too much about collecting records down in Florida, I don't seem to have too much competition. My collection of LPs really took off since I got here.  Take cantorial records for example; I had never even seen one up north but down here I find four, by three different cantors, in a two week period, in three different thrift stores. I had always thought of cantorial music as esoteric, that you could only hear in the temples, not on vinyl records produced for a mass audience. But I learn that there was a golden age of cantorial music, that the music was played in concert halls for general audiences, and that cantor Jossele Rosenblatt was considered one of the best tenors of his time throughout the world. The title of one of the Rosenblatt LPs I bought says all: Cantor Jossele Rosenblatt Sings His Most Famous Cantorial Compositions, Volume 8. The record is from 1969, Rosenblatt died in 1933, so his fame lasted well beyond his own time.
I wrote the above paragraph a couple of weeks ago for the blog http://berrystop100.blogspot.com/ Read more about my sudden infatuation with cantorial music by clicking on that link. The title to a second Goldblatt record I got the same day is Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt Sings His Original Compositions. The song Akavyo Ben Mahallalel that I included here (above) comes from that collection of songs that was released by The Greater Recording Company in 1964. For those of you who like a good falsetto voice I recommend to download the song (just click on the link on top.)
Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt was known for the seemless transitions between his tenor and falsetto voice. The famous tenor Enrico Caruso, a contemporary of Rosenblatt, who I love and of whom I have many records in collection (most from thrift stores, mind) was an admirer of his voice. And so am I.