This is Rumania

This is Rumania
Parliament, PLP 119
New York, 1960

We've seen it all before; when the first word in the subtitle spells "authentic", it's most likely far from it. In the case of This is Rumania it's really not that far but yet far enough. The recordings were probably made in Romania (Rumania, as it used to be spelled) but were not made by the people of the land but by their stars and professionals. It is not folk music as the sleeve claims, but professional entertainment. In comparison with an authentic record (such as Folk Music of Rumania on Folkways, with recordings made by Bela Bartok) we hear some of the same melodies and rhythms but they are orchestrated and arranged. And unlike on the Bela Bartok one, the singers have of course perfect pitch here. As we've seen before too on so many records found in the thrift stores I've been writing about, two of the four solo vocal performers on This is Rumania have the first name Maria. I have quite a collection of singers named Maria, and it grows unproportionally fast. One of the Marias is the singer Maria Tanase, she is not new in my collection, but the other one, Maria Lataretu (1911-1972) I had never heard of before. That is not to say she wasn't a celebrity, she was, she has her own Wikipedia page if may use that as a criterion for famous. Maria Lataretu is the singer on the sample from the record I selected. The title La Vitai La Rasarit is translated on the sleeve as "I was looking eastwards..." and on the label as "I looked to the sunrise".