And We Danced

Celia Cruz con la Sonora Matancera
La Tierna, Conmovedera, Bamboleadora
Seeco, SCLP 9246, made in New York

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving weekend. We sure did, good food, good weather, cozy atmosphere, and a spontaneous dance party. I picked this Celia Cruz record somewhat randomly from a stack of recently bought Latin records. I don't think I had ever played it before, but it sure turned out a good pick for dancing. We played the whole record, every track a danceable. We had no idea we were dancing to a son, a bomba, or a criolla, twerking, spinning, and swinging with lighthearted abandon. Despite my good intentions I never learned Spanish, and neither did any of us. So we danced to songs none of us understood the lyrics to. I'm sure they are as lighthearted as our moods were. Below you can listen to the first track on the album called Mi Bomba Sonó that, despite my lack of Spanish, I think I can translate as "the sound of my bomb" (or: the sound of my bomba, as it is a song style). The music is Cuban but I have no idea if Mi Bomba Sonó was recorded before or after the Missile Crisis of 1962. I assume after because the record was issued in the United States. The record titled La Tierna, Conmovedora, Bamboleadora is not listed on Wikipedia's extensive Celia Cruz discography. Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso de la Santísima Trinidad known simply as Celia Cruz, the Queen of salsa, was born in Cuba in 1925, and died in Cuba in 2003. Many of the in between years she spent in New York, become the best known and influential female figure in the history of Cuban music.

Zoya Haidai

Ukrainian-Canadian Festival
CBC Broadcast, 1946
Echo, made in Canada

I figured I would get no hits searching on line for the singer Zoya Haidai but to my amazement she had a Wikipedia page dedicated to her. True, it's a small page, but nevertheless. The page also had one link, that to a site specialized in finding grave stones. Zoya Mikhailovna Haidai is buried in Kiev, Ukraine, she died in 1965, 62 years old. The one sentence about her on the 78 rpm 4-disc-set Ukranian-Canadian Festival reveals as much about her as the Wikipedia page does: "Zoya Haidai is a People's Artiste of the U.S.S.R., Laureate of Stalinist Premium, prima donna of the Shevchenko Ukranian State Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine." The four discs are excerpts from a Canadian broadcast aired July 27, 28, 1946. Zoya Haidai is featured on side 8. The song is called Perepilochka. (which, when spelled perepelochka, is also a zither like Russian folk instrument.

Haidai's grave marker in Kiev

After the Canadian broadcast Zoya Haidai, together with basso Igor Patorzhinsky, set out to the U.S. "They would be the first musical representatives to come from the Soviet Union in the postwar era. The two singers had preceded their October 5 Town Hall concert by a five-week tour of Canada, and intended to continue on to several other American cities with their program of Russian and Ukrainian songs. But as soon as they entered the United States, the Department of Justice demanded that they register as foreign agents, under a penalty of a thousand dollars or two years in jail."

            (Eric A. Gordan, The Frances Goldin Literary, Mark the Music: The Life and work of Marc Blitzstein.)

More Classical Music of Iran

Musique Folklorique du Monde: Iran
Recorded by Deben Bhattacharya
Musidisc, CV 1115, Made in France

A month after I wrote about classical music of Iran (see previous post), I found another album dedicated to this country. It wasn't precisely a thrift store that yielded this record from a series I bought five of that day, but rather a second hand record store. Vinylarchive the store is called to be more precise, back in my old hunting grounds of Nijmegen to which I returned for a few days. I paid 5 Euros for each of the five records, well above my average range of what I spend on records. But it was worth it. It's a really great record store. If I had had more money, and records aren't so goddamn heavy to schlepp across the Atlantic, I would have bought a lot more. The series I spent €25 on is called Musique Folklorique du Monde. Besides the Iranian one (cover above) I also bought volumes featuring music from Ceylon, Bali/Java, Singapore, and Morocco. I knew they would be good because several records from the series were recorded by musicologist Deben Bhattacharya. As a follower of the blog The World's Jukebox I knew Bhattacharya's recordings pretty well. This is from that site "Born in Benares, India in 1921, Deben spent most of his life on the roads of the world, recording in small villages and cities the music of the world’s people, taking pictures and making films to help others understand better the diverse cultures he encountered. When he was not traveling, he made his home in diverse cities of Europe like London, Vienna or Paris, where he ended his well-spent life in 2001, in the Montmartre village-like neighborhood he loved so well." So Iran it is again, the pick of the litter, and again I picked the one track featuring a female vocalist. It's called Ballade, but unlike the Lomax initiated recording from the previous post, the ballad singer remains anonymous. There are no recording data at all to be found on this record. (And neither are there notes on Jukebox site's page dedicated to Rytmes et melodies d'Iran –which turns out to be the very same recordings.)

Classical Music of Iran

Classical Music of Iran, Volume One
Compiled by Ella Zonis
Folkways Records FW 8831
Made in New York, 1966

This gorgeous Folkways Records album dedicated to the classical music of Iran has been sitting on a shelf next to my record player for over a month now, waiting for the right time to post on these pages. The time is now. It's been more than a year since I last found an album by Folkways at a thrift store. It's regrettably not the most likely place to find records from that label, because the price (at 99 cents) is right. I have now 40 of the 2,168 records released through them. Folkways is my favorite label, and the shelf of my record collection dedicated to it has a most prominent place. All their records come with an informative booklet, consisting of recording data, background information, and photos. This record with music from Iran was in excellent shape but did not come with its booklet. Fortunately the Smithsonian Institute, which acquired Folkways in 1986, after founder Moses Asch's death, posted most of the booklets free for download on their site. So I know now that the dastgah at the beginning of side B was sung by Miss Khatereh Parvaneh of Shour, and that the lyrics of the song are verses from the Masnavi: "Famous mystic poetry written in the thirteenth century by Jala al-Din Rumi, the founder of the Mevlevi order of Dervishes (the 'whirling' Dervishes)". And it's this song I picked to turn into an mp3 and share with you below, all ten minutes of it.

The Big Reggae Haul

The haul

My wife had a huge surprise for me when she came home from work on Friday. She had a stack of 41 records with her. She found them at the Goodwill in Punta Gorda, Florida. The records were mostly reggae records, there were a few soca and calypso records, some disco records completed the haul. I was so excited seeing the records that upon my wife's announcement that there were a lot more we got into our car and drove back north to Punta Gorda. I ammassed another thirty records to complete the haul, and still left behind enough crumbs for someone else to get excited too. I picked out two records from the haul to share here. The one with my favorite sleeve, and the one with favorite (so far) song. First the sleeve: It's not specific to the maxi single inside but it's rather a label advertisement. The label is simply called Joe Gibbs, after its producer. The record inside is a tune written by Joe Gibbs (Gibson) together with Alton Ellis called Girl I've Gatta Date. It is performed by Dennis Brown. The backside, as is the case with most of the maxi singles from the haul, is an instrumental version by Joe Gibbs with his band The Professionals. I almost like the instrumental version better but share the vocal one here because it's has a bit more variation. 

Joe Gibbs 45rpm Disco Single
Dennis Brown – Girl I've Gatta Date
Joe Gibbs Music Inc. 1978, Made in Jamaica

My favorite song so far (I've not nearly played all 71 records) is Woman Come by the singer Marguerita from an LP called More Intensified! Original Ska 1963-67. It is a remarkable track in more than one way. First of all there aren't that many recordings of a female singer in the mid sixties ska era in Jamaica. But what's really history is that Marguerita was later (in 1965) murdered by her long time boyfriend, the famous trombone player of the Skatalites, Don Drummond. They are heard together on this recording. Marguerita is Anita 'Marguerita' Mahfood, an exotic rhumba dancer and singer.

More Intensified! Original Ska 1963-67, Vol. 2

various artists, Mango Records, MLSP 9597
Island Records, made in New York, 1980

Un Amor Canta al Amor

Patricia Gonzalez – Un Amor Canta al Amor
Remo Records, LPR 1561, New York
Printed in Guayaquil, Ecuador

My collection of Latin American records is growing steadily largely due to my frequent trips to Miami. The predominant language is Spanish there and in the thrift stores nearly half of the records come from one Latin American country or another. It's a bit messy, browsing through the shelves in thrift stores in Miami (that of course are the lowest ones in the entertainment section of the store). The condition of the records is mostly poor, often the wrong disc is inside a jacket, if there's a jacket at all. Sometimes you'll find the back half of the jacket in a different location than the front half, and the vinyl in yet a third location. It is hardly a deterrent for me. I may assume that those records in good shape represent less popular ones, and I assume too that I often like less popular records better than popular ones. And that introduces me to this gem I found last week in a Goodwill on Tamiami Trail on my way out of town. The gem is an LP by the Ecuadorian singer Patricia Gonzalez titled Un Amor Canta al Amor. The singer is pretty obscure, there's not much presence on line, and as far as I can tell, there's no other record by her. But it's one of the best. And if you decide to visit Miami and try to snatch the next gem from under my nose...do me favor and also visit the WDNA 88.9 FM radio station. The gallery of which houses a bunch of musician's paintings. Many of them modeled after images on sleeves of Latin records that I picked up on previous visits to that wonderful city.

The Pentangle (Almost)

The Pentangle – The Pentangle
Reprise Records, RS 6315
Warner Brothers, New York, NY, 1968

Alright, it's been two months (almost), I kinda quit (almost), but after I bought this Pentangle record last week for only 50¢—green tags were half off—I just had to share it, it was too good (almost) to keep it to myself.  Now, I had never heard of the band Pentangle, but their two guitar players, Bert Jansch and John Renbourne, had been with me for as long as I was serious about my music I listened to. I was 16 and learning to play the guitar, and there was this John Renbourne tune I considered the apex of guitar playing. For years I'd study the piece, and I (almost) managed to conquer it. So the Pentangle are the who's who of British folk music (almost). For those of you who follow me here, or those who know me, know that I, when it comes to vocals, prefer a female voice over a male one. And I love Jaqui McShee, the singer of the Pentangle, she's like Sandy Denny (almost), but my pick to share with you today is the only instrumental piece on the album. It's not even the most virtuoso guitar playing (almost) that made me pick it, it's something I can't explain, there's just something magical about it. The track is simply called Bells, a title that rings magical—remember that great tune by the Dominoes, that one in which the lead singer burst into tears, or that fantastic free jazz gem by Albert Ayler—in Bells, the Pentangle hit that same kind of magic (almost).  For those of you who follow this blog too: you must know that my scanner bed only goes to nine inches, cutting off three from a 12"er. With the Pentangle record here this fact resulted in cutting off the P, leaving the word "entangle" behind. If one uninformed listener were to guess about the title of this record, or name of the band, he or she could well opt for the name, or title, Entangle. (That's how utterly sophisticated the rhythms and melodies of Bells unfold.) See for yourself. 

Italian 45s

Anna Identici – Era bello il mio ragazzo/
E quando saro' ricca
Ariston, AR.0537, Made in Italy, 1972

I have quite a large 45 collection but I don't buy many in thrift stores any more. Reason for this is that you hardly ever find them with their original jackets—most don't have one at all, which leaves the vinyl unprotected and all scratched up. It seems that a lot of 45s available in the US came out of jukeboxes and have therefore been played too often and are separated from their cover. When I do browse through the supply (not every thrift store carries 45s anymore). Hardly ever do I find one that is both interesting and in good enough shape. And when I do buy one it is almost always European. Apparently there's more of a 45-with-jacket culture in Europe, and almost all 45s in my collection stem from the time I was still living in Europe. But just yesterday I ended a long period of not expanding my 45 collection with the purchase of three Italian singles, the first ones of 2013. My favorite of the three is the one pictured above by Anna Identici. Both sides are really nice, they're happy and sweet, side A being the happier, while side B is the sweeter. I don't speak Italian, so my happy/sweet judgement may well be far of the mark, especially considering the bloody design of the jacket and the last word sung on side B which is "finita". And it is side B that I chose to share, the sweetest of two, it's called E Quando Saro' Ricca.

Odetta Sings Odetta

Odetta Sings...
Produced by John Boylan
Polydor 24-4048

Made in New York, 1970

The folk singer Odetta Gordon (1930-2008), known as simply Odetta, released a score of records between 1954 and 2001. Not that would like to collect all these but if I see one at a thrift store I'll pick it up for sure. I have about ten of them. My favorite is The Essential Odetta on Vanguard records released in 1973 as a package of earlier live albums. A few months ago I posted a song from her 1960 record Christmas Spirituals and today I'll do one from Odetta Sings, a 1970 record that I picked up at the Goodwill around the corner the other day. Neither of these records are "essential" but still a good listen. Odetta Sings is apparently her attempt to cross over into the mainstream as it is loaded with covers of popular songs of the time. It is also her only record on the mainstream Polydor label (most of her best work is on Vanguard) and contains renditions of Rolling Stones, Randy Newman, and Elton John songs among others. Half the record was recorded with session musicians in Los Angeles (Carole King is one of these), and the other half at the famous Muscle Shoal Studios in Alabama. The best songs on the record are the only ones that aren't covers but were written by Ms. Gordon herself: Hit or Miss and Movin' it on. You can listen to Hit or Miss below. The song was recorded at the Muscle Shoal Studios.

Conjunto

"Conjunto Obaoso" de Onelio Scull –
Santeria-Cubana: Toques y Cantos Sanretos Lucumi
Santero LP-135, Made in Mexico

Don't Judge a Record by its Cover was the title of a piece I wrote on a Hungarian record back in December. That adaption of the adage was in the spirit of its meaning then, but that the adage also has to be taken quite literally is a well known fact among collectors of thrift store records. Even the girl behind the cash register will sometimes tell you to check the record. I always check the record. But if I like the cover I'll buy the record regardless. A nice cover is worth the 50 cents or dollar, and sometimes, if there's not even a record in it, they even might give it to you for free. I did check it too, when I came across this Santeria Cubana record in the Goodwill on Palm Beach Boulevard right near our house. And I knew, before I even checked, that the content wasn't going to match the cover, it was simply too heavy for that. I knew I was going to get two for the price of one. You can't be too picky when collecting from thrift stores. Not only do you have to accept that sometimes the record inside doesn't match the picture on the outside, you also have to take the scratches for granted. The content of this Santeria Cubana record had everything wrong with it but yet I was excited to buy it. The cover is beautiful and while I regret not having the record that's supposed to be in there (a record that promises this spiritual Caribbean religious practice that combines Voodoo with Catholicism,  and all the drumming and chanting that comes with it), I still was excited to hear what was inside. It appeared to me that it would be in the spirit of the cover. The first record inside is called Santos Cantados con Nieves Quintero y Su Conjunto (Canta Luz Celeni Tirado) Y Coro on a label called L.P. Antillano (LP 25) from which I selected a track from side B Misterios Espriritistas. The second record is a rosario (a rosary prayer, I assume) that lasts more than 30 minutes. I copied the first 5 minutes of the Rosario en Honor a San Martin de Porres to share. Neither record has any information concerning place and time of recording on it. That said it didn't take too much effort to find Nieves Quintero on line. He's apparently a legend of Puerto Rican cuarto music. The rosary in honor of San Martin de Porres record yielded less information. The saint, of course, is well written about, but the recording remains a mystery. There's no name attached to the recitation, and Leonor (the record label) is not found anywhere on line. There is no additional information whatsoever printed on that label.

Music from the Far North

Music from the Far North
The Living Tradition series
produced by Deben Bhattacharya
ARGO, ZRG 533, Made in England, 1967

They're not quite the true academic field recording records, but much more authentic than the Souvenir from... records tourists used to gather. They're field recordings that are sold commercially. They're an important part of my record collection which is becoming more and more like a stamp collection that doesn't have a topic but holds stamps from all over the world. A collection that's more about diversity than about depth. Records like the one above were owned by people that had a serious interest in some geographical entity, not quite an academic interest but certainly well beyond a tourist's interest in the music of a region. They're records of traditional music, typically played not by the areas biggest stars, but not by the remote and isolated rural population either. The musicians are the in-between musicians, semi-professional, well regarded locally, that would perform in regional cultural festivals. Music from the Far North features traditional music out of Finland and from Sweden. It features the solemn Finnish music on the kantele, and some wild fiddling gatherings from Sweden. There's enough excitement in the music on this record to last a midsummer night but I chose to share here today the two Lappish joiks that are featured at the end of the record. They're not the most interesting joiks I've ever heard, they're not the best tracks on the record, but they're joiks. There aren't that many joik recordings in the world. Joiks are the age old musical singing traditions of the Sami people of Northern Scandinavia. The singing sounds a lot like the chanting of Native Americans. The Sami are remote descendents of the Chukchi people, a handful of whom are believed to have crossed the Bering Sea and are the common ancestors of all American Indians.

The singer of the joiks featured here is Karin Stenberg. She was recorded by Deben Bhattacharya in or before 1967 in Arvidsjaur, Sweden . The first example is a joik about reindeer and the second about mountains. 

p.s. I've never been to Sweden but I have a Volvo. I learned yesterday that if you buy a new Volvo, directly from the factory, they'll fly you over, put you up, and ship the car back for you. Now my Volvo is getting pretty old...

Obey

Chief Commander Ebenezer 
Obey and His Miliki Sound
Decca, WAPS 78
Made in England, 1973

Here's then the second entry concerning Nigerian records found in Florida thrift stores. As promised last week I'll share a song from an album by Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey. The song is Alowo Majaiye, it's the opening track on the album. As with Anyinla Owomura's last week, I only estimated the break between the first two songs as all tracks are woven together medley style. At that point I faded it out, hoping not to cut off anything from the track in question. Really, both side one and side two are just two continues songs that happen to have multiple titles. Kinda like an opera, except that it doesn't sound anything like an opera. It's all about Obey's guitar breaks. The guitar playing throughout this record is magnificent.

African Records

Ayinla Omowura and His Apala Group, Vol. 8
Procuced by Taoreed Adedigba
Nemi (LP) 0110, EMI, printed in Nigeria

There's gotta be a few notes written in the margins of the above statement because "a whole history of music" turns out to be a very subjective term. The statement holds the people of a city or region in very high esteem when the truth is that especially those people that are represented in the collection of thrift stores are not as expansive and discriminate more than one would hope. Africa is arguably the continent with the most interesting (and on average highest quality) of commercial LPs. Yet records from this continent arrive in thrift stores few and far in between. Occasionally you will find one produced in the West for the Western market (either by Africa's biggest selling stars, like Miriam Makeba, or else compilations of traditional music, both of field recordings and of commercial intent) but hardly ever records plucked from the streets, popular by locals but unknown beyond. The last time I found some of the latter was about five years ago, when I got two Nigerian records in a thrift store in Saint Augustine, Florida. One is by Ayinla Omowura, the other by Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey. Obey is fairly well known in the West but of Omowura I had never heard. Both records belonged to a certain Bergmann. As always when I find multiple records that once belonged to the same person, I am curious about the circumstances. Bergmann got his (or hers) in the US I think. I don't think Bergman bought the records in Nigeria because the Obey one has an import sticker on it from an African market in Brooklyn. The Obey record was pre-owned when Bergmann got it. That's all the clues I have to the Bergmann puzzle. The two records are remarkably similar in production and content. Both records are recorded in medley style, apparently produced for dancing. The songs that are listed as being played are not separated by any noticeable clue (the sound clip below is faded out somewhere in the second song of side A of the Omowura record). It feels like they could be playing forever. In fact Omowura's record is Volume 8, and I wouldn't be surprised if all eight records were recorded in a single or maybe two recording sessions. The opening seconds of both records are spectacular instrumental introductions by (I assume) the respective instruments of the bandleaders: Obey's guitar and the talking drum of Omowura. From an objective point of view these opening seconds are probably all you need to know about, the rest only becomes interesting when you engage in it (like dancing). Next week I'll discuss Obey's (my favorite of the two) some more. The songs you can listen to below are the opening minutes of the medley on side A; Akigbo wo awon and part of Chief Adeniyi Idowu. The word "Yoruba" printed on the label of the vinyl probably refers to the language used in the lyrics. I estimate the recording to be from the early 1970s.

Country Records

Sammi Smith – New Winds, All Quadrants
Produced by Ray Baker
Elektra Records, 6E-137, New York, 1978

There's a reason why I don't collect country records. I don't like them. If I did, I would have had an enormous collection because on my numerous visits to thrift stores as I always see ones I'd never seen before. That's not to say that I don't have any country records, I actually have quite a few, but I really don't add to these much any more. And that I don't like them is of course a too broad generalization. There are plenty great country records out there that I really like. I love David Allan Coe, Dolly Parton, Kinky Friedman, Hank Williams (Sr.), to name just a few. What I don't like about country records most is the political conservatism that oozes off these records, and the pathos. Well I don't mind pathos, but in the wrong ignorant hands it all ends up being pathetic. While this is not a podium to be critical of any record (it's a celebration about the vastness of the record universe, and the many jewels it contains), I will indulge for once and have a rant about this country record I bought for a dollar the other day. You can read it as a celebration of (bad) records that are not included in the canon of the popular music history if you'd like, because that's the purpose here. This record by Sammi Smith has so much pathos embedded in it, that it becomes embarrassing to listen to. It's not so much Sammi Smith per se—her voice is good, her singing is sound, not overly dramatic or emotive, and she had produced really good country before (like her hit Help Me Make it Through the Night, written by Kris Kristofferson)—but the songwriting on this record is poor to say the least. Take the song Norma Jean (that you can listen to below), a narrative song about Marilyn Monroe, the lyrics of which would have gotten a B- in a sixth grade English class. No matter how well or how sincere Sammi Smith's performance of this song is executed, it could never save it. Now it doesn't help that I speak English, maybe it is possible I would have liked the song if it were in Polish or some other language I couldn't understand but I will never find out because I just can't listen to the song without hearing the words. Now the songwrit(h)ing is grave throughout the disc but I have to admit that I selected the worse one to share with you. (Most others wouldn't be appropriate for grade school anyway, adding yet another layer of embarrassment—too frank, too honest, which are bad qualities for badly written lyrics.) Needless to say after this rant that, instead of putting in my record recycle bin, I will gladly insert the record into my collection (hers will be right after my Patti Smith records). On a more positive note about the production: I think the record title New Winds, All Quadrants, is cute, and witty, and smart, I would expected it on gospel record. On a less positive note about the production, this question: Why is the title of the song about Marilyn Monroe spelled Norma Jean, and not Norma Jeane?