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| Folk Songs of Spain, Vol. 3 Seeco, New York, CELP-450 Made in USA, 1960 |
The performers on this record are unnamed. Searching on-line for this record does not reveal the identities of the performers either, the record is listed as "Various Artists". Listening to the record it appears to me that all the "various" artists belong to the same group (or troupe). I believe only a handful musicians and an additional handful of chorus singers make up this group (I expect that also a handful of dancers are associated with the group), and the same people perform on every song on the record. The very same musicians that also play on Volume 1, and Volume 2, of the series released by American Seeco label, formed in 1943, specializing in Latin American music. In the liner notes I come across the word "authentic", which 90 times out of 100 means exactly the opposite. And here the use of "authentic" indeed confirms its suspect nature. These recordings are not "authentic" in the real sense of the word. The only thing authentic about this record is that the performers are real "Spanish" musicians. The very same musicians who play "authentic" music from the land of the Basques, the southern cities like Sevilla, Galicia, and Catalonia. I believe the musicians heard on these records are a performance group, possibly sponsored by the Spanish government, like a "National Ballet" touring the world. They were probably recorded for this record in New York City. The performers are professionals, very good in what they do, and all the songs are definately of high quality. But not authentic. The song I picked from this record is a bolero called El Parado. The bolero, of course, has become a world wide phenomenon through the gigantic success of the French composer Georges Bizet's take on the traditional Spanish dance. The inclusion of a recording of Bizet's Bolero in the film 10 in which Bo Derek makes love to the melody, didn't hurt the status of "one of the best known classical melodies" either. Bizet quotes the traditional Spanish melodies quite literal but I do believe that the group performing on the Seeco label takes as much back from Bizet as from their own tradition. That said I have to admit that I really like records like these. They often come with real great "authentic" photos from the old home-land.
