3ème festival de musique Andalouse - Alger 1972

Dahmane Ben Achour,

Société du Malouf de la ville de Souk Aharas

3ème festival de musique Andalouse - Alger 1972 - Vol. 7

Mahrajan - Club du Disque Arabe - CDA LP 72596 -

Face A

A1 Noubat el Hsine 19.06 Dahmane Ben Achour

Face B

B1 Nouba Raml el Maya 23.54 Société du Malouf de la ville de Souk Aharas

This is an LP that has one side dedicated to one of my absolute favourite singers.

Dahmane Ben Achour (1912 -1976)

His real name was Achour Abderrahmane, born on the 11th of march 1912 in Ouled Yaïch (Blida). Having lived a long part of his life in Alger he died in 15th of September 1976 back in Blida , after an astounding career as a well renowned singer, having started out as with his father as a barber occationally singing for weddings, he gradually rose to fame and became professional.

This record has a live version of Noubat Elh'sine, one of the pieces that together with the Noubat Ezzidane: Ellouzou Fatheh are some of his very best! It does not have all the intensity of Ellouzou Fatheh but it will give you an idea. His rhythmically unbound pieces are my favourite, but it does not matter much what he sings, as he always touches me and makes me feel, that at least I did not waste my life totally, I got to listen to Dahmane Ben Achour, who originally was a barber but rightly became a celebrated singer with his own weekly concert slot on the young Algerian TV!

The group on the B-side I have been unable to locate any significant information about and although the music in parts is very good the singing is not better than average.

One of the LP-covers from the first festival in 1967.

This is, as you can see, only one of the volumes from the third festival and it is volume 7,

Altogether there were 10 LP's published that year only, as you can see on the list below, so there are quite a few more to unearth and dig out of their various dusty hiding places.

I know for certain, that at least two more later festivals where registrations were made, were published and issued on LP and K7. Someone I know, at least has a set of open reel tapes from some of the other concerts from various years, and someone else, that I know, know someone else, that has the volumes 2, 6 and 9 of this 3rd festival. Hope you are watching ;-)

So it is time again to take inventory!

Prod. R.T.A. 1er Festival de musique andalouse (Alger 1967) :

Musique classique arabe. Coffret 06 disques

Prod. R.T.A. 2ème Festival de musique andalouse (Alger 1969) :

Musique classique arabe. 2 Coffrets de 06 disques

Prod. R.T.A. 3ème Festival de Musique Andalouse (Alger 1972) :

Musique classique arabe. Coffret 10 disques

Anyone with recordings or information are welcome to participate and contribute. If you do have more information about the recordings mentioned in this post, or from festivals from other years, please leave a comment!

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More to read here

And here are some pages on arabo-andaluse music that I wrote some years back in Swedish only, but has a discography that is understandable to most people and you can always google translate and look at the pictures.

Musique des pygmées du Gabon et des bouchimans du Botswana

Musique des Pygmées du Gabon et des Bouchimans du Botswana

Musiques et Traditions du Monde

CBS France - 80212 - P.1976

Enregistrements:

Musiques des Pygmées du Gabon: P. Sallée. (et photos)

Musiques des Bouchimans du Botswana: Hubert de Fraysseix

Photos, Musée de l'Homme, Hubert de Fraysseix, P. Sallée.

Face A

Musique des Pygmées Baka Bamakuè du Gabon

A1 Divertissement mebasi, séquence polyphonique n° I 6'54

A2 Séquence polyphonique n° II 6'00

A3 Quatre voix de femmes en «jodl» 2'07

A4 Cinq voix de femmes et tambour 2'32

A5 Séquence polyphonique n° III 4'05

Face B

Musique des Pygmées (suite)

B1 Chant à la «sanza» 4'16

Musique des Bochimans !Kung du Botswana

B2 Petit ensemble 3'10

B3 Grand ensemble 4'30

B4 Duo d'hommes 1'48

B5 Combat 2'35

Musique des Bochimans de la région Mabebè

B6 Petit ensemble de femmes 3'05

B7 Petit ensemble de femmes 3'40

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Aka Pygmy Music - Unesco Collection

Aka Pygmy Music

Unesco Collection - Musical Sources,

Philips - 6586 016 - P.1973

Commentary, recordings and photographs: Simha Arom. Recordings made in 1971.

Side 1

A1 Mongombi - Shouts uttered while hunting with nets 5'06

A2 Anduwa - Song performed during the return from a hunt 3'31

A3 Dikoboda sombe - Hut song - solo 2'23

A4 Dikoboda sombe - Hut song - duet 3'49

A5 Bosobè - Song and dance of a diviner-healer 6'21

A6 Bobangi - Song to celebrate the catching of game 4'31

Side 2

B1 Kokoyandongo - Song and dance of a diviner-healer 6'25

B2 Nzenzenze - Children's game 1'00

B3 Balibo sasasa - Children's round dance 1'07

B4 Mbola - Adult song performed by children 3'07

B5 Nzombi - Music for the return from a hunt - solo 1'15

B6 Nzombi - Music for the return from a hunt - duet 0'54

B7 Epanda - Invocations to the spirits of the ancestors 1'34

B8 Mombimbi - Invocations to the spirits of the ancestors 2'46

B9 Monzoli - Ritual song 5'41

Some more recordings made by Simha Arom in Central African republic. This is a superlative record! Thanks again to kind zwan for the rip and the lovely scans! Another post graciously supplied by good friends in music attracted by one of my previous posts.

Hunted down and digitized by the good dog zwan and carefully annotated, edited and packaged by Our Man in Madras, Arvind!

What Steve Reich accomplished with elliptical tape loops in concurrent motion on pieces like “It’s Gonna Rain”, the singers of the Aka manage to do while walking to work in the morning.

- Richard Henderson in The Wire

Reissued as Auvidis/Unesco CD (D8054) in 1994.

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Banda Polyphony - Unesco Collection - Musical Sources

Banda Polyphony - Unesco Collection - Musical Sources,

Philips - 6586 032, (P.1976)

Commentary, recordings and photographs: Simha Arom.

Side 1

Linda Music

A. Music for ongo ensemble

1. Ndraje balendro - Initiation song 4'16

2. Eci ameya (horns) - Song for the cult of the twins 1'44

3. Eci ameya (voices) 1'53

4. Ebena ka cemato, lament 4'00

5. Music for dancing, gboyo 2'41

6. Mvrele ensemble (flutes) 2'51

7. Mvrele ensemble (voices) 4'19

Side 2

Dakpa Music

8. Little suite for ongo-ngala 6'59

9. Dance of initiates "Brother, I am suffering" 5'02

10. Suite for mbaya ensemble 5'46

11. Damba lekpa: music for the mbaya ensemble 1'22

So previous posts attracted this one, that also has field recordings by Simha Arom. This LP was digitized, shared and brought to my attention by vigilant friends in music! Thank you very much!

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Music from Burundi - P. 1971

Original Ethnic Music of the Peoples of the World

documenti originali della musica etnica del mondo

Musica del Burundi - Music from Burundi

Albatros Dischi - VPA 8137 - P. 1971

A cura di Guiseppe Coter e in collaborazione con Editrice Nigrizia

Flute

Side A

A1 Quartetto (per flauto, ikembe, umuduli e tamburo) e Canto 4'05

A2 Orchestra (per tamburi, flauti, ikembe, inyagara, umuduli) e canto 5'05

A3 Inanga e canto 2'25

A4 a) Flauto 1'35

A4 b) Flauto 2'35

A5 Idingiti 2'35

A6 Umuduli e canto 3'30

Side B

B1 Orchestra (per tamburi, flauti, ikembe, inyagara, umuduli) e canto 5'05

B2 Inanga e canto 3'45

B3 Orchestre per 17 tamburi 4'12

B4 Ikembe e tamburo 1'52

B5 Idingiti e canto 2'55

B6 Orchestra per flauti e tamburi 3'05

Umuduli

Ikembe

This record is no doubt, at least in parts, an attempt to try to reproduce something of the magic from the fantastic Burundi recordings by Michel Vuylsteke from 1967 published by Ocora. In the Inanga e canto it is not up to its predecessor "Chant avec inanga" from the Ocora OCR 40. I will post that record a little bit later. The 17 drummers on this recording are good but the drums are more powerful and the atmosphere is more dense in the tight performance of the group of drummers on the Ocora.

Inanga

Idingiti

Drum

Map of Burundi

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Dolore e magia - from Central African Republic

Dolore e magia [Laments and Witchcraft]

Albatros Dischi - VPA 8262 P. 1975 (An original Harmonia Mundi Recording)

Maybe there was no coincidence that these recordings from Central African Republic also were done by Simha Arom and Geneviève Dournon-Taurelle, but posting them in a row certainly was. I have many records with fieldrecordings from Africa and to tell the truth it was just by fluke that the first three were recorded by the same etnomusicologists. It is also funny to notice that the fascination for horns were a common link. I, like Arom wanted to coerce the French Horn, a rather recalcitrant instrument, to give away the most beautiful and brilliant tones it can produce. Having read a bit more about the person behind the recordings I feel a greater sympathy and will search for more evidence of his endaveours. All these early field recordings are most dear to me as they capture so much more than just the music. This is for me armchair ambiance and culture spotting! Hope you enjoy this as well!

Arom recording music with Pygmies in 2001.

Side A

A1 Canto di dolore [Ngbaka] 4'20

A2 Lamento [Gbaya] 1'00

A3 Cante di scherno [Mandja] 2'55

A4 Canto funebre [Mpyemo] 2'52

A5 Canto funebre [Mbangui] 3'06

A6 Rituale per la nacita di Gemelli (a) [Ali] 1'46 *

A6 Rituale per la nacita di Gemelli (b) [Ali] 1'29 *

A6 Rituale per la nacita di Gemelli (c) [Ali] 1'52 *

A6 Rituale per la nacita di Gemelli [Ali] 5'03

A7 Canto d'invettiva [Ngbaka] 2'54

Side B

B1 Canto rituale per i Gemelli [Mpyemo] 1'28

B2 Canto rituale per i Gemelli [Kaka] 1'17

B3 Canto di caccia [Mandja] 2'05

B4 Ninna nanna [Gbaya] 2'43

B5 Canto d'amore [Ngbaka] 2'45

B6 Danza lito in honore di Gemelli [Lito] 2'07

B7 Lamento [Sabanga] 2'55

B8 Rituale di guarigione [Ngbaka/Mandja] 6'13

* The track A6 is included both in three parts 1, b, c, split up by me, and as as one 5'03 track the way it appears on the LP.

It says both on the lables and the cover, that this is "An original Harmonia Mundi Recording". I have not found any Harmonia Mundi release of this record, so if you do find another edition of this it would be nice to be informed. It is very likely that such is the case as several of the non-italian music releases on Albatros Dischi were licenesed from other Labels, like for instance Lyrichord and Folkways etc.

Not many words but here is an article from an Israeli newspaper with links to a few tracks recorded by, and an interview with Simha Arom.

Article

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Musiques Banda - République Centrafricaine

Ritual end-blown trumpets

Ritual side-blown trumpets

Musiques Banda - République Centrafricaine

Vouge - LD 765 - P.1971

Recordings made in Banda Country

by Simha Arom and Geneviève Dournon-Taurelle 1964 - 1967.

Side A

A1 - a,b,c,d,e; Fanfares de trompetes droites

A2 Chant et danse d'hommes

A3 Calebasses battues et chant

A4 Tambours-de-bois

A5 et A6 Trompes traversières appariées

A7 Xylophone sur fosse

A8 Chœur de femmes, tambours-de-bois et cloche

A9 Unknown track

Side B

B1 Chœur d'enfents

B2 Solo de femme

B3 Duo de jeunes filles

B4 Solo de femme; chanté

B5 Solo de femme; roucoulé

B6 Chœur mixte

B7 Chœur de jeunes filles, harpe et tambour, chœur

B8 a,b,c,d ; Fanfares de trompes traversières

B9 a,b,c,; Ensemble de sifflets

B10 Chœur de femmes et tambours

B11 Chœur mixte et flûtes

Dance of initiated girls

Slit-drums

Gourds and termite-traps

Whistle ensamble

Singing a lullaby

Circumcised boy

Dance of initiated men

Here is one of the records from the Collection du Musée de l'homme, issued by Disques Vogue. They published many good records and especially the series drawing from resources at the Museum of Man in Paris in the sixties and seventies there seems to be several interesting titles also on 45 rpm. but it is hard to find the catalogues nowadays.

I will try to collect some titles that I know of in separate posts to this blog. And I will try to update those now and then. So if you see some supplementary information to such a post, I would be overjoyed to get your support in this humble undertaking. Meagre as it seems I will still start by listing just a few titles at the time of some select labels. I have not seen many of the LP's they published on the web either.

The Central African Republic.

"The population of the Central African Republic belongs to approximately 85 ethnic groups. Primary ethnic groups include the Banda, Manza and the Gbaya-Manza-Ngbaka in the centre and central-eastern part of the country; the Zande and Nzakara in the east; the Gbaya in the west; the Ngbaka, Bogongo, Isongo (Mbati), Kako and Mpyemo (Mpiemo) in the forested regions of the south-east; the Gbanziri and Yakoma along the banks of the Ubangi; and the Sara Kaba, Surma and Runga in the north and north-east (fig.1).

It is difficult to express the representation of various religions within the country in terms of percentages, but as an estimate 35% of the population practise indigenous beliefs, 50% are Christian and 15% Muslim."

The above quote comes from here, where you also can find a small discography, and some more facts about the Central African Republic.

Map of the Central African Republic

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